Marilena Papakyriakou

Μarilena Papakyriakou was born in 2000 in Corinth, Greece. She is a graduate of the School of Visual and Applied Arts, Faculty of Fine Arts, AUTΗ, majoring in Sculpture. As an aspiring artist, she has a great passion for creating visual arts. She has participated in various exhibitions in Greece and Europe and seminars for developing her skills in different art forms such as sculpture, painting, drawing, and mixed media.

Q&A

Artist Statement

The scope of my artistic study is to research the alternative forms of objects and their mutation in a different reality from the one they exist already.

Machines in disuse and scattered parts that have completed the purpose for which they were built – and for that very reason now belong to the space of the superfluous – constituted the challenge to overturn this end and seek a new POST-real space and time of their existence.

The functional end of these machines, not only from the natural decay of their materials, but also because they were very soon replaced by others more technologically advanced, almost establishes the generalized idea of a “technological death” for everything that does not have time to follow this relentless progress.

When the death of a part or machine is inevitable and irreversible and at this point their previous role is ceased, this is the moment for me to accept the challenge to give them a new existence in the future.

I re-approach the concept of movement and light as a sign of living existence and autonomy of each sculpture. The use of metal as the main material is chosen mainly for its robustness and durability over time.

Through construction I try not only to better understand the rapidly evolving era in which we live, but also the future, looking for the place of my existence in these two different time slots. A place that I might relate to the one of my machines.

The moment of creating the work is at the same time a moment of conversation and communication with something living and evolving, ultimately confusing the field of art with that of reality. Inwardly it can be the cause of an upset or worry, possibly as I feel that I live in a world that rejects too quickly, anything that “doesn’t properly function.”