The Desire for Consciousness
These images have no titles and no captions to guide you about what to see or how to perceive their content. There is no text to recreate the missing context.
In these images it’s impossible to determine the time, the place or the circumstances under which the photo was taken as the black background deprives us from any other information that would help us locate its subject in the real world.
In this way, relocated in a virtual space, the depicted object somehow loses its “realness” and tends to represent the meaning of it, it becomes an idea and it is transformed into a symbol.
Although the operation and the meaning of a symbol are predetermined in this series I create new symbols and invite the viewer to give them meaning by reading them literally or metaphorically. In my mind these images work in coherence, like a deck of cards that tells a different story every time it’s shuffled, raising questions about how differently each one of us interprets the same stimulus and therefore how diverse interpretations can occur when meanings are not fixed but depending on the ever changing context and every individual viewer.
installation views
2018 / Installation view of the group show “Photo-Graphē” at Benaki museum Athens, Greece.
2018 / Part of “Photo-Graphē” group show at Benaki museum Athens, Greece.
2018 / Part of “Photo-Graphē” group show at Benaki museum Athens, Greece.
2018 / Part of “Photo-Graphē” group show at Benaki museum Athens, Greece.
Cover of “The seventh garment” book by Eugenia Phakinou
2018 / Part of “Photo-Graphē” group show at Benaki museum Athens, Greece.
Cover of “Mikra Agglia” book by Ioanna Karystiani
2017 / Installation view of group show “The Vision of Saint Void’’, Depo Darm gallery, curated by Kiriakos Spirou, Athens, Greece
2017 / Installation view of group show “The Vision of Saint Void’’, Depo Darm gallery, curated by Kiriakos Spirou, Athens, Greece
2017 / Part of “ Whitelight showcase”, SHED London, curated by Ellie Tsatsou & Gelly Siganou, London, U.K.
2017 / Part of “ Whitelight showcase”, SHED London, curated by Ellie Tsatsou & Gelly Siganou, London, U.K.
2014 / Installation view of “Depression Era project”, Benaki museum, Athens, Greece
2014 / Installation view of “Depression Era project”, Benaki museum, Athens, Greece
SELECTED PRESS
Yatzer / Fantasy, Symbolism and the Uncanny Meet in the Photography of Maria Mavropoulou / essay / english
Postdigitale Fotokunst / Interview with Maria Mavropoulou / interview / english
und. Athens / The Vision of Saint Void: What Fools and the Saintly See, or an Excursion to Nothingness / essay / english
Kiosk der Demokratie / The Desire for Consciousness — Maria Mavropoulou / english
Phos Magazine / Maria Mavropoulou / portfolio / english
Phases Magazine / The Circle / english
C-Type Magazine / Inner State & The Desire for Consciousness / english
Related projects: Systems, Interfaces & Opacity
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The Sleight of the Machine 2025
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Ecologies of Noise 2025-2026
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