Boule électromagnétique 1965

Takis, who was born Panagiotis Vassilakis, made this *Boule électromagnétique*, or electromagnetic ball, out of industrial materials and simple physics. It's this incredible balancing act, right? The sphere hangs, weightless and poised, but there’s real gravity to the black plane below. It feels both retro and futuristic, like a prop from a low-budget sci-fi film. The sphere, so pristine and celestial, is tethered to something gritty, like that coil wound with copper wiring. You have to imagine that this is not just an aesthetic thing, that there's an invisible attraction between the two. I think of Yves Klein. He was another artist who came at art from some other dimension. He was interested in the readymade and the monochrome. Takis has this same alchemical vision for art making. It is like he is saying: look at the beauty inside industrial materials, you just have to believe it's there.