Maria Vagle

In my art practice, I emphasize critical and humorous reflection related to the many different manifestations of power and powerlessness. I examine underlying structures and gestures in small and larger phenomena and look more closely at the political and ideological narratives we are surrounded by and how this has an impact on which voices are heard and which stories are told; the often fluid boundaries between fiction and reality and the importance of art and art practice as a necessary and distinctive method for reflecting on current issues. This is how I explore the fringes of power with a hopeful desire to break through the monumental power.

I do not favor one type of expression, but focus on the ambiguous, the unstable and the fleeting, on encounters between people and find much use in the transitions between life and art, documentary and fiction and between power and powerlessness. A work begins with an idea or a whim that often turns into a text. Based on the text, I build a fictional universe in different visual media where I choose a form or a medium that I think fits the idea; photo, video, animation or installation or a mixture of several.
I work with site-specific and collaborative, cross-art projects and with art as a relational aesthetic practice.