Despina Charitonidi is a sculptor and performer based in Athens.
Despina's work leans towards a tendency to strip down natural and primary elements found in urban and underwater construction sites. She focuses on reforming and transmuting these elements through a process of experimentation with their properties. Through an ongoing research on surfaces bearing artificial crystallization, she attempts to ‘mimic’ processes that take place at slow pace in nature, through a violent compression of time and energy.
In her work, she reflects on the coexistence of notions of sensitivity and aggression, nature and artificiality, dominance and control, raising questions about the precariousness of our times.
Despina Charitonidi completed her studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Roma and the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht.
Her work spans sculpture, site-specific installations, and performance, exploring the complex stimuli of her social environment. The form of each piece—whether a monumental installation or ephemeral performance—emerges from the core idea, which she adapts to its context. Central to her practice is a material-based approach where all components maintain a non-hierarchical relationship. In performance, the human body becomes both tool and medium, with its limitations, fragility, and repetition forming the essence of her expression. Her installations often blend industrial materials with found objects and organic elements, with marine objects frequently serving as key symbols reflecting natural, historical, and economic narratives. Born in a family of builders, she has a deep familiarity with construction materials, but is equally drawn to delicate mediums like ceramics and textiles. Through her work, she explores interconnectedness, giving agency to both human and non-human entities, and questioning how actions reverberate through the world.
www.despinacharitonidi.com
