ART ROTTERDAM 2020

Evi Kalogiropoulou (b. Greece, 1985) practice lies within installation / sculpture and moving image. She is interested in preconceived notions surrounding femininity, beauty, bodies and gender, particularly as described in Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. Kalogiropoulou's work traces how these still influence representations today, by placing their concepts within contemporary societal contexts.

Kalogiropoulou works through different mediums mainly video installations, experimental films and sculptures. Her works explore notions related to social inclusion, cross-cultural identity and feminism. During the artist-in-residence programme Initiator she created the work “No Smoking” inspired by the struggles of women workers at the chemical industry SKOT. She donated her artwork to the Worker’s Union of Eleusis where it stands at the entrance in order to remind whoever enters the building of the women’s position at the working movement.

She says: ‘’My work refers to the Greek mythological figure Medusa and her relationship to the contemporary notions of Donna Haraway on women’s bodies. The concept of a feminist theory of cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating ‘human’ from ‘animal’ and ‘human’ from ‘machine’.

I am mainly focused on the myth of the primordial figure of Medusa, the Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with animal features who was always depicted running. I am mostly influenced by my roots, my hometown Arcadia in Greece, which was known in Greek mythology as a virgin wilderness, home to dryad nymphs and other spirits of nature. It was one version of paradise, though only in the sense of being the abode of supernatural entities, not an afterlife for deceased mortals.’’

For Art Rotterdam Evi Kalogiropoulou has created a new installation consisting of twelve sculptures produced with Greek marble and onyx, where bodysuits, muscular female legs in trainers, sporty bidons, cleaning products and torsos form a harmonious ensemble with existing works. Her sculptural practices recognise the techniques and principles of classical sculpture, updated through their playful multi-coloured palette, created by combining different gradients of stone.