Margarita Athanasiou describes herself as a media artist, as this term encompasses her practice in digital, web-based, and print media. However, she ultimately views all her works as texts. Through this linguistic perspective, she cuts, weaves, glues, and tears apart visualized poems that take the form of video essays, publications, digital images, prints, and memes.
Her works combine disparate elements to create fantastical, Frankensteinian, and author-theoretical worlds. She brings together personal stories, historical research, archival material, found imagery, and painstakingly handcrafted digital illustrations. The artist refers to her digital collages as “handmade” because her process is intuitive and error-friendly—a journey of discovery that always begins with writing.
There is a tension between the visual and the textual in her works, with the visual playing a supporting, secondary role to the textual. Despite creating video works, Athanasiou does not consider herself a filmmaker but rather a time-based illustrator who brings texts to life. Collage, for her, is not only an artistic technique but also a strategy that allows her to create layered narratives with minimal means—a DIY tool. Her process follows a fluid ethos, focused on creating with whatever is available.
Situated within a feminist tradition of artists, Margarita Athanasiou’s practice often explores themes of identity, queer and feminine experiences, as well as the mystical and the unexplained. Drawing on both contemporary and historical feminist art practices, she engages in a form of storytelling that embraces the margins—whether these are historical narratives, underrepresented voices, or unconventional ways of knowing. Humor plays a central role, balancing the heavier themes she explores while allowing for moments of reflection and depth.
Her exploration of the mystical and unexplained is also a form of radical play—interrogating how we create meaning in a world increasingly dominated by technology, and questioning how these technologies shape our understanding of the self, memory, and reality. Her work creates a space where the boundaries between personal and collective histories blur, and where digital tools are harnessed to reclaim and reshape narratives often marginalized or forgotten.