Marina Gioti is a filmmaker/ visual artist born and based in Athens, Greece. She studied Chemical Engineering (BEng), Environmental Management (MSc), Filmmaking, and Media, Communication and New Technologies (MA) in Greece, UK and Belgium.
After long years of studies in engineering and the social sciences, her parallel occupation with cinema and the arts slowly evolved into a full time commitment in the mid 00’s. With cinema at the core of her interdisciplinary practice, Gioti explores cinematic narrative, techniques and aesthetics across media, through her videos, installations and media art works. She has a healthy obsession with found objects, stories and histories, often forgotten or parallel to the official record which she often revisits in her archival and found footage works. An important part of her interests, expressed largely through her media art practice, is situated at the intersection of art, science and the environment, often questioning the accountability of science and technology in our everyday life and current political discourse. Her current research explores the life cycle of ships and the material, environmental, and metaphorical dimensions of shipwrecks and draws parallels to the human condition in a time of man-made catastrophes.
Her work has been screened and exhibited worldwide at museums, biennials and international film festivals. In 2017 she was a participating artist at documenta 14, where she presented her debut feature documentary, The Invisible Hands (2017) and her short film The Secret School (2009). The Invisible Hands was also an official selection at the 58th Berlinale Forum Expanded. She has also participated in the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial (2015), WRO15-Wroclaw Media Art Biennial (2015), the 1st Anren Biennial in Chengdu, China (2017) and Transmediale 07-Unfinish (2007). She has exhibited at numerous group institutional shows at Slought, Philadelphia PA (2019), Athens Conservatoire (2019), Signal, Malmö (2018), MACRO, Rome (2018), Art Space Pythagorion, Samos (2016 & 2018), Bozar, Brussels (2014), Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2014), Onassis Cultural Centre (2016), the Benaki Museum (2014), the Cycladic Art Museum (2007) and the Deste Foundation in Athens, Greece (2006-7).
Between 2001 and 2009 Gioti regularly programmed experimental and documentary films for self-organised screenings and film festivals. She has served as the artistic director of Ecocinema Film Festival (2007-2009) and Synch Cinema (2005). She has co-curated the Depression Era exhibit at the 5th Thessaloniki Biennial and the exhibition Anathena (with M. Fokidis) at the Deste Foundation (2006-7). She has juried for the Drama International Short Film Festival in Greece (2022), TENT – the Dutch art academies graduate awards- in Rotterdam, Netherlands (2013) and Courtisane Film Festival, Ghent, Belgium (2012). Since 2020 she is programme advisor and producer at stegi.radio (formerly movement.radio), an Athens-based international internet radio station.
In 2017 she was a fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart and in 2019 she was selected as an Onassis:Air exchange fellow at Beirut Art Residency in Beirut, Lebanon. Through 2019 she produced the videos of the music project Atlas- A Sound Cartography of Europe, a joint commission by IRCAM-Centre Pompidou (Paris), ZKM-Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (Karlsruhe) and Onassis Stegi (Athens).
She is the laureate of the Prix COAL-Océans (2022) and of the IN SITU programme at the Cité internationale des Arts in Paris (2023-24).
EXHIBITIONS
2024 | KATō KOΣΜΟΣ, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris (solo)
2024 | COALITION – 15 Ans d’art et d’écologie, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris
2024 | Feral Ballads, Cité International des Arts, Paris
2024 | CRITICALARCHIVES VI: We Can’t Breathe, MEDPHOTO 5, International Photography Festival, Contemporary Art Museum of Crete, Rethymno
2023 | What If Women Ruled the World? Women, Together, EMST-National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
2023 | Mystery 3 Elefsina Mon Amour: In Search of the Third Paradise, flagship art exhibition of 2023 Eleusis European Cultural Capital, Old Olive Mill, Elefsina
2022 | Public Domain (Kοινό Κτήμα), MOMus – Thessaloniki Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki
2022 | Best Friends For Ever and Ever, A project by Comotirio aka Veneri Stergiou | Dimotiki Pinakothiki Kallitheas “Sofia Laskaridou”, Athens
2021 | Revolting Bodies II, Atopos CVC, Athens
2021 | Launching Ceremony, Syros International Film Festival (SIFF), Tarsanas Shipyard, Syros, Greece (solo)
2021 | Hotel Simplon, Giulietta, Basel, Switzerland
2021 | 200 Years of Suffocation, online exhibition curated by Fyta, Athens
2020 | Imagine you Wake up and There is no Internet, Romantso, Athens
2020 | Theorimata II: On History, National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), Athens
2019 | a.O. – b.c. (after Olympics, Before Crisis): An audiovisual diary, State of Concept/ ASFA, Athens
2019 | Harmonie Inconnue, Galerie Dominique Fiat, Paris, France
2019 | Sharing Perama, Cine Perama, Athens, Greece
2019 | Anatomy of Political Melancholy II, Schwarz Foundation, Athens Conservatory, Athens, Greece
2019 | Photography in Crisis: Depression Era Retrospective, Slought, Philadelphia PA, USA
2018 | Signal- Contemporary Art Space, Malmö, Sweden (solo)
2018 | Macro Asilo “Video del Giorno”, MACRO Museo de Arte Contemporanea Roma
2018 | Past Future Perfect at Postcards of a Human Landscape, Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany (solo show)
2018 | Anatomy of Political Melancholy, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece
2018 | Endless Now – Donau Festival 2018, Forum Frohner, Krems an der Donau, Austria (solo show)
2018 | Rag To Rich, American College Athens, Greece
2017 | When the next wave rolls out and the next one has not yet broken, Akademie Schloss Solitude Off-Space, Stuttgart, Germany
2017 | 1st Anren Biennale- Today’s Yesterday, Crossroads Exhibition, Chengdu, China
2017 | Documenta 14, Athens and Kassel, Greece & Germany
2016 | A World Not Ours, Art Space Pythagorion, Samos, Greece
2016 | Hypnos Project, Onassis Cultural Centre, Athens, Greece (Solo Show)
2016 | Nice! A poetic exploration about the possibility of return, of memory, homeland and loss, Municipal Centre Manos Loizos, Athens, Greece
2015 | Athens Now! – A symposium of radical film from contemporary Greece, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2015 | 5th Thessaloniki Biennale–Main Exhibition, Between the Pessimism of the Intellect and the Optimism of the Will, Thessaloniki, Greece
2015 | WRO15 Test Exposure – Wroclaw Media Art Biennial, Wroclaw, Poland (also part of the touring programme)
2014 | Depression Era, Le Mois de la Photo, Maison Européenne de la Photographie-Central Dupon Images, Paris, France
2014 | Depression Era, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2014 | No Country for Young Men, Bozar, Brussels, Belgium
2011 | Contemporary Greek Woman (I Sygxroni ellinida), The Hub, Athens, Greece
2010 | Memorias de Ficción. La gran novela histórica, Mediateca Caixa Fórum, Barcelona, Spain
2007 | Her(his)tory, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, Greece
2006 | Bielefelder Kunstverein, Bielefeld, Germany (Solo Show)
2006 | Anathena, Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece
2005 | Rooms, Athens Imperial Hotel/ Kappatos Gallery, Athens, Greece
FILM FESTIVALS / SCREENINGS (Selected)
2024 | Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, Predecessors and Contemporaries, Special Screening as part of the exhibition Tomislav Gotovac a.k.a. Antonio G. Lauer: Ascending Descending Genealogy
2023 | Aflamuna/ Beirut DC Independent Arab Cinema streaming platform, Online Screening part of ‘Aflamuna 2022 In Retrospect’ | L’Europe autour de l’Europe Film Festival, part of the curated programme ‘Who Knows What Yesterday Will Bring?’ Studio des Ursulines, Paris
2022 | Aflamuna/ Beirut DC Independent Arab Cinema streaming platform | Online Screening part of the curated programme ‘Music on Screens: Visual Representations of Sound and Society in Film’| Subversive Festival, Zagreb part of the curated programme ‘Who Knows What Yesterday Will Bring?’ | Pugnant Film Series, Microcosmos Cinema, Athens
2021 | Climate Culture: The Art of Becoming Sustainable, online screning, Onassis Cultural Centre/ Julie’s Bicycle/ British Council, Athens | Doc Alliance/ www.dafilms.com, online documentary platform film distribution
2020 | The Past is not a foreign country, MOMus -Thessaloniki Contemporary art museum screening and talks series in archaeological spaces, Heptapyrgion Byzantine Fortress, Thessaloniki, Greece | Arsenal 3, online screening by Arsenal- Institut für Film und Video Kunst Berlin | Movement Festival, Cine Astor, Athens, Greece | Kentro Elenchou Tileoraseon (KET), Athens
2019 | Atlas: A Sοund Cartography of Europe, Centre Pompidou, Paris/ ZKM, Karlsruhe/ Onassis Stegi, Athens| Tusk Festival, Newcastle, UK | Griechische Filmwoche, Munich, Germany | Zawya Cinema, Cairo, Egypt | CPH:DOX- Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival| Sursock Museum-Beirut | Goethe Institut Athen, Greece | Syros International Film festival, Ermoupolis, Greece | Saristra Festival, Cephalonia, Greece
2018| Berlinale-Berlin International Film Festival(Forum Expanded) Berlin, Germany | Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Museum of Photographic Art, Tokyo, Japan | Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece | Maine IFF, USA | Dorf Film Festival, Primosten, Croatia | Cinedays IFF, Skopje, Macedonia | Kappitel Literature Festival, Stavanger Norway | FUSO Festival de Video Arte, Lisbon Portugal
2016 | Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, Tokyo Museum of Photographic Art, Tokyo, Japan
2015 | Viennale Film Festival, Vienna, Austria |Athens Avant-Garde film festival
2012 | Videoex Film Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
2011 | Underdox Film Festival, Munich, Germany
2010 | Jeonju International Film Festival, Stranger Than Cinema, Jeonju, South Korea, Fundation Caixa Mediateca, Barcelona | Thessaloniki Film Festival, Greece
2009 | Toronto International Film Festival – Wavelengths, Toronto, Canada/ Les Rencontres Internationales, Paris, Berlin, Madrid | Onion City- Chicago Filmmakers Festival, USA |
2007 | Transmediale 07- Unfinish, Berlin, Germany | Internationales Frauenfilmfestival Dortmund/ Köln
2006 | New York Underground Film Festival- Anthology Film Archives NY, USA | Cinematexas, Austin, Texas | Chicago Underground Film Festival, USA
CURATORIAL
2015 | Depression Era Exhibition, 5th Thessaloniki Biennial, Thessaloniki, Greece (Co-Curator)
2008 | Ecocinema International Film Festival, Athens, Greece (Artistic director)
2008-2011 | Silence Fiction Society, Experimental music concerts organiser
2006 | Anathena (Exhibition), Deste Foundation, Athens, Greece (Co-Curator)
2005 | Synch Festival – Synch Cinema, Lavrio, Greece (Artistic Director)
2001-2009 | Novaxpress independent film society (experimental film/ documentary), Athens, Greece (Founder and programmer)
PUBLICATIONS | PRESS (Selected)
– En Déplacement #22 with Dimitris Athiridis, Marina Gioti, Antoine Thirion, hosted by Clara Schullman, Thomas Boutoux & Jocelyn Wolff Gallery, Paris (podcast, 03/ 2024)
– Monocle Magazine-THE FORECAST, Special mention in The Greek Revival by Stella Roos, Iss.14, 2024, p.96-97
– Tzanetoulakou F., The Secret School and the Art of Propaganda, in 1821-2021 Mnimes Technon-Thravsmata Istorias (1821-2021 Memories of Art-Fragments of History), Maratos A. (ed.), interview/ book chapter on the film “The Secret School”, Nissos Editions-Nikos Poulantzas Institute, Athens, 2022
– Art Review (UK/ print edition), Review/ special mention at Bleak Projections by Ben Eastham, (online+print Art Review issue Sep.2021)
– Kathimerini (GR) Interview by Nicholas Zois (7/2021)
– Lifo (GR) Interview by Dionysis Notarakis (7/2021)
– Flix.gr (GR) Interview by Manolis Kranakis (7/2021)
– VICE Greece (GR), Interview with K. Petridis (10/2020)
– The Art Newspaper (Ta Nea tis Technis-GR), Exhibition review by A. Koroxenidou (in Greek) (11/2020)
– Ferocious Urbanites (GR), Exhibition review by F. Vergidou (11/2020)
– Epiphanie: L’Evidence de la Grèce, Revue Point Contemporain (FR), Dec. 2019, p.16 (print)
– NOMAS Magazine, issue no.10- ATHENS, Dec.2018 (print)
2018 | Interview at the Egyptian music website Scene Noise, https://scenenoise.com/News/film-schedule-announces-24th-edition-of-womex-featuring-three-middle-eastern-films, Oct. 2018
– Berlinale 2018 Review: THE INVISIBLE HANDS, An Unlikely Meeting of Cultures Yields Strange and Beautiful Results, www.screenanarchy.com, Feb.2017 (film review)
– One Of the Last True Punks: Alan Bishop and the Invisible Hands- Interview with director Marina Gioti, www.kaput-mag.com, Jan. 2018
– The Invisible Hands follows Alan Bishop and his band in Cairo, www.thewire.co.uk, Feb. 2018 (mention)
– “The Aleph of Athens”, Giannis Misouridis, CULTURESCAPES: Greece Book, Merian Verlag CH, 2017, p.76-87 (book mention)
– “Reincarnation of Poetry”, Marina Fokidis in conversation with Marina Gioti, Mousse Magazine, issue 58 (in print)
– Elena Tzotzi in conversation with Marina Gioti, Radio Athènes, All Collected Voices (audio)
– Interview and presentation (WOMEX) Scene Noise, Cairo (English)
– The Athenians: Marina Gioti, Lifo, 2017 (in Greek)
– Athens and Thessaloniki, article by Marina Fokidis, Even Magazine, Issue 2, Fall 2015
– The Future of European Integration According to Germany, Journal of Visual Culture: pp. 190-191.
– Is Return Possible, nice! eds. Yannis Grigoriadis & Yannis Isidorou, Salon de Vortex, book, 2016 (print)
_ [ΦΡΜΚ] Pharmakon Poetry Magazine, Issue #4, Autumn-Winter 2015, Athens, Greece (print)
– Into The Pill vol.01 – Contemporary Greek Video Art, eds. Into the Pill, Futura Publications, Athens, 2006, p.42-43 (print)
– Anathena – Art from the Underground Penthouses of Athens, eds. Marina Fokidis, Christos Lialios, Metechmio Publications, Athens, 2007 (print)