My practice explores painting as a relational practice and its potential to become an invitation for interaction on an aesthetical, a social and a geographical level. I am interested in producing paintings and installations that require the participation and/or physical intervention of others. Drawing on the physical properties of painting as (trans)portable and on the theoretical notions of nomadic and dialogic, my practice focuses on mobility and interaction both literally and metaphorically. This refers to the real (geographical) relocations of the artist, the artefact and the exchange of ideas but also to the flow of imagined geographies within the ‘flatmap’ surface of painting.

I want to create artwork that is in an open situation; its structure is in a constant process of (re)creation and becoming, that embodies or suggests a sense of ‘re-location’, both literally and metaphorically. This idea might reflect the necessity to reconsider location in terms of fixed places, painting in terms of fixed objects and the artist as a sole author.

Maria gouveli