Martha Kotsia
Martha Kotsia
about
Martha Kotsia (1996) is a multidisciplinary artist and political activist from, and based in, Athens, Greece, born as a migrant in Malmö, Sweden.
Reflecting on the “post”-colonial society and her childhood traumas, her work spans choreography, performance art, video, poetry as well as artistic and philosophical research.
After moving to Brussels to practice contemporary dance in her early adult years, she returned to Athens for architecture studies at the National Technical University of Athens.
She attended the Academy of Choreography U(r)topias (Elefsina, Greece, 2022–2023) and Meg Stuart’s Mystery School – PACAP 8, Performing Arts Advanced Program (Lisbon, Portugal, 2025).
From October 2025 to March 2026 she will be a resident artist at In Situ residency programme at the Cité internationale des arts (Paris, France), in partnership with the Fondation Daniel et Nina Carasso.
full cv here
Truth is in the smell of our hands [2022] (the film)
film
23'
Concept / Choreography:
Martha Kotsia
Performers:
Martha Kotsia
George Petropoulos
Drums:
Aristides Petropoulos
Videography/Montage/Sound
Giorgos Athanasiou
Τα δάχτυλα μας έχουν μια υγρασία.
Άλλων ανθρώπων περισσότερη άλλων λιγότερη.
Κάτω από τα νύχια κρύβονται αναμνήσεις μας.
Στις γρατζουνιές, στα σημάδια, στις ουλές οι αναμνήσεις μας.
Στην γραμμή της ζωής.
Στις ανοιχτές πληγές, εκεί κρύβονται οι αναμνήσεις μας.
Η αλήθεια είναι στη μυρωδιά των χεριών μας.[ENG]
Truth is in the smell of our hands.
Our fingers have a special humidity.
Other people’s more,
others less.
Underneith our nails memories are hidden.
On our scratches, marks, scars
is where our memories are hidden.
Truth is in the smell of our hands.
Our dancers of tonight [2022]
videoConcept / Perfromance:
Martha Kotsia
Chris Scott
Camera/Montage:
Arionas Kalogeras
- May I have this dance?
- Of course!
- Could I borrow a light?
- Do you have any ice cubes?
Lounge dance.
Cigarettes and whiskey on ice.An homage to "Black saint and the sinner lady"
by Charles Mingus
Blankets [2020]
videoConcept / Research:
Martha KotsiaVideo performance cocreated with artist Ioulia Zacharaki.
"Blankets" is a research that started in 2020 and concerns the expansion of the familiar space. I refer to the blanket metaphorically, considering the sleeping area to be the person's most domesticated space since that is where he feels safe to let himself go completely. I note processes that people do around their blankets, their bed, their house and observe how the familiar space can expand. The familiar space has been found on the doorstep on a portable bed during the summer months. How far from my home can it extend?During the research and in collaboration with dancer and artist Ioulia Zacharaki we created a video performance in which we transferred our blankets at the street right in front of the house that we lived together.Bed: where unformulated dangers threatened, the place of contraries, the place of the solitary body encumbered by its ephemeral harems, the foreclosed space of desire, the improbable place where I had my roots, the space of dreams and of an Oedipal nostalgia.
Georges Perec “Espèces d'espaces”, 1974
E E R I E [2019]
choreographyChoreography:
Martha Kotsia
Dancers:
Jenny Vagopoulou
Marina Koutiva
Music
tsev
Light and Set Design:
Martha Kotsia
EERIE is a multimedia dance performance that plays to the limits of the theatrical scene.
A live video camera, a luminaire and a window are the three stage elements through which the bodies of the two dancers and the kinetic material are framed.
The visual escape of the spectators is directed through the frames and at the same time the narration becomes a fragmentary puzzle.
The two bodies compose one inside the frame which resembles a moving painting or a cinematic shot.
The inner world of the two characters is stripped and camouflaged behind the frames but also through the emotional idm music of tsev.
Flag [2018]
performanceConcept / Performance:
Martha KotsiaShort solo performance in which a flag is created on stage.Performed on 21st of April 2018
How to create a flag:Design it,
draw it,
smudge it,
whip it,
flog it,
spit it,
rip it,
spit it again,
wave the flag proudly.I praise the 21st of April* by proudly rising and waving a puke on a piece of fabric.*On April 21, 1967, in Greece there was a coup d'état of the junta of colonels that established a right-wing military dictatorship.
ΥΠΟΛΕΙΜΜΑΤΑ / REMNANTS [2022]
video installation & performanceConcept / Performance:
Martha Kotsia
Music:
tsev
Set Design:
Tzortzina Choleva
Videography:
Artemis Konstantinou
Katerina Markoulaki
Projection Mapping and Technical Assistant:
Vasiliki Rouvali
As the individual’s behaviour is shaped—and shapes—by social, class, gender and increasingly more contexts, the dichotomy between the “natural/instinctual” and the “artificial” begins to be distorted. We are the remnants of this synthesis. The boundaries between spontaneity and compulsion are merging.In a similar reading of the areas of Elefsina, the Refineries and Aspropyrgos, as remnants of a metropolis, the current landscape consists of a mixture of the natural and the artificial/industrial.Can we talk about these landscapes as we talk about our bodies?Shots of a car traveler-passenger and the performance of exploring the relationship between “physical and nonphysical” processes seek to answer the question: “What remains?”The work started within the framework of the URTOPIAS Academy of Choreography of Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Cultural organized by the contemporary dance company AERITES under the artistic direction of Patricia Apergi and continues its production autonomously.
Truth is in the smell of our hands [2022] (the performance)
performanceConcept / Choreography:
Martha Kotsia
Performers:
Martha Kotsia
George Petropoulos
Drums:
Aristides Petropoulos
Engendering chaos, finding ourselves doing without questioning and/or thinking. We liken these situations to the redemptive ecstasy of the individual during the Eleusinian mysteries. Truths emerge like a flower blooming through the cement and they are raw but beautiful like a blast furnace burning next to the view of the moon.The show is produced through a series of constructed improvisations aiming to project the inner world, the memories and the childness of the performers. The three performers try techniques that lead them in situations where body and mind gets messed up. Using garrulity as a tool for speech, movement and drums a blurry field is created below which awkward truths find the space to be said.The work was produced within the framework of the URTOPIAS Academy of Choreography of Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Cultural organized by the contemporary dance company AERITES under the artistic direction of Patricia Apergi and presented on the Aerowaves platform as a side event at the Spring Forward 2022 festival.
KOYNA TO KOYNA TO SPASTO [2023]
performanceCo creation & performance:
KARTHA (Martha Kotsia)
Alfapi
Primitive RaveSpecial thanks to:
jo & jo
Οde to vandalism !On Saturday 11/11/2023 at 16:00 at the group show @supersportartaction #02 at ΧΡΩΠΕΙ and until the destruction of the existing, kouna to kouna to spasto*!*Kouna to kouna to spasto, or "κούνα το κούνα το σπάσ'το" is translated from greek as "shake it shake it smash it".This work was created during our informal residency at the abandoned factory of ΧΡΩΠΕΙ after the call of “supersport action- Art in Abandoned Places”.
For almost a month we collected material from trash based on the sound they make when they are smashed / brake. ΚΟΥΝΑ ΤΟ ΚΟΥΝΑ ΤΟ ΣΠΑΣΤΟ presents the tension and pleasure of the body when it’s smashing, with all the political meaning coming besides such actions. By the end of our performance we invited the audience to participate.
W A L K [2017]
game / social performanceConcept: Martha KotsiaFirst experiment June 2017 with: Andreas, Andreas, Apostolis, Vassilis, Dimitris, Eleftheria, Maria, Nicole and Nikos.Photographed by:
Artemis KoltsidaFilmed by:
Konstantinos Mouchtaridis
I go out on the town to walk to the market, to walk to the bus stop that comes in three minutes, to walk to the end of the road and take the turn, to walk behind two people running to catch the train. Urban engravings and everyone who travels the city affect my walking and speed.
Taking a useless step backwards or interrupting walking in the middle of a path, maybe someone behind me will stumble and someone behind him will stumble and behind him someone will jump and somewhere behind him will start dancing!How affected is a busy shopping street when it is crossed by a group of jogging athletes?
How does the sound of the subway change the speed of a crowd of passengers approaching a dock?
How does a voice calling for help or a siren sound turn all the bodies of a crowded square in its direction?WALK is a game / social performance where a crowd of people are allowed to walk around the city unaffected from whatever arises around them. A small gift to be able to walk "alone" at rush hour in a crowded city.
At the same time, the changes caused in the social environment are observed. Thus the work produced is both the experience of the participants and the overall image you create in the field of action.
Definitely Maybe [2018]
site specific performanceChoreography/Performance:
Ioulia Zacharaki,
Martha KotsiaMusician on stage:
Dimitris Mparnias (tokeno)Created for and at the 7th International Contemporary Dance Festival Dance Days ChaniaSan Salvatore Bastion,
Chania Crete
The horizon, the arch and the amphitheater, the tiles.
Straight, curves, grid.And on them the shadow of the sun to engrave them unconnected.The horizon, the arch and the amphitheater, the tiles, the shadow of the sun.
Straight, curves, grid, straight.And on them the public as units and as a whole, unconnected.The horizon, the arch and the amphitheater, the tiles, the shadow of the sun, the audience.
Straight, curves, grid, straight, points and set of points.And on them we. Offline.The horizon, the arch and the amphitheater, the tiles, the shadow of the sun, the audience, us.
We and the straight, we and the curves, we and the grid, we and another straight, we and you, we and you.
Savage Landscape Walking [ongoing]
page in progress
This is for [2025]
performanceConcept/Performance:
Martha Kotsia
"This is for" is a performance and a ceremony of honour dedicated to all the struggles and the resistance against any form of oppression and authority, and to all of the indomitable fighters.
From the intifada and every palestinian struggle to the black lifes matter revolt,
from the kurdish political prisoners in hunger strike to the housing squaters,
from Luigi Mangione to every match on a burning tesla,
from Daniela Klette to Sarah Hegazi,
this is for you.
