Maria Genitsariou, born in 1966 in Piraeus, is a visual artist and calligrapher with a focus on the evolution of Greek calligraphy. Devoted to art since her youth, she studied graphic arts and painting, always seeking new expressive possibilities through writing. In 1993, she discovered Greek calligraphy and decided to study it at the Palaeography Department of MIET under Professor Agamemnon Tselikas. Her goal is to collect and study Greek scripts and reproduce their writing and illustration tools. Using writing as her main artistic medium, she creates works that incorporate various fonts, transforming them into art. She has exhibited her work in numerous exhibitions and teaches calligraphy in seminars, having also served as a calligraphy instructor at the Athens School of Fine Arts. Her works are in private collections and international institutions in and outside Greece, including museums in Vienna and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople. Believing in the limitless potential of calligraphy, she participates in programmes promoting it in Greece and abroad, and has collaborated with ARC – Art Revisited Collective since June 2021.

About the Installation
Using as a starting point the myth of Heracles’ labour in the Garden of the Hesperides, I refer to the symbol of the Tree of Life, as it appears in fundamental theosophical traditions, particularly in relation to humanity’s attempt to link within and outside themselves three worlds: the underworld, the world on the earth’s surface, and the celestial realm-as well as two different planes of creation, the visible and the invisible. This is not about conquering them (Heracles returns the apples) but rather about acquiring knowledge of these worlds and awareness of the human position within them. A knowledge that renders one a creator, conscious of one’s role and choices, especially when faced with a modern reality where technology seems to overshadow human intelligence and push the rational being to the margins.