Basin - Vassilakis Panayotis, aka Takis

Takis has imagined an aquatic surface, about 50 metres on each side, on which are placed 49 multicoloured lights of different heights (between 3.50 and 9 metres) that seem to be spring-mounted. Perfectly integrated into the perspective of the historical axis, visible from the Esplanade and from Neuilly, these lights, with their colourful geometric shapes, flash and swing in a playful and enchanting ballet.

In 1991, the artist installed his Signaux [Signals], and thus reproduced his artwork at the back of the Grande Arche, this time directly on the slab. Takis thus marks the two entrances to La Défense with light masts, his artworks seeming to serve as landmarks to mark the entrances and exits of this territory.

A word about the artist

Greek sculptor, Panayotis Vassilakis, known as Takis, was born in 1925 in Athens. He lives and works in Paris. Largely self-taught, he tried his hand at classical portraiture in the late 1940s before moving on to stylised figures and pure human forms.
Inspired by airports, marshalling yards and magnetic fields, fascinated by light and movement, he borrows his basic materials from manufactured objects to create compositions that he calls "Vibrating Painting", "Telesculpture", "Telesculpture", "Light Sculptures".
His first Signaux, piano strings vibrating thanks to the wind, were created in 1955.