The Confessions Questionnaire

Your name/nickname.

Iliodora Margellos.

Ilio (in French, by childhood friends).

Current mood in one word.

Healing.

What is your favourite dish?

Hot Stone Cooking.

Tea or coffee?

Coffee.

Favourite place you’ve travelled to and why?

Siwa.

What is your favourite artwork?

One of many favourites that now comes to mind is Ugo Rondinone’s “the sun” (2017), which is made out of gilded bronze.

Favourite movie?

The Royal Tenenbaums.

Favourite book or poem and why?

‘The Unbearable Lightness of Being’ by Milan Kundera

Your Life Motto or favourite quote?

‘You just got to let go!’, is a favourite motto I learned from Columbia University photography professor Thomas Roma.

Can you describe your favourite building?

The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari and all that its beauty represents, how it has survived despite repeated efforts of succeeding rulers following Queen Hatshepsut’s death to erase memory of her rule.

Another favourite is the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen that exists since 1997 thanks to Ernst Beyeler and Renzo Piano where nature finds pure harmony with the manmade in utmost subtlety.

What or who inspires you the most in life?

The present, life with my children.

Three unique things about where you live?

Equidistant access to mountains and the sea. Grounding energy from ancient ruins. The constant flow of international travellers.

What is an object you treasure most?

I try to think as a minimalist when it comes to treasuring objects, particularly in the last few years since my father’s passing. To me, this effort feels like a liberating exercise of aligning life values in relation to people and environments one chooses to be surrounded with.

A piece of advice you’d give to your younger self.

Listen to yourself and give up trying to make things perfect to please other people. Such a waste of time and energy.

How do you escape a creative block?

Meditation.

Do you have a favourite colour?

Cerulean if I had to pick one, but truly all colours can be favourites because for me every colour has a place at any given point in time.

Favourite art tool?

Anything sharp.

Is your studio messy or tidy?

Looks tidy at first glance. What it truly is when you take a closer look: an organised mess.

Why did you become an artist?

The only way for me to make it through this life.

What is the most challenging or exciting thing about being an artist?

Giving shape to a feeling generated by a memorable experience and then letting it go.

Craziest artistic experiment you've tried.

Finding an aquarium box and filling it with leeches to create an installation (‘Greek Ministry of Finance’, 2013) for a group show celebrating 100 years of ready-made.

Funniest criticism you’ve received.

My daughters’ direct comments when looking at my works.

Describe your style in three words.

Precise, implicit, and everything in between.

Funniest criticism you’ve received.

Completing a computer drawing for a gallery project while breastfeeding my second daughter and supervising my first daughter’s online schooling session during the 2021 Greek lockdown.

Dream collaboration (with someone dead or alive)

Creating an illustrated story cloth book in collaboration with my daughter, inspired by Louise Bourgeois’ fabric book ‘ODE A L’OUBLI’.

If you could exhibit anywhere, where would it be?

Somewhere afloat, everywhere and nowhere at the same time.