Marion Emmanuela Maniou (Mañu) is a Greek Collage Artist, with a background in Poetry and Philosophy, working in the fields of Visual Arts, Cultural Management and Curating. Cutting out pieces from magazines, she reinvents their functionality upon the working surface. Mainly inspired by the 20th Century’s artistic movements such as Dada, Surrealism and Pop Art, as well as Critical Theory and Postmodernism, her artworks consist of visually dynamic hybrids where the decomposed human body, regains its lost parts whilst being shaped through a feminine force.
Images, phantasies, dreams, memories, artworks, thoughts, sounds and verses, are all pieces of a dusted era, rebirthed in a new visual body. This hand-cut body constitutes a new form, open to various interpretations, relationships and new narratives by the viewer, working as a reflecting mirror.
Her collage artworks, full of vibrant colors, geometrical curvaceous shapes, symbols and parts of woman’s body or connotations of feminine presence, can evoke emotions and raise awareness about the position of women in the modern consumer society, where the body is being objectified, fragmented and crushed.
The sources of the pictorial material she collects, include vintage and modern fashion magazines, illustrated books and newspapers found in second-hand bookshops, flea markets yet some others spotted on the road.
Collage making is a liberating process to her, a euphoric experience of play, which is a fundamental part of life. She considers that analog collage method can be described with medical terms, as a process of heart transplantation, causing injury on a dead body in order to heal and give life to another, using for this purpose scissors as surgical scalpels and glue as stitches. She recognizes on the face of the collage craftsman, an archaeologist, a surgeon and a magician, enchanted by their own discoveries, tricks and wonders.
EXHIBITIONS - EVENTS
Artens Festival 2020, Artens Cultural Organisation, GR. Artist, 2020
Transition Lands - The Rules, Tsitsanis Museum, Trikala, GR. Curator, 2019-2020
Emerging Differences, Xouth Festival, Artens Cultural Organisation, GR. Artist, 2019
Ancient Chinese Art, Science & Technology, Herakleidon Museum, GR. Redactor & Photographer, 2017
The Secret Journey of Lines (workshop), Documenta 14, Athens School of Fine Arts, GR. Photographer, 2017
Material Returned, Nikos Kessanlis Exhibition Hall, Athens School of Fine Arts, GR. Performer, 2016
Medeas Anagnosis, Sfendoni Theatre, Athens, GR. Photographer, 2016
Poetry Festival at Donousa island, Theatre of Donousa island, GR. Αrtist, 2015 – 2016
Night Just Before the Forests, New Stage, National Theatre, GR. Assistant Director & Reviser, 2015
12:08:12, Nosotros Free Social Centre, Athens, GR. Curator & Artist, 2014
The Poets at Apanemia with Thanos Anestopoulos, Boite Apanemia, Athens, GR. Artist, 2014
Haptic Vision, Athens School of Fine Arts & Institut Superieur des beaux Arts de Besançon, GR. Curator & Performer, 2014
Banlieue d’ arts, Intermède, Strasbourg, FR. Artist, 2013
EDUCATION
National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR
Master in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, 2013.
Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, GR
Bachelor Degree in Media, Cultural Management and Communication, 2008.
Takis Sinopoulos Foundation, GR
Graduate Certificate in Poetry, 2014
PUBLICATIONS
“70%, Water, Memory, Art”, Exhibition Catalog, Trii Art Hub, May 2019.
“Two Poems”, Mandragoras literature magazine, Issue 54, Spring 2016
“Two Poems”, Τhe Books’ Journal literature magazine, Issue 60, November 2015
“Saint-John Perse–Five Poems’’, Koukoutsi poetry magazine, Issue 9, Fall 2013 – Spring 2014
“Three Poems”, Elpinoras Notebooks poetry magazine, Issue 4, Spring 2014, ed. Gavriilides
CONFERENCES
Speaker:"The philosophy and mission of Herakleidon Museum”, ICOM, “Let's discuss: Museum Educational Actions”, National Historical Museum, GR, 2017
“Digital Challenges for Museum Experts”, 2nd International Conference, Hellenic Open Univ., ICOM, Mu.SA, Electra Metropolis Hotel, GR, 2016
“Philosophy as Research and Lifestyle”, 23rd World Conference on Philosophy, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, GR, 2013