independent architect and visual artist, providing high-quality and sophisticated live video mapping performances and bespoke light installations for events, cultural centers, and festivals around Europe
video mapping ?
Video mapping is an emerging art form combined with technology, projecting visual content on any type of surface resulting in the creation of an immersive visual effect in absolute synchronization with the music, which can dramatically improve the viewer's experience. By creating custom-made physical surfaces, Maria imagines how she can incorporate the digital content, usually colorful and vibrant graphics, to enhance the highly detailed surfaces with three-dimensional and geometrical aspects, creating an illusion that they are alive. It offers a whole new experience to the observer.
Maria in 2015 has graduated from a two-year Master’s program in Architecture at the University of KU Leuven (Sint-Lucas, Ghent). She has also completed a three-year Bachelor in Architecture at the University of East London (RIBA I) in the United Kingdom, as well as a full five-year cycle of studies in Chemistry (Aristotle University, Greece). Notably, at the university of KULeuven, she was the student representative in the International Educational Committee.
From 2015 to 2018 she was working as an Architect at the architecture office SumProject+SumResearch. Throughout her professional carrier at Sum, she was involved in major architectural and urban projects. She had the chance to extend her architectural role to more organizational and communicational levels, by designing a brand new communication strategy for the office, introducing its active involvement in social media, and creating a fresh and contemporary website for SumProject+SumResearch, as well as curating an expo dedicated to the 50 years history of the office and an expo at the monumental building La Bourse presenting a historical analysis and spatial evolution of the project of the Central Lanes in Brussels. At the end of her training, she was nominated as the representative of the trainees of Bruxelles and Braband Wallon by the Ordre des Architectes of Belgium.
studies and work
story of an artist
From an early age, Maria showed her artistic inclination and after 11 years of higher education in Greece, England, and Belgium and 3 years of professional experience as an architect in Belgium, she took the first step to live and work as an artist. From 2018 to early 2022 based in Brussels, she performed more than 70 live performances/video mapping installations in Belgium, France, Germany, and Luxembourg. Her four-year artistic career developed more favorably and quickly than she imagined, reaching the point where large public video mapping projects were commissioned to her, where in addition to her own performance, she also undertook the entire organization and artistic curation of the event.
By combining art, architecture, science, and technology the idea is to create a scenography where light and dark, movement and inertia, silhouettes and shadows are in an infinite dialogue in space and time. It always starts with a brainstorming phase with the client (if we are referring to commissioned work), which allows us to define precisely what are the client's needs and the narrative. It then goes through concept design, to schematic design, to design development, to production, and to installation. So she kind of follows the paths she made as an architect.
Her first video mapping project in 2018 was already an 8-meter-long stage design with live video mapping performance for the annual Νight of the Architects in Brussels, where she explored for the first time the three-dimensional mapping in front of a large architecture-related crowd. She had the chance to perform in the most important venues in Belgium, such as Bozar, the biggest cultural center, at the emblematic concert hall Henri Le Boeuf, as well as at the iconic Horta hall, interacting with the unique architecture of Victor Horta. In Belgium, she has performed in numerous festivals, such as Bright Festival, Electronic Brussels Marathon, Esperanzah, and Jam n Jette, in some of the most prestigious clubs and venues, such as LaVallée, C12, VK/Recyclart, Zodiak, Bazaar, and others.
large-scale
3D structures
international
indoor & outdoor
Her career extended internationally when presented her artworks at Yaam Berlin, one of the most historic cultural clubs in Berlin, at the caste of Sanem in Luxembourg, in collaboration with the city of Sanem for the annual Christmas market Wanter Feeling and in several festivals and venues in France, such as Chateau Perche, Chateau Sonic, Karnasouk at Kilowatt and numerous others. She has also experience in creating outdoor large-scale projects and taking under consideration the weather conditions (wind, rain), public lighting, and specialized communal and green space restrictions, as she has successfully done for her project for Bright Festival of Lights, where apart from her video mapping performance on a 40-meter long grid, she overtook the complete project management of the four-day long event, including artistic programmation, material rental, installation, etc in collaboration with visitbrussels and the city of Brussels, as well as for the Christmas market WinterWonders, in 4 different neighborhoods, organized by Brussels Major Events and the city Brussels.
Her live video mapping performances followed electronic music of famous DJ artists in clubs and festivals as well as musicians in live concerts, of any type of music (rap, world, instrumental, classic, etc). Apart from live video mapping performances, Maria is also providing temporary or permanent video mapping and light installations for cultural centers, museums, and expositions as well as in public spaces, as created in Museum Folon under the framework of Museomix, or at LaVallée during the LaVallée d’image festival and the Electronic Marathon. Her scientific and architectural background led to her experimentation with several materials (cardboard, wood, fabric, crystals etc) and possible mapping surfaces, from the most known facade architectural mapping and dome mapping to unique structures such as an old carriage or circus tent, even mapping human body in a dance interactive performance. One of her latest innovative video mapping performances is live video mapping projection on live mural painting.
installations
experimentations
other skills
Her multitude of academic and professional interests are complemented by a wide variety of artistic skills and social activities, such as her participation in collectives, start-up projects, and activist actions as a short filmmaker and illustrator, and she has experimented with a variety of techniques for her creative works, including silk screening, 3D printing, CNC machine, laser-cutting, and other. She had the opportunity to travel often in order to participate in workshops and courses in many parts of the world, notably in Coney Island New York, Venice, Geneva, Paris, and Barcelona, and several cities in Greece, Belgium, and the United Kindom. Apart from video mapping, she is occasionally providing DJ sets and organizing cultural events and creative workshops, under her project Experignon (experimental + mignon); a series of collaborative projects, aiming to stimulate a creative explosion.
In 2022 she decided to return to Greece, after 12 years abroad, in order to develop her artistic work and to be active in the artistic field of her country, while keep traveling in Europe for international projects, mainly providing video mapping performances and installations.
today