Colorful, Unique Cities by Artist Anna Deligianni

Architecture has always fascinated me, and has played a significant role in the character of my works, especially in these recent years. Cities have been leveled, as people have been forced to migrate to new cities where crowded places, elitism, and isolation, are in store for them. My recent work has been a political comment on this situation, where I draw colorful, unique cities, totally void of the human element. People, drawn as numbers in some cases or as white squares – in contrast to the exuberance of the cities – are placed everywhere around the cities, but never inside them.

These cities are not made to accommodate people, but to loom over them in their sarcastic splendor.

I have always been interested in the idea of “home” and what it entails to each and every individual. For me this word describes a safe and fertile place. Be it family or work, only in these circumstances can someone create in his own personal way. In its absence, another concept emerges, which is the one of “chaos” and aimless wandering. In my work I have tried to capture both these concepts coexisting as they do in the real world.

The materials used are mainly ink, markers, aquarelle and in some cases oil pastels on cotton paper. I have especially refrained from using geometrical instruments, to represent the concepts mentioned earlier. In other words, I try to use the “errors” that come naturally in a way that gives a uniqueness to the work in question.

The ideas for designing the cities are borrowed from the industrial era, combined with modern culture.

This piece was created in the midst of the migrant crisis in Greece. People were drowning in their efforts to cross the border into Greece so I decided to create this parody of a city, in which so many people are in the bottom of the sea that fish started living in the sky.

This piece is a metaphorical map, in which people are spread everywhere, seeking a better future. Some do it by choice, and some by force. Many manage to make it, and some don’t. This is a tribute to those that didn’t make it, so i “built” a city under the sea in which they can live their dream in dignity.

Void cities surrounded by people

People, represented by squares, are crossing the sea in a futile effort to reach their utopia, only to be held back by a fence. This Piece made for International Festival of Art “ArtMap” in Ponte de Lima, Portugal.

Text by the aritst

About Anna Deligianni

Anna Deligianni was born in Athens, Greece, where she lived until she begun her studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, specifically at the Faculty of Fine Arts. Her current project concerns mobility in life. Be it physical migration or a psychological journey, people are always struggling to leave their current situation to find a place where they can finally be at peace. She often uses eyes in her paintings to symbolize the fact that there is always someone watching you, traveling in the same way as you are, sometimes as a friend and sometimes judging you, feeling empathy and companionship. The insistence on detail comes from her earlier work on engraving, and is used to give a sense of pressure in the compositions, comparing the conditions of modern reality with the exuberance of my work. The vibrant colours are used to emphasize the paranoia of the situation we call everyday life. Furthermore, the colours give a positive vibe that is meant as such: “You can only survive the chaos and paranoia if you embrace it for what it is”.