Statement

Drawing on my background in the conservation of antiquities, post-industrial design and fine arts, I use archaeological methodologies as tools for artistic practice, extending them beyond their traditional contexts to investigate contemporary landscapes and material culture.

Collecting, excavating, casting, documenting and reconfiguring materials are central to my process.

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I focus on sites in transition, which may be industrial areas, regions affected by natural disasters and archaeological excavations. Through field research, I investigate material traces of human activity and their relationships with the surrounding environment, seeking connections between seemingly unrelated elements to develop sculptural installations that I refer to as “material narratives”.

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I am interested in how materials accumulate histories through their uses and transformations. I bring different temporalities into coexistence, often avoiding a clear distinction between the archaeological past and a speculative future. I investigate what remains after processes of destruction and how absence can be documented and materialised. Drawing on my experience in conservation, I approach changes in landscapes and ecosystems with the same attention given to objects of material culture. I am also interested in the strange new balances and forms of adaptation that emerge in changing landscapes, and in how these transformations reflect human activity and its consequences . More recently, my research has extended into media archaeology, approaching obsolete technologies as material remains through which often overlooked histories can be traced.

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For me, archaeology is not just a way to study the past, but also a tool to think and talk about the future.

 

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​Short Bio​

Athina Koumparouli is a visual artist and art conservator, with an MA in Post-Industrial Design and Artistic Practices, based in Athens, Greece.

Her work has been exhibited in Greece and internationally, including Manifesta 16 Ruhr (2026), Kochi Biennale (2025), Eleusis – European Capital of Culture (2023), Paxos Biennale (2024), and Dutch Design Week (2019). In 2025, she presented a solo exhibition at a.antonopoulou gallery in Athens.​

She has participated in artist residencies in the Netherlands (BioArt Laboratories, Eindhoven), Italy (ECEc Laboratory, Rome), France (W Atelier, Paris), and Greece (G&A Mamidakis Foundation Research Residency Programme, Crete,- Mystery 19, V.A. Initiator, Elefsina 2023).​

In 2025, she was selected by the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece as a mentee for its mentorship program, in 2022 she was an ARTWORKS Fellow of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artists Support Program. Her projects have received international support through the ARTWORKS Grant (2025) and the Goethe-Institut Culture Moves Europe Grant (2023). In 2022 and 2023, in collaboration with the University of Ferrara and supported by Culture Moves Europe, she developed an artistic project connected to an ongoing excavation on the Appian Way (Rome). 

Since 2013, she has been active in an artist-run studio in central Athens and has worked on excavation projects while collaborating with museums, galleries, and cultural spaces as a conservator of antiquities and works of art.

 

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Contact: athinakub@gmail.com