Maria zervou, POINT OF DEPARTURE

The works of Maria Zervou (1977) almost exclusively focus on an emotional vulnerability; the expression of her most personal nature is a characteristic feature of her work. Her stories always rely on metaphors, and occupy – born as mental images – diverse forms. In her videos, drawings, and installations, Maria Zervou often investigates the dubious nature of things, and uses everyday settings, which turn out to be unexpectedly connected to things alien to or paradoxes for us. In her video „Traveler,“ the artist concentrates on the exploration of the two-sided perception of our reality – of both our visibile world and the world only tangible with our inner eye, the reality of our own imaginary worlds. Her aim is it to reverse the spectator’s expectations by highlighting the absurd elements of realtiy. One of her approaches in order to investigate the ambiguous view on reality is the combination of miscellaneous elements, which are juxtaposed and hence forced into a dialogue. This dialogue is directly linked to a re-positioning of the individual into well-known social, personal or political structures. In her exhibition POINT OF DEPARTURE Maria Zervou transforms banality into the unexpected, performs an interactive relationship between space and time, between interior and exterior, and leads the onlooker towards newly defined limits.