MARIA PASCHALIDOU - 4405 N. WINCHESTER, 3RD Floor South, CHICAGO, IL.60640 - Home - Fax: (001) -773 - 271 - 4084 - Cell phone: (001) - 773 - 750 - 2760 - maripaschal@hotmail.com

AN INTRODUCTION (short bio)

I was born in Athens (Greece) and I got my first diploma- BA in Economics- from the University of Thessaloniki (1991). I received a BFA in Photography from Focus School of Photography and Video in Athens (1993). I studied with distinguished Greek photographers (Takis Zerdevas, Nikos Markou, Effie Halivopoulou) while I was working as free lance photographer for Greek publications (Harper's Bazaar, Ta Nea, Eikones).

In May 2003 I received an MFA in Photography, Digital Imaging and Video from Columbia College Chicago. My visual thesis "Bodies Under Investigation" has been published by the Photography Department of Columbia College in the 6 X 6 SERIES No.1 book "My Body Your Body" (Chicago, 2003). In "Bodies Under Investigation", I visually juxtapose pharmaceutical products and medical imaging with external parts of the body to comment on the interventions of medical technology in the construction of Self in contemporary western culture.

My work has been exhibited:

- In Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki (selected):

PLATFORMA 2004 International Video and Film Festival in Athens, video screening of my digital short video "Fictions" (9 minutes and 20 seconds) (Athens 2004), 4th HUMAN RIGHTS FESTIVAL "The Other Body" (Athens 2004), Gallery of School of Fine Arts of Athens (Germinations Europe Exhibition, Athens 1998), Mylos Art Center (9th PHOTOSYNKYRIA, an International Photography Meeting, Thessaloniki 1996) ILEANA TOUNTA GALLERY "City-scenes" (Athens 1996), MELINA MERKOURI CULTURAL CENTER (Athens 1996) - MUNICIPALITY OF ATHENS, organized by ANTI magazine and Athens Center of Photography (1992). Additionally, it was awarded, among others, by the GREEK CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY (13 New Young Greek Photographers, Athens 1996) and by the Museum of Photography and the Organization of Cultural Capital of Europe (Thessaloniki 1997).

- In the U.S (selected):

SCHOPF GALLERY ON LAKE - Three Women Photographers Show (Chicago 2004), CATHERINE EDELMAN GALLERY - The Chicago Project Online: http://www.edelmangallery.com (Chicago 2004), DRIVE THRU STUDIO "Video Art Pilsen" (Chicago 2003), GLASS CURTAIN GALLERY "Fractured Lines", curated by Sabrina Raaf (Chicago 2003), D.U.M.B.O ARTS CENTER at DIGITAL DUMBO 2002 (Brooklyn, NY 2002), ARTEMISIA GALLERY (solo exhibition, Chicago 2002), IN-TRANSIT GALLERY, MERCHANDISE MART -public space installation - (CTA Gallery-Columbia College Chicago, 2002), OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY (April 2002), CAMBRIDGE ART ASSOCIATION (Harvard University, Massachusetts, Boston 2001), PALETTE & CHISEL ACADEMY (Chicago 2001) and UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, MICHIGAN UNION ART LOUNGE, ("Hellenic Cultural Month" COUNCIL OF HELLENES ABROAD, Michigan, Ann Arbor 2001).

During my residence in the U.S., I got involved with several activities. I have been teacher assistant to the professor and distinguished filmmaker Peter Thompson in digital advanced classes and consultant for the 2003-5 Fulbright Senior Scholar Alumni Initiative Award for "A Contemporary Collaborative Art Center for the Athens School of Fine Arts and Columbia College Chicago." (Award to: Leonard Lehrer, Dean of School of Fine and Performing Arts, Columbia College Chicago). Since 2002 I have been member of the exhibit committee of the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago.

In June 2004 the Consul for Educational Affairs at the Consulate General of Greece in Chicago assigned me to curate an exhibition on the occasion of the Olympic Games in Athens 2004. My idea for the subject of the exhibition came from the principle of truce that was required during the ancient Olympic Games, the "ekecheiria". Artists of different cultural backgrounds residing in the U.S. were invited to address the subject of truce within the framework of contemporary necessities established by new formations of mass violence, racism and warfare. As a juried show "Ekecheiria" had been received

more than 150 entries around the U.S. The juried committee consisted of distinguished art academicians from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and Columbia College Chicago (Sabrina Raaf, Artist, Curator, Professor at Columbia College Chicago, Adam Brooks, Artist, Curator, and Coordinator of Fine Art Program, Columbia College Chicago, Curator of the REFCO Collection, Eleftheria Lialios, Artist, Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago). The exhibition was held at the Schopf Gallery On Lake in Chicago from June 2004 - August 2004 (extended dates of the initial agreed exhibiting dates). "Ekecheiria" exhibition brought together three Greek American sponsors who collaborated for first time in the history of the Chicagoan Greek American community. It also created a link between the American art academicians and the Greek art community in Chicago. The event has been covered by the NBC 5 TV CHANNEL and the ERA 5 Voice of Greece.

My first above curatorial experience was a great challenge and encouraged me to start working on collaborative projects. Georgia Kotretsos (MFA in Sculpture at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago) and I have proposed to the Hellenic Museum to curate an exhibition related to the subject of the 'artist statement'. The "Art of Artist statement: The politics of representation in Logos" (logos in the terms of the Greek language that means word, thought, principle, or speech) is an invitational international show of 13 artists. The show will be hosted by the Hellenic Museum and Cultural Center in Chicago from February 18, 2005 - April 2, 2005. There will be also a panel discussion consisted of art academicians, curators, critics and artists.

THOUGHTS AND WORDS ABOUT MY WORK

My work is based on the 'visual'. This means that I am interested in creating images or still images as I call them. In my fabricated images, "real" things are situated in fictitious settings. In this way "real" things are transformed from solid "natural" entities into discursive possibilities.

I usually employ photography, digital imaging and digital video. I am interested in the element of 'pause' in still images and it is under this concept that I am approaching both photography and video. Either they are coming in the shape of a photographic image or as video, my still images are fictitious settings of imaginary spaces, conditions and performances. I employ 'fiction' to provoke 'reality', to challenge its purity, to contest it not as a taken for granted state but as a performative and transformative process always understood in fragments and pieces which can be found in many aspects, shaped in several possibilities, as well as combined in various different ways and actions. 'Reality' thus, to me, is not 'what it is' but what 'it can possibly be'. My images thus, are critical statements and experiments of alternative aspects of reality.

MARIA PASCHALIDOU

4405 N. WINCHESTER, #3 SOUTH, CHICAGO, IL. 60640,

(773)271-4084 maripaschal@hotmail.com