Klonaris/Thomadaki
Biographical Note
Maria Klonaris
Born in Cairo, Egypt, has studied fine arts at the National School of Fine Arts Athens, English literature at the University of Athens, egyptology at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris, experimental film, art history and philosophy of art at the University Paris I, Sorbonne, computer graphics at the National School of Decorative Arts, Paris.
Katerina Thomadaki
Born in Athens, Greece, has studied literature and philosophy at the University of Athens, theater theory at the University Paris III, Sorbonne, philosophy of art at the University Paris I, Sorbonne, computer graphics at the National School of Decorative Arts, Paris. Katerina Thomadaki teaches media art at the University Paris I, Sorbonne.

Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki are media artists of greek origin based in Paris since 1975. They produce films, videos, multi-media installations, performances, photographic pieces, sound and texts.
Their work has been largely shown in Europe, North America and Japan. They have participated in exhibitions such as Electra - Electricity and Electronics in the Art of the XXth Century, curated by Frank Popper, Museum of Modern Art, Paris 1983, Les Immatériaux, curated by François Lyotard, Centre Georges Pompidou 1985, RobotSculptures, C.I.R.C.A. Villeneuve Lez Avignon 1986, Antiquity and Modernity in the Art of the XXth Century, curated by Gladys Fabre, Fondation Joan Miró, Barcelona 1990, Metamorphosis’ of the Modern - the Greek Experience, curated by Anna Kafetsi, Athens National Gallery 1992, Edge Biennale, Madrid and London 1992, Andere Körper curated by Sigrid Schade, Offenes Kulturhaus, Linz, 1994, Mois de la Photo à Paris, 1996, Engel: Engel, curated by Cathrin Pichler, Kunsthalle, Vienne Rudolphinum Gallery, Praha, etc.
They have published manifestos, interviews and theoretical texts in numerous newspapers, books, magazines (Libération, Cinémaction, Revue d’Esthétique, Recherche Poiétique, Visuel-Torino, Performance-London, Leonardo-U.S.A., etc).
Leading figures of the French experimental film scene since the late 70’s, they introduce the concept of “cinéma corporel” (cinema of the body) and produce subversive works on body, female and androgynous identity, sexuality and the unconscious.
In 1980 the Pompidou Center presents a retrospective of their films and expanded projection works. Retrospectives have also been presented at the Galerie Donguy in 1985 and at the Cinémathèque Française in 1992.
In the early 80’s they are the first artists in France to create projection installations and environments (Paris Biennale 1982). Their installations are ritually structured spaces combining images and sound generated by diverse technologies and including constructed screens, objects, lights. 
Klonaris’ and Thomadaki’s work develops a transcultural reflexion on body, memory, ritual, dream, mythological figures as archetypes (Astarti, Electra, Persephone, The Hermaphrodite, the Angel) and identity as the site of destabilized assumptions. Parallely it is concerned with crossing technologies and media and spatialising images and sounds. Since 1976 they have been working on body as language. The first period of their films, multimedia performances and installations concentrated on self portraiture and identity. In 1977 they published the "Manifesto for a Radical Femininity, for Another Cinema", where they defined radical femininity as a "double drive - both female and male". Their concept of woman as "all including" opposed Lacan’s statement "la femme n’est pas toute" ("woman is not entire"). This concept led them to the synthetic gender figure of the hermaphrodite, which they explored through the Louvre hellenistic sculpture of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite and through Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. In 1985 they started creating The Angel Cycle, an on-going vast media mutation piece, based on the medical photograph of an intersexual subject. 
The artists have received numerous grants and fellowships (visual arts, film, video and new technologies departments of the French Ministry of Culture, Arts Council of Great Britain New Collaboration Funds, Madrid - Cultural Capital of Europe, Athens National Gallery, Greek Ministry of Culture, etc.). 
Apart from their artistic production, Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki curate film programs and exhibitions, lecture and teach seminars in France and abroad. Since 1982 they collaborate with the National Radio broadcast “Atelier de Création Radiophonique” - France Culture.
In 1985 they create A.S.T.A.R.T.I. for Audiovisual Art, an interdisciplinary organization crossing technologies, theories, and artistic practices. In 1990 they curate the large scale international conference “Film / Video / Computer Art” and edit the catalogue Technologies et imaginaires published by Dis Voir, Paris. In 1994 they curate the second international conference “Film / Video / Computer Art” and in 1998 the third one, and edit respectively Mutations de l’image and Pour une Ecologie des media, both published by A.S.T.A.R.T.I., Paris. This event, organized with the support of the French Ministry of Culture, has been awarded by the Kaleidoscope programme of European Communities.
All photos by Klonaris/Thomadaki unless otherwise stated

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Texts and photos: copyright Maria Klonaris/Katerina Thomadaki. All rights reserved.