Konstantin Johannes Safiriou

We remember Konstantin J. Safiriou (1949 – 2020).
He was our friend and inspiration. 

Konstantin Johannes Safiriou. courtesy Artforum Culture Foundation
Konstantin Johannes Safiriou. Courtesy Artforum Culture Foundation

Konstantin Johannes Safiriou (* 1949), private scholar, author, economic and cultural advisor, died too early, predictably and yet unexpectedly on September 14, 2020. He was a boisterous free spirit, someone who could critically question everything and investigate things underground. Not everyone was familiar with his way of thinking, but those who sought his help and advice appreciated it with honorable respect.
At the beginning of his career he was a journalist for various sports magazines, later on he was a chief reporter of a  well-known daily newspaper. He founded a weekly newspaper – but economic pressures from established competitors forced him to give up. He boosted the public appearance of key trade fairs at KölnMesse (like Photokina, Anuga, Herrenmodemesse) in a consistently inspiring way for a couple of years. In encounters and advising politicians and economic leaders, he found an interesting task while being on friendly terms. He created sustainable concepts for global companies, and in the German food and c+c trade sector he was an innovative marketing consultant for years.
He started numerous companies of his own to develop absolutely new things (e.g. in the tourism, industrial and IT sectors). He was not a hard businessman by the way, he was interested in scientific context. In the field of history, sociology, and economics he became a notable old-style private scholar, who wanted not to make a profit from everything. 

Last but not least his private interests challenged him over and over again to promote art and cultural projects. He made no fuss about it. Unselfishly he had supported the work of art mediators and avant-garde artists for decades. He was a significant art collector with a fine taste and donated his artworks mostly for charitable and public purposes.  As co-editor he was involved in various publications, i.a. about philosophy of photography. 

At ArtExpert I Network, an international platform for art-scientific and material-technical research, he was responsible as a long-term management advisor. Additionally, he has also been a honorary board member of Artforum Culture Foundation since its inception.

Konstantin Johannes Safiriou – rest in peace.