Eirene Efstathiou

Working in a variety of different media from printmaking and painting, to small scale installations and
performance, Eirene Efstathiou’s studio practice begins with compiling archival source material, as
well as material drawn from deliberate wanderings in the urban landscape, as a way to re-narrate
minor histories. The works’ engagement with the source material seeks to open up a space for
exploring the way found images are evocative beyond their role as illustrations or ‘the news’, and
how these minor histories are inscribed on the fabric of the city, in this way performing an informal,
idiosyncratic, and humanist archaeology of the present and recent past. The artist attempts to ‘learn’
about the density and legibility of the frenetic present, by observing past events.
In her works Eirene Efstathiou negotiates a history of the defeated and examines what ‘counts’ as
history and historical document. When manipulating visual and textual paper archives, the artist’ aim
is not to misappropriate their meaning and content, but rather to bring forth past events that some
would be only too willing to forget, revive them in a new context and question their hidden
narratives.
Having studied both in Greece and the United States, Eirene Efstathiou graduated from the Tufts
University of Medford (US), the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (US), and the Athens
School of Fine Arts (GR). Eirene Efstathiou received the 6th Deste Prize in 2009 (GR), while her work
has been exhibited at Documenta 14 in Kassel (DE), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (US), the Jewish
Museum of Thessaloniki (GR), and BOZAR (BE), among others. She is part of numerous international
collections such as Biddeford Public Schools (US), National Museum of Contemporary Art (GR), or
Dakis Joannou Collection (GR).
 How Things Are Made 10
2017
35,5 x 55 cm
Serigraph and paper matrix lithograph on paper mounted on aluminium.
Unique work 
2.600 euro
 Kiafa Revisited 1
2019
44 x 60 cm
Lithograph and serigraph on paper
Unique work 
In the series « Kiafa Revisited », Eirene Efstathiou explores a crucial part of Greek history that has
almost been erased from the archives and memory of her country: the last stand of the
communist insurgents during the Greek Civil War, in 1949. Linking past and present, the work
combines silk-screens based on archival documents with lithographs made from present-day
photographs taken on the site of the civil war’s final battle.

Kiafa Revisited 5

2019
44 x 60 cm
Lithograph and serigraph on paper
Unique work 
2.800 euros