Within the framework of Art For Tommorow Stefanos Souvatzoglou has been commisioned to create a sculpture for The Creativity for Social Change Award 2025. This prestigious award recognizes those who dare to use creativity as a tool for lasting impact, spotlighting solutions to global challenges while raising awareness of critical social issues, inspiring future generations of creatives and social activists.
Various variations of the award produced by the artist, will be presented in the form of an exhibition during the forum. The theoretical framework and presentation of the exhibits is provided by art historian Athina Lasithiotaki.
An overall presentation of the official sculptural proposals at the Art for Tommorow Forum, Milan 2025
”Stefanos Souvatzoglou’s materials in this body of work, become an important iconographic element, as much as a formal one. Extending their material properties as objects and sculptures, Stefanos’ artworks project their physical properties in the sphere of the social, the commemorative, the celebrational. Unfolding into a surreal, dreamlike realm guided by its own inner logic, the artworks gravitate towards the state that negotiates the threshold between reality and the surreal: the state of conflict.
Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Karl Marx and Georges Sorel, Stefanos engages with the concept of conflict not merely as a disruption but as a generative force. Stefanos’ approach emphasizes conflict as a catalyst for social change. Rather than a destructive force, conflict is presented as a purposeful and human-driven mechanism; one that brings attention to urgent social issues and encourages innovative responses to global challenges.
In Stefanos’ practice, conflict is a generative framework that extends beyond human society, encompassing both biological and social evolution. Mirroring the geosphere, where internal chemical or mechanical tensions drive transformation and give rise to new forms, his work positions conflict as a fundamental mechanism of change within natural and cultural systems. Elements of chance and unpredictability, inherent in Stefanos’ process, articulate the productive capacity of internal tension by allowing unforeseen yet controlled interactions between materials to unfold. The sculptures highlight and navigate the internal synergies that formulate their operational and iconographic character. Crafted in wax and cast in bronze, using natural materials such as minerals, glass, and bronze, Stefanos’ sculptures are composed in forms that articulate the dynamics of conflict and collaboration, tension and release. Through this practice, he opens a conversation that can be sustained through creative gestures than language.
The commemorative context in which they were created reinforces this approach, framing creativity not merely as a means of recognition but as a catalyst for inclusive, lasting and systemic transformation. This idea extends beyond those who receive distinctions or awards, speaking to the broader system that drives change. The artworks underscore the inclusive and participatory nature of collective transformation, where every element within the system contributes to this ongoing process of change.”
Athina Lasithiotaki
Art Historian
Stefanos Souvatzoglou 