The joy of creation, the joy of imagining what nobody else can bring to you. And then the urge of sharing your dreams, bringing to others what is your dream. The dream in you that is your reality but that cannot be seen by others unless they, too, can touch it.
Nader Khalili, 2003, Racing Alone (p.118), Cal-Earth Press
ABOUT
My name is Mina Kouvara (or Koo).
I am a mover & maker of different sorts, and an independent researcher.
For most of my life, I have been inspired by the potential of vernacular practices and non-Western knowledge systems to drive a paradigm shift.
I am a dedicated practitioner of Taoist internal arts (martial arts, qigong, guqin), and for the past few years I have been investigating the traditional arts & crafts and technologies of remote regions.
Previously, I was a fellow of the research collective P2P Lab and Tallinn University of Technology investigating technological commons, and founding & core member of the NGO Boulouki, focusing on traditional building techniques.
I hold an integrated MA in Architecture (TUC, Greece), an MSc in Environment and Development of Mountain Regions (NTUA-MIRC, Greece), and a PhD in Technology Governance (TalTech, Estonia). Still, my work is defined less by credentials than by lived practice and a sustained questioning of formal education.
Along with my sister(soul), artist Alkistis Voulgari we created the artistic initiative Quokka to make art for here & now, and certainly for fun, to speak about social, political and environmental matters.
We dare to imagine a universal community that has recovered its disturbed relationship to Nature, History and Beauty.
Our shared core principles are three: resist perfection - express from the heart - value the process.
Access
to Landscape, Knowledge
& Culture are fundamental
to my approach in Life,
Art & Science.
I would be happy to hear from you!