Theo Triantafyllidis
In a Bright Green Field
June 11, 2025–September 13, 2025Benaki Museum - 138 Pireos, Athens
The DESTE Foundation and the New Museum, in partnership with the Benaki Museum, Athens, are pleased to announce In a Bright Green Field. On view starting June 11, 2025, at the Benaki Museum–Pireos 138, Athens, In a Bright Green Field features the work of twenty-nine young artists exploring possible futures where renewed relationships with the natural world might emerge and expansive approaches to community may flourish. Gathering artists working across a variety of mediums, this exhibition surveys some of the most exciting emerging practices in Athens, Nicosia, and across Europe. The exhibition highlights a generation of artists who are particularly attentive to the local histories of Greece and Cyprus and the ways in which they are useful for thinking through larger global challenges. These artists register the dramatic changes to labor and landscape accelerated by technology, while working to highlight emergent forms of collectivity across both urban and rural life. Their works explore the poetics of infrastructure, pastoral science-fictions, urban animism, and generative collaborations that resonate far beyond the space of the museum. Ranging from lyrical painting and sculpture to experimental documentary film to communal performance, In a Bright Green Field looks at art practices that can serve as prototypes for myriad possible futures.
The exhibition is curated by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Kraus Family Senior Curator, New Museum, and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog published by the DESTE Foundation with new writing by Gary Carrion-Murayari, Athens-based curator and writer Danai Giannoglou, and Nicosia-based curator and writer Ioulita Toumazi.
Theo Triantafyllidis is premiering Drift Lattice, an immersive simulation of an underwater ecosystem where marine life and synthetic debris intertwine. Aquatic species navigate through masses of seaweed, nets, and plastics, alongside cleanup drones that attempt to restore balance. This evolving digital environment subtly responds to real-time climate and ecological data, reflecting the fragile state of global marine ecosystems. Through this intricate simulation, Drift Lattice questions the boundaries between life and lifelikeness, natural and artificial, prompting viewers to consider the evolving interplay between these forces in an era of ecological uncertainty. The subtle responsiveness of the system to real-world data not only underscores the immediacy of ecological challenges but also serves as a speculative barometer, tracking humanity’s ongoing impact on ocean health.
Theo Triantafyllidis (b. 1988) is an artist who works with digital and physical media to explore the experience of space and the mechanics of embodiment in hybrid realities. Utilizing algorithms and game engines, virtual reality headsets and experimental performance processes, he creates interactions within immersive environments. He holds an MFA from UCLA, Design Media Arts and a Diploma of Architecture from the National Technical University of Athens. Theo Triantafyllidis has shown work in museums, including the Whitney Museum in New York, Centre Pompidou in Metz, Buk-SEMA in Seoul, House of electronic Arts in Basel and NRW Forum in Dusseldorf and galleries such as Meredith Rosen Gallery, The Breeder, Nagel Draxler and Eduardo Secci. He was part of the 2021 Athens Biennale: Eclipse, Berliner Festspiele 2021, Sundance New Frontier 2020 and Hyper Pavilion in the 2017 Venice Biennale.
