Zerdevas Takis (1945)

He was born in 1945 in Patras. He studied economics at the University of Piraeus (1965-67) and graphic art and design at Doxiadis School (1966-68). Then he worked in Paris mainly in the area of photography. From 1972 onwards and for several years, he worked in Athens as a professional photographer in advertising.
He taught photography at Vakalo School of Art and Design (1980-84) and in 1985, he established Focus School of Photography, one of the first educational institutions in Greece, with an orientation in modern technologies. After 1990 he gradually distanced himself from advertising, turning to a personal artistic idiom at first with the use of photography and then with video and installations.
In his first solo exhibition in Athens, titled Monotheamata (House of Cyprus, 1995), he presented a series of photographs in narrative arrangement and the mask-face as primary subject, emphasizing particularly on issues of form such as light gradations and spatial depiction. Then he was engaged in a more complex approach towards visual experience and the relationship of image to coordinated thinking and verbal expression (Pre-Linguistic Experiments, 2001). He enriched his visual mediums with slides, video and site-specific installations. His reflections on human or artistic identity and the projection of the 'ego', which was ever-present in his work, appear again in later projects (Curriculum Vitae, 2005).
He has presented solo exhibitions in Greece (Athens and Thessaloniki), and other European countries (France, Italy, Slovakia, etc.). He has also participated in many group exhibitions in Athens, Thessaloniki, Brussels, Genoa, et al.
Moreover, he has composed music for films and theater performances. In 1994 he participated in the Amsterdam electronic music festival, dedicated to Greek composers. In 1998 he participated at the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair with an audiovisual installations for the greek PPC pavilion, while in 2004 he presented an interactive installation titled Tavern (in collaboration with multimedia artist Makis Faros), as part of the Athens Olympic Games art events.