Landscape / Seascape nominee

''Trapped'' (Underwater still-life)

The mystery of the underwater world fascinated me since I was a child. But the limitations of my human body, the need to breath, always insisted on reminding me that I don't belong there, that I am an intruder, a stranger. So I started creating my own fantastic underwater exploration. Fragments of a hidden world, scattered in the bottom of the sea, silently indicating that the sense of freedom that provides the water often comes together with the sense of entrapment, of imprisonment. And then you need to escape from there too.

Maria Mahou was born in Athens, Greece. She studied at Technological Educational Institute of Athens (BA in Photography and Audiovisual Arts), Greek Open University (MA in Light Designing –Multimedia), ''Archi'' Drama School of Athens (BA in Acting) and Conservatory of Music (BAs in Classical Guitar, Opera Singing and Music Theory). She has participated in theatrical performances mainly as an actress (National Theatre of Greece, Ancient Theatre of Epidavros among others), and also as an assistant director, a musician and a light designer. She participated also in numerous concerts both as a classical guitarist and a singing soloist (classical and contemporary).