Maria Siorba
Semitones in the Silence
3 December - 9 December 2021
Semitones in the Silence
3 December - 9 December 2021
Where does the sound of a restless spirit go?
What are the shapes in which our hidden desires appear out in the world and how do they determine our path?
Is the wild beating of a heart enough for the universe to listen?
There has been a special opportunity to reflect on these questions, recently, living through a period of extended isolation and within a reality where almost nothing seemed to occur. At quiet times, it is possible that our internal activity seems to us, or is indeed, remarkably intense and furious, due to its difficulty to reach a destination in regular rhythms, while the impact of this concealed motion is hard to be seen and normally absorbed by the physical and social environment. It feels as if we are both the senders and the receivers of our own signals and the only, highly subjective readers of our emotions.
Gathering these thoughts, my mind was lead towards a broader matter of how could we deeply touch one another through forms of art, be heard and understood on a higher level and what could be the best practice to achieve it with. How can we share and portray emotions accurately, so they can be equally felt by others, considering all the different personalities and moods out there? Is it possible at all and can we use our own, true voice while doing it? The melancholy brought by this debatable subject, along with the doubt around the point in forming art at all, can be significantly big at times, but is one of the things that challenged me to start working on these photos.
This series is a collection of images that carry the sense of a soul in excessive tension that strives to communicate in times of great stillness, presented through a bizarre relationship that is established between the spiritual realm and the dimension of the phenomenal world. However, stillness is not only something outside of us. There are several factors that challenge our own ability to truly connect. Sometimes we, ourselves, might be the ones distracted and unable to receive and respond, consciously or unconsciously.
Maria Siorba (b. 1986) is a visual artist based in Athens, Greece.
With an educational background in Communication, Graphic design and Fine Arts and after a few years of painting and drawing, she chose photography as her main artistic medium, presenting her first photographic project as a bachelor thesis in the Athens School of Fine Arts (2016). In her practice, she attaches great importance on aesthetics and exceptional atmospheres to express her thoughts around the subjects of modern communication, home, dreams and the significance of sensitivity and imagination as tools for understanding identity.
Her images and series have been presented in group shows such as the Athens Photo Festival 2020 - Young Greek Photographers exhibition, Antiparos Photo Festival 2021, Charta Photobook Festival 2021, the World Biennial of Student Photography 2017 in Novi Sad, Serbia, "Connection" 2021 - Group show by Color Tag magazine in New York, as well as online platforms and printed magazines (Phases Magazine, Photologio, Float Magazine, CtypeMag, Color Tag Magazine, Mojo Edition by Yogurt Magazine, Fotonica Diary).
With an educational background in Communication, Graphic design and Fine Arts and after a few years of painting and drawing, she chose photography as her main artistic medium, presenting her first photographic project as a bachelor thesis in the Athens School of Fine Arts (2016). In her practice, she attaches great importance on aesthetics and exceptional atmospheres to express her thoughts around the subjects of modern communication, home, dreams and the significance of sensitivity and imagination as tools for understanding identity.
Her images and series have been presented in group shows such as the Athens Photo Festival 2020 - Young Greek Photographers exhibition, Antiparos Photo Festival 2021, Charta Photobook Festival 2021, the World Biennial of Student Photography 2017 in Novi Sad, Serbia, "Connection" 2021 - Group show by Color Tag magazine in New York, as well as online platforms and printed magazines (Phases Magazine, Photologio, Float Magazine, CtypeMag, Color Tag Magazine, Mojo Edition by Yogurt Magazine, Fotonica Diary).
