Thea Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos
Courtesy of the gallery
When Yves Dana was a boy in the 1970s, he was so taken with seeing the kinetic Signals sculptures of Takis, that he tracked down the Greek artist’s address and waited outside his house in Paris all day, hoping to meet him.
He never did.
But some 50 years later, the Swiss-Egyptian sculptor will at last have his works exhibited alongside those of Panayiotis Vassilakis (1925–2019), known as Takis, in the opening show of a new gallery in Geneva.
L’Appartement, founded by the art adviser Thea Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos, will open with the exhibition in the city’s Eaux-Vives district on 3 October.
The selling show, titled Sound and Silence, includes 24 works by Takis, mostly drawn from the Emfietzoglou Gallery Museum in Athens and other private collections (and one consigned by White Cube), alongside 18 of Dana’s, which have come direct from the artist.
Italian by birth but resident in Geneva, Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos has worked as an art adviser since leaving her sales role at Gagosian in Geneva when she decided to start a family. Previously, she had worked at Sotheby’s in London after studying arts economics and management at Milan’s Bocconi University.
Signal (1972) by Takis
Courtesy of the gallery
A couple of years ago, when pregnant with her third child, she decided she wanted to open a gallery in Geneva. “My dream was always to open my own space, but I hadn’t felt it was the right time. The advisory was going well, and during Covid things were slow for physical galleries. But I was getting frustrated with just working on the sales side, not really being able to work with artists and put on exhibitions. Then this space became available in my family’s building and it felt right.”
The premises, formerly used as an apartment and an office, have been refurbished and Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos hopes it will become a meeting place for seasoned and younger collectors, as well as the wider community.
As for the choice of the first show, the idea came when Dana, who is based in Lausanne, visited the new gallery and said he wanted to create a bar in one area. Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos asked him if he would inaugurate the space. “My husband and I had just bought a major Takis sculpture for our collection, and had installed it in our garden next to an Yves Dana piece. They just looked so good together that we started to think about doing a joint show.”
She says Dana’s work “sparked in me a contemplation on the enduring relevance of modernism. How is carving a stone still modern in a society where everything is so focused on constant innovation? This question naturally led me to think about Takis. Takis, with his unwavering fascination with technology and his relentless exploration of time and space, epitomised the essence of modernism.”
Stèle XII (1997) by Yves Dana
Courtesy of the artist
Manita Chatzifotiou, who knew Takis well and worked for his dealer Alexandre Iolas (who showed his work in New York), has collaborated with the gallery to produce the catalogue.
Although this first exhibition concentrates on kinetic art and sculpture, the next will focus on paintings, Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos says, and the gallery will also show some design. Fairs are in her sights too—the gallery has just submitted a proposal for Art Genève, though that is it for now. She has employed a gallery manager and is in the process of hiring two further staff, one of whom will concentrate on communications and events, which she sees as crucial in attracting a crowd, as the gallery is not at street level. "We want to build a community of young collectors who engage in networking and meeting new people and artists. If they simply enjoy a drink and a good time in the process, that's perfectly fine as well."
Geneva, she says, is not an easy market. “A lot of collectors here buy internationally but not so much at home.” Several historical galleries in the city have also shut in recent years, among them Galerie Cramer-Mitterand, Galerie Ribordy Thetaz and Galerie Grand-Rue, while Gagosian has only an office now. However, Pace retains a gallery in the city, as do the established Genevan names of Galerie Xippas, Galerie Skopia and Lovay Fine Arts.
This is not an easy time for the art market and the past two years have seen galleries around the world close, a fact Montauti d’Harcourt Lyginos acknowledges. “This is a challenging time, economically and geopolitically, but this is my life’s project and I’m determined to do everything I can to make it work. The Genevan market is not as big nor as strong as London or New York, or even Berlin and Paris, and my biggest challenge will be to really get attention from Genevan collectors.” Her current clients are largely based in Greece, Italy and London.
She’s optimistic, though. “They say that galleries that start in tough times really have to strive to achieve and survive, and so often become more successful. Let’s hope that’s true. I’m excited!”