UNA is happy to present Birds!, Vasilis Papageorgiou’s solo exhibition hosted at the gallery’snew space in Milan, located at Via Lazzaro Palazzi 3.

Papageorgiou’s practice explores themes of togetherness, communication, and loneliness, whilereflectingon the expression of leisure in everyday life. He focuses on semi-private or semi-public spaces–such as bars, beaches, or local football stadiums–where people reclaim theirright to spend time alone together. These environments offer moments of freedom, allowingindividuals to experience a sense of community while maintaining personal solitude. In his recent work, Papageorgiou draws on the sculptural language of coastal architecture and human intervention toexamine the politics of tourism and its effects on both the environment and the human body. His work engages with thedepletion of natural resources and the physical and mental strain of contemporary life. Through this lens, he opens upnew imaginative spaces, questioning the values and systems that define modern existence.Birds!serves as both a footnote and a continuation of Papageorgiou’s recent institutional exhibition in Austria,Sunseekers or Dimming the Sun or, where he reflected on capitalist systems of pleasure, their role in the cyclicalexhaustion of planetary resources, and the paradoxical loop they create around the need for rest and regeneration. At theheart of his show at UNA is a series ofswans–symbols of hospitality and care–crafted from copper-plated towels,commonly used inhotels to welcome guests and create an inviting atmosphere. Papageorgiou places the swans atopmirrored steel pedestals, seemingly unbalanced, evoking the reflective surface of the water and alluding to the myth ofNarcissus–a metaphor for the vicious cycle of egoism and individualism.Also featured in the exhibition is the work seriesBusiness and Pleasure, which consists of beach umbrellas supportedby bronze casts of the artist’s hand and foot, depicted as strained and stretched, as if they were captured in moments ofwork or extreme stress.These body parts serve as both the literal and metaphorical foundation of theumbrella, bearing the weight of its structure and providing shade to shield visitors from thesun. In doing so, they symbolize the often-overlooked relationship between tourism and labor,where the body itself becomes a structural support for leisure.The installation is accompanied by a new series ofdrawingstitledAwning and the Moon, inspiredby the awning systems commonly seen in Athens–the artist’s hometown. The balcony drawings arepaired with marble elements reminiscent of the moon, creating a poetic interplay between lightand shadow, and engaging with themes of protection, exposure, and the rhythms of day and night.An awning serves as a boundary between the hidden and the visible, the backstage and theforeground, the observer and the observed.Vasilis Papageorgiou’s overall practice constantlyoscillates between private and public spaces, carrying different connotations; especially oflabor and productivity.

“Therefore, if the promise of tourism-led development has failed, how and why is it stillmaintained? Tourism monocultures, like other extractive industries, have been historicallysustained by the provision of cheap labour—be it local or foreign, more or less visibilised;sometimes relaying old colonial genealogies of exploitation, most often merely responding tocontemporary forms of financial capitalism.”—Julia Moranderia Arrizabalaga,Tourism Apocalypse Now, 2024in Vasilis Papageorgiou,Sunseekers or Dimming the Sun or, Mousse Publishing

Exhibition: April 1–May 10Wed-Fri 3:00 pm–7:00 pm | Sat 12:00 pm–6:00 pm+by appointment

Vasilis Papageorgiou (b. 1991) is an artist working and living in Athens. He studied at theAthens School of Fine Arts in Greece and the Luca School of Arts in Brussels. In 2025, he willorganize a panel discussion on the intersection of tourism and labor at Onassis Stegi in Athens,following the publication of his recent book by Mousse Publishing. He will also present a soloshow at UNA in Milan. In 2024, he took part in the group exhibitionThe Mothsat CRAC Alsace andopened his first institutional solo exhibition,Sunseekers or Dimming the Sun or, curated byMirela Baciak at the Salzburger Kunstverein. Papageorgiou has previously presented his work atthe 7th Athens Biennale; the Benaki Museum in Athens, in collaboration with the New Museum (NewYork) and the DESTE Foundation (Athens); the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation Center inAthens; the MAXXI Museum in Rome; the 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Arts; and theBOZAR Brussels, among others. His work is part of the La Gaia Collectionin Busca (CN), theOnassis Collection in Athens, the Arte Contemporáneo Alkar Collection ACC Bilbao, and theFondazione Fiera Milano Collection. In 2023, Papageorgiou was an artist-in-residency at LUMAArles. In 2019, he received the 3Package Deal grant (2019‒20) from AFK in Amsterdam, and in2018, he participated in the 1st Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship Program,ARTWORKS. Papageorgiou is the co-founder of Enterprise Projects, an artist-and curator-runinitiative and project space that hasbeen operating in Athens since September 2015.