THEODOSIS TZANOS / A LIFE IN PROGRESS
ATHENS, 1979 →A life
wide open.
I’m exploring life. Making things, travelling, sitting in silence, asking awkward questions and seeing what happens when people actually do something together.
Come, I’ll tell you. ↓BEFORE THE LABELS
Hold on.
Is that actually true?
At fifteen, something a teacher said did not add up. I checked it. It was wrong. That left me with a much bigger question: how much of what I believed had I actually chosen?
At sixteen, as school president, I organised a visit to the Pan-African Association. At the end, a small child stayed in my arms and would not let go. That connection stayed with me. Questioning things and connecting with people were already happening together.
Born in Athens in 1979. Still asking questions.
THE INVENTOR / 2009 ONWARDS
An idea should
leave the notebook.
I’m a mechanical engineer with a master’s in management from Brunel in London. I began working as an engineer in 2004, in Athens and later Thessaloniki. Making things has always been one way to ask a question. These are some of the questions I put on record.
A different approach to forest fires
GRANTED PATENT · 2010
An aircraft-deployed fire-resistant blanket. Greek patent granted in 2010, following a 2009 filing.
Read the record · GR1007050B ↗ (new tab)A smarter cat-litter tray
PUBLISHED APPLICATION · FILED 2009
A pet toilet using nested sifting trays to separate waste from litter.
Read the record · 20090100338 ↗ (new tab)Original published patent and application records.
OUT THERE. IN HERE.TRAVEL / NATURE / MEDITATION
Sometimes you
have to leave.
I left for Asia without knowing how long I would stay. It became three months: Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia. I was looking for nature and some space to work out what I wanted to do next.
A friend suggested Vipassana. Ten days without speaking sounded good to me, so I applied. Being accepted at a centre in the Philippines took me to a country I had not planned to visit. The retreat changed how I understood fear, attachment and my own ambitions.
I came back wanting to try, while letting go of the demand that everything must happen my way. The question was still there: what can I create while staying ethical?
Nature is part of this too. Since 2013, I have spent summers living for a month under a tree. That connection became something I wanted to keep returning to.
FREEDOM THROUGH COOPERATION
Okay. What can
we actually do?
Working on the streets of Athens with WWF brought me face to face with questions of trust. People wanted to help but were doubtful about organisations or short of time. After the fires in Zaharo in 2007, the early work that became ΙΔΕΑ began. I founded the association in 2009.
I wanted cooperation to be something you could see and take part in, with decisions and money open to scrutiny. Years of trying things with other people became Peaceful Revolution, published in Greek in 2018. I am still exploring how people can share responsibility and create without losing their freedom.
SONGS / WORDS / COLOUR / HUMOUR
It comes out
in different ways.
Sometimes I make a song. Sometimes a painting, a poem or something with my hands. I record music as Boudisimo. My poetry collection, Συνειδητοποιήσεις…, gathers writing in Greek and English.
I also like being ridiculous. The Wise Warrior started as unscripted improvisation with a friend. Serious conversations and comedy fit in the same life. There is no reason to keep them in separate rooms.
Things are very, very serious.
But life is still a game.
OUT IN THE WORLD
A few traces.
Interviews, published writing and the original records behind this story. Greek-language sources are marked.