Inner state by Maria Mavropoulou

Maria Mavropoulou is a visual artist based in Athens, Greece. “Inner State” is a series of photographs that Mavropoulou created between 2014-2016 having in mind to document the feeling of living during an era of crisis, namely the Greek crisis. “Revisiting these photographs nowadays, during the Covid-19 health crisis, Maria Mavropoulou senses those same feelings of uncertainty and unpredictable change of fundamental aspects of everyday life as we used to know it. This current global situation may be an important moment to realize that no matter what causes a crisis, or where it takes place, solidarity, collaboration, and compassion is our only way out. “

Inner state
“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born, in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”  A.Gramsci

In this stagnant space, in this gap between eras, landscapes look bizarre, cut off the real world, pending for their unknown fate, as a visualization of the inner state of their inhabitants. The horizon is hidden, preventing us to see what’s yet to come.

Empty highways, solar panel fields, constructions left unfinished, rotten watermelons and torn flags seem stuck in an intermediate state, portraying the current situation, like distorted symbols of a bygone era of growth.

In this serene rural scenery, far away from the city’s battlefield, there is a subtle feeling of uncannyness. The depicted structures stand as a kind of neo-ruins, all of them have a part of the story to tell, but we have to look closer to discover it.

Found in this situation of not being able to look forward while the past seems already distant and out of reach, disorientation is what one feels. Relying on expectations is not a choice, neither memories can provide a shelter.

There is nothing certain except the situation itself.

Contact
mariamavropoulou.com
Instagram: @maria.mavropoulou