Evi Kalogiropoulou

Evi Kalogiropoulou

I am interested in ancient concepts of femininity and myths relevant to the female body and the social context of the post-colonial, patriarchal environment.

Evi Kalogiropoulou is a visual artist studying and working in Athens and London. Evi studied in the Athens School of Fine Arts and accomplished a Masters Degree in the Royal College of Art in the Moving Image path. Evi has had various screenings in London, Germany, and Greece, such as in Whitechapel gallery and Chisenahale Gallery in London.

In 2018, her film ‘Neighbours’ was screened in BFI after being shortlisted on the Tenderflix competition, organized by the British Film Institute and Tenderpixel Gallery.

She has made a public sculpture in Ermioni/Greece and has participated in several residencies such as the 2018 Initiator residency in Eleusina, where she worked with installations in public space. Evi Kalogiropoulou works mostly with moving image installations, experimental films, and sculpture; her projects explore ideas associated with the inclusion/exclusion, cross-culture identity, female figures in Ancient Greek mythology frames and sci-fi environments. She has a close collaboration and mentoring by Gareth Evans curator of Film in Whitechapel.

She was always depicted running to the left with bent knees

HD Video / 08:03 min / 2018

My intention is to create a machine that is always running like a treadmill which is a common piece of fitness equipment.

My work is referring to the Greek mythological figure Medusa and her relation to Donna Haraway’s contemporary notions about the female body. The concept of a feminist posthumanist theory of cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries, notably those separating “human” from “animal” and “human” from “machine.” I am 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. My intention is to create a machine that is always running like a treadmill which is a common piece of fitness equipment.

I wanted to recreate my ‘’ancient‘’ Greek version of a gym, in a post-network era where there is a continuously moving belt bearing the patterns of meanders which symbolize the solar system, as well as the Gorgon’s gesture as is commonly depicted in ancient Greek pottery. Other parts of the treadmill are of a more interactive nature such as the hair which produces a sound when is touched. This piece of machinery constitutes a fetish version of the female body and how it has been represented throughout history.

The spoken words of the video is a poem by Sappho, who is one of the first women poets in the world that her poems speak a lot about lesbian love. This poem described the man’s role as an intermediary figure designed to highlight Sappho’s love for the girl by juxtaposing the strength of Sappho’s emotional reaction with his impassivity. Also, some part of the spoken words is from the story of Medusa and the video itself is inspired by parts of the primordial myth and the ‘’monstrous’’ female body. I am exploring how these myths created around femininity and masculinity from the ancient years till now and which the contemporary notions are.

My main focus is on the part of the myths which are not known, like how Medusa becomes a monster. Medusa was originally a beautiful maiden, but because Poseidon had raped her in Athena’s temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa’s to a monster and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. I am exploring how these myths created around woman and femininity from the ancient years till now and how this conception have changed in the nowadays patriarchal environment. I am influenced by theories of Donna Haraway’s about the woman body and the woman monster. The concept of a feminist posthuman theory of cyborg is a rejection of rigid boundaries.

I am influenced by my hometown which is in Arcadia in Greece, which was known in Greek mythology as an untouched wilderness, home to the nymphs. It was a version of paradise, though only in the sense of being the abode of supernatural entities and not an afterlife for deceased mortals.