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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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