26/08/2022
Maria Gouveli ~ Симпозиум ИЗКУСТВО - ПРИРОДА Габровци 2022 - to-GET-here
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Maria Gouveli | Greece
"Integration" & "Integration in Micro"
"During my stay in Gabrovtsi, I was overwhelmed with various ideas and considered this an opportunity for experimentation. This experience made me expand my art practice. My works but also the works of the other artists made me reflect on the act of documentation, especially of ephemeral works.
The focus of my explorations was the integration of my own acts – the woman-made, the cultural – into the natural. I was concerned with notions such as edges, limits, becoming, identity and the ephemeral. I reflected upon the “economy” of my actions and intervention into nature. In a way, I was looking for balance. How much do I interfere with the natural? What is the limit (or my limit) of changing the natural space? Is the work ever finished? Do I want to be finished?
My main project named “integration”, was driven by my interest in bringing together singularities and expanding painting as a practice in a natural space. I have chosen to make an intervention on the riverside, visible from the bridge above. I cleaned the space, rearranged and re-assembled the stones in specific combinations, so that they “fit”, creating a kind of mosaic, and later on colored some of them with chalk – also a natural material. What can be achieved by this synergy? Me and the stones worked together in an endless process of becoming. This process of observing – arranging – re-assembling represents a union of fragments. Sole pieces, in this case, the stones, supporting one another created a unified visual impression. Big and heavy, small and light, flat or round stones – all played a role in the wholeness.
Drawn on in the never-ending processes of becoming, I reflected further on identity and physicality, my physical presence as a woman working in two main processes: the heavy lifting and arrangement of the stones at the river (large scale) and the delicate sawing of the moss (minimal scale) on the comfy sofa in the “common room”. A reciprocal relationship: an exchange of energy and support between two processes, was revealed to me, adding theoretical context to be further explored."
“Integration”
approx. 15 m., stones and colored chalk
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Maria Gouveli (b. 1976, Greece) graduated from the Department of Visual and Applied Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. At the graduation exhibition, her work received the “Excellence and Innovation” award from the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and became part of the museum's permanent collection. She studied for two semesters at the Akademie der Bildende Künste in Munich through the student exchange program. In 2007, funded by the Greek State Scholarship Foundation, she completed a Master of Arts in Art, Design and Education at Norwich University of the Arts.
She has participated in Artist in Residence programs and Festivals such as City College Norwich (England), Water Tower Art Festival and Process Space Art Festival (Bulgaria), Villatalla Art Walk (Italy). In 2015, 2016, and 2017 she co-organized and co-curated Visual Art Walk (Greece) with Andriani Ventouri Kimolos. Maria Gouveli lives in Greece and teaches visual arts at primary schools.
www.mariagouveli.com
~photo by Desislava Todorova
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11. International Gabrovtsi ART-NATURE Symposium
06 - 16. 07. 2022
Село Габровци / Gabrovtsi Village, Duppini Art Center
Bulgaria
more info in the FB event: https://fb.me/e/1YHl6R2sA
