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. In short,
I am an architect, artist & researcher.
This is a personal page to share bits
of my perspective.
I am a Junior Research Fellow at Ragnar Nurkse Department, Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia) and hold a MSc on Environment and Development of Mountain Regions (National Technical University of Athens, Greece). I have studied architecture at the Technical University of Crete (Greece) and worked as an architect in London and Athens; but my heart led me to discover architecture out-of-the-office.
My research interests focus on a critical inquiry about sustainability and the potential of vernacular practices and non-Western cosmologies towards a paradigm change. For the last few years I have been systematically investigating the traditional arts & crafts, and agricultural practices of remote regions, which motivated me to become a founding member of the NGO Boulouki in 2018 (until 2020), to focus on the traditional building techniques. In addition, I practice Wudang martial arts which is my lens for an embodied understanding of theory.
Currently, I am affiliated with the research collective P2P Lab, fusing more aspects of my research and practice aiming to reach
out to more people and disciplines, and challenge my creative and intellectual boundaries.
During the lockdown in 2020 we created the artistic duo 'Quokka' with my sister(soul), artist Alkistis Voulgari. Together we make art for here & now, and certainly for fun, to speak about social, political and environmental matters.
We follow three principles: resist perfection - express from the heart - enjoy the process. We dream of a world where adults learn from children, and envision a substantial re-population of the countryside. We fight desperation by following the words of Lafcadio Hearn (Yakumo Koizumi) and dare to imagine a universal community that has recovered its disturbed relationship to Nature, History and Beauty.
Access
to Landscape, Knowledge
& Culture are fundamental
to my approach in Life,
Art & Science.
I would be happy to hear from you! Somehow you could find me.
Get in touch :)