Vivarium Gardens is a collaborative installation by the artists Danai Kotsaki (GR) and Marisa Satsia (CY). The installation consists of a collection of living ecosystemic families. It is based on two layers of collaboration: one between the two artists, and another between the artistic team and the living ecosystems they make the effort to make kin and synergise with.
The project is driven by the desire to transcend individualistic approaches and explore practices of collectivity and symbiosis, both among humans and within living ecosystems. The artists have developed a network of ecosystemic families—algae, moss, and plants—that cooperate to sustain one another, functioning as a collective unit where each element supports the others: “all for one, and one for all.”
Through this praxis of creating nurturing environments for these ecosystems, the artists aim to replicate and amplify symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationships. By fostering environments that sustain diverse life forms, the artists hope to highlight and encourage symbiotic nodes of collaboration, both within ecosystems and in the ways humans interact with them, and by extension affect the planet.
The first iteration of the living garden was exhibited on May 26 – June 2 2024 in Amphicar studio in Athens, Greece, as part of the group show Hybrids- beyond individualities, curated by Elli Leventaki. Marisa’s mobility to Athens and her participation in the group exhibition was supported by Culture Moves Europe, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe Institute.
Danai Nikolaidi-Kotsaki was born in Athens in 1992. She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in sculpture from the Athens School of Fine Arts (A.S.F.A.). Her work has received prizes in the Artworks fellowship program of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Lappas Award by ELMIN Bauxites SA. In 2018-19 she lived in Indonesia, attending a one-year scholarship at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta. In 2019 she won a scholarship from the Consulate General of Greece & Hellenic Club in Sydney -“Greek Artist Program” to participate in “Sculpture by the Sea Bondi” in Sydney, Australia and In 2020 she won the Australia Council Funding for New & Innovative Artworks.
Marisa Satsia is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher specializing in medical and biological arts based in Nicosia, Cyprus. She is an amateur biologist and biotechnologist with an educational background in Fine Art and Medical Art and a research interest in bio art, molecular gastronomy and soft robotics. Currently, she is developing the first open and communal DIY biolab in Cyprus, BioCuriosities lab, and is a researcher of the Serious Products lab at the Cyprus University of Technology.
Vivarium Gardens is a collaborative installation by the artists Danai Kotsaki (GR) and Marisa Satsia (CY). The installation consists of a collection of living ecosystemic families. It is based on two layers of collaboration: one between the two artists, and another between the artistic team and the living ecosystems they make the effort to make kin and synergise with.
The project is driven by the desire to transcend individualistic approaches and explore practices of collectivity and symbiosis, both among humans and within living ecosystems. The artists have developed a network of ecosystemic families—algae, moss, and plants—that cooperate to sustain one another, functioning as a collective unit where each element supports the others: “all for one, and one for all.”
Through this praxis of creating nurturing environments for these ecosystems, the artists aim to replicate and amplify symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationships. By fostering environments that sustain diverse life forms, the artists hope to highlight and encourage symbiotic nodes of collaboration, both within ecosystems and in the ways humans interact with them, and by extension affect the planet.
The first iteration of the living garden was exhibited on May 26 – June 2 2024 in Amphicar studio in Athens, Greece, as part of the group show Hybrids- beyond individualities, curated by Elli Leventaki. Marisa’s mobility to Athens and her participation in the group exhibition was supported by Culture Moves Europe, which is funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe Institute.
Danai Nikolaidi-Kotsaki was born in Athens in 1992. She holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in sculpture from the Athens School of Fine Arts (A.S.F.A.). Her work has received prizes in the Artworks fellowship program of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and Lappas Award by ELMIN Bauxites SA. In 2018-19 she lived in Indonesia, attending a one-year scholarship at the Indonesian Institute of Arts, Yogyakarta. In 2019 she won a scholarship from the Consulate General of Greece & Hellenic Club in Sydney -“Greek Artist Program” to participate in “Sculpture by the Sea Bondi” in Sydney, Australia and In 2020 she won the Australia Council Funding for New & Innovative Artworks.
Marisa Satsia is a multidisciplinary artist and researcher specializing in medical and biological arts based in Nicosia, Cyprus. She is an amateur biologist and biotechnologist with an educational background in Fine Art and Medical Art and a research interest in bio art, molecular gastronomy and soft robotics. Currently, she is developing the first open and communal DIY biolab in Cyprus, BioCuriosities lab, and is a researcher of the Serious Products lab at the Cyprus University of Technology.
