Audemars Piguet Taps ‘Architect Who Doesn’t Build’ to Make Art for Oscar Niemeyer–Designed Paris Dome

Audemars Piguet Contemporary, the Swiss watch company’s art-focused arm, has commissioned artist Andreas Angelidakis to create a monumental artwork that will pay homage to ancient Greek culture.

Titled the Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity, the new work will be situated inside the Espace Niemeyer, a dome-like structure in Paris that was designed by the Brazilian modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer.

The piece’s 19-day run will kick off on October 11, and will be viewable during the first edition of Art Basel’s Paris fair.

Angelidakis, who is based in Athens, will look to his home country’s distant past and attempt to bridge it with the present with his new work, which will fill the Espace Niemeyer with sculptures, paintings, and collages. It is loosely based on the Temple of Olympian Zeus, an Athens structure that predates the Espace Niemeyer by more than two centuries.

The artist was trained as an architect and, in his own description, is now an “architect who doesn’t build.” He frequently considers places and their history, often connecting them to ancient Greece. For the Athens portion of Documenta 14 in 2017, for example, he created works composed of seating modules whose names referred to the Greek words for community and the daemon representing war.

“With the Center for the Critical Appreciation of Antiquity (2022), I want to give visitors a playful environment for considering antiquity today,” he said in a statement. “To put my research and practice in conversation with Espace Niemeyer is a special occasion, and I am incredibly grateful to Audemars Piguet Contemporary for their support in realizing the opportunity.”