At the "Melina" Cultural Center of the Municipality of Athens, the exhibition "Be a Good Girl" by Dimitra Marouda is presented, a dream adventure, a journey into the world of the Mirror.

Referring to the prisons of our childhood, the painter creates a fantastic world between dream and reality. Her paintings and drawings feature lonely girls surrounded by dolls and animals. Created from 2010 to the present, the works in the exhibition capture the dark side of the dream. As the title suggests, these images speak of an implicit subjugation. Marouda draws elements from the world of fairy tales, but also from experiences and memories. "I create environments inspired by the forest, light and darkness, through which these figures emerge, with the aim of emphasizing the fragility of the flesh in contrast to the ferocity of nature," says the artist.

The figures of Dimitra Marouda do not exist. From their clothing, you assume that they belong to another era, to an undefined space-time. You get the impression that they are walking into our world – they are animate and inanimate at the same time. In some paintings we see them wearing masks, in others they resemble dolls and very often their faces become one with the landscape. Marouda began to paint these figures in small-scale oil paintings. In the older works the figure is surrounded by a thick threatening foliage. The girls are always placed outside, which indicates a tendency to escape, the need for emotional release. One of them brings to mind Alice in Wonderland: it is squished, as if pushing the boundaries of the canvas. This uncomfortable situation, the feeling of not fitting in anywhere, seems to perfectly express the artist. The deepest motivation for the creation of these works is lost childhood, not its sweet recollection.

Presentation text: Christoforos Marinos
Text translation: Paulina Kirkou
Photography of projects: Christoforos Doulgeris

Opening: Saturday 17 February 2024, 19:00-22:00

Dimitra Marouda was born in Athens. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts (1984-1992), painting with Triantafyllos Patraskidis, Dimitris Mytaras and Nikos Kessanlis and sculpture at the Workshop of Thymios Panourgias. He has held four solo exhibitions: Agathi Art Gallery, Athens (1992 and 1995), M. Platania Art Gallery, Zakynthos (1999) and Astrolabos Art Gallery (2001). Since 1990 he has participated in numerous group exhibitions, such as: "RE-culture 4: Art, non-art" (edited by Thanasis Moutsopoulos), Skagiopoulio Center, Patras (2016), "Fasma" (edited by Vasiliki Vagenou), Fokianou Art Space, Athens (2019), "Salon de la morte", Bertrand Gallery, Grimont, Paris (2020), "Vanitas: Stories from the Hereafter" (ed. Yiannis Bolis), MOMus – Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki (2023).