Christina Mitrentse, 4 sculptures

From books to sculptures

The 4 works of art by Christina Mitrentse are a typical sample of her artistic practice:

• Totem – Amanitas (AA 5465)
• The Future is Funghi (AA 5466)
• Purple Death Cap Versus East Brown Death Cap (AA 5467)
• The Weight of the Butterfly (Three Death Cups) (AA 5468)

They form part of a wider artistic unit, within which the artist transforms the book from a carrier of knowledge into a sculptural entity.

Specifically, she cut, folded, compressed and recomposed old volumes to create pieces that take on forms which remind us of tree trunks, mushrooms or totem poles.

The distinctive intensely coloured surfaces and successive layers of paper appear like organic materials that feel as if they have grown within the space, instead of simply being constructed.

Paper as a carrier of memory

The works showcase Mitrentse’s interest in the relationship between nature and culture, material and knowledge.

Guided by her conceptual axis “Forest – Tree – Trunk – Paper – Book – Fungus – Fungi-root – Decomposition – Rebirth”, she transforms the book into a hybrid form: it is simultaneously a remnant of a system of knowledge and an ever-transforming organism.

Paper, in this case, does not simply serve as a material, but as a carrier of memory, decay and renewal.

From book reading to experiences

On a historical and artistic level, the pieces are connected to contemporary sculpture, which uses everyday or humble materials, and the tradition of the artistic book, which has shifted from the act of reading towards space and objects.

At the same time, they form part of a wider environmentally conscious art movement, which treats nature as a system of relationships and interdependencies.

Mitrentse’s style is typified by:

• Intense manual labour
• Repetitive processes
• Emphasis on material layering

The common feature of these 3 aspects is the intense presence of time and use.

These pieces compose a distinct presence in modern artistic production, as they shift the concept of knowledge from content to matter and from reading to experiences.

They function as independent sculptures and as points for broader artistic research, which:

• Connects the book, the archive and the ecosystem of information to the artistic process.
• Triggers a reflective process for the spectator.

Her life in a nutshell

Christina Mitrentse was born in Thessaloniki in 1977. She studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She was subsequently awarded a scholarship by the Onassis Foundation and continued her studies at Chelsea College of Art & Design in London and then at the University of Greenwich.

She is an interdisciplinary artist, an educator and an independent curator. Today she lives and works in Athens and London, and has a long-standing presence in the British artistic scene.

Her style through her work

Her work focuses on books as a form, content and metaphor of human existence, with the aim of exploring the dissemination, organisation and safeguarding of knowledge.

Mitrentse develops narratives and poetic series that connect the physical and digital dimension of information through contemporary creative forms, such as:

• Sculpture
• Sketching
• Silkscreen printing
• Installations
• Video
• Collage
• Wall art

In many of her works, she turns the body and pages of select books into hand-crafted sculptural objects. In this way she explores the “reading of a reading” and the transformation of the original material into a new organisational system.

Participation in exhibitions

Mitrentse has held more than 20 solo and 200 group exhibitions in museums, galleries and public spaces worldwide, including:

• Tate Modern
• The Royal Academy of Arts
• ICA London
• Liverpool Biennial
• MOMus
• EMST
• Acropolis Museum
• Hackney Museum
• Center for Book Arts, New York
• San Francisco Center for the Book

In 2022 she presented the Minumental exhibition at the a.antonopoulou.art gallery in Athens, in collaboration with the international project Add To My Library, with pieces that represented museums, cultural institutions and monuments, using books as their main building blocks.

Her works are part of notable private and public collections, and have been featured in Greek and international publications:

• Onassis Foundation
• Citronne Galleries
• Christina Mitrentse

Christina Mitrentse in the Alpha Bank Art Collection

The following works by Christina Mitrentse are also part of our Art Collection:

• Pillar II
• Pinewood King Bolete

The 4 works by Christina Mitrentse are exhibited at the Alpha Bank central branch, 40 Stadiou Street, Athens.

If you are a researcher, you can visit us by appointment.

Contact us to book your visit.