The Hill
Daphne Klagkou
Description
A fabricated hill suspended above ground, where technology-enhanced materials turn nature into a static ornament, questioning what remains “natural”.
The sculpture features a section of land, detached from a hill, hovering above ground level, yet its materials create an unfamiliar sight. Covered with carbon fibre, a material often used in aerospace and engineering for its high strength and durability, the hillside evokes a sci-fi approach to enhancing nature. Metallic rods supporting the piece suggest construction, as if the hill is a puzzle-piece ready for installation. Glass weeds and flowers, fragile and frozen in time, stand as monuments to life, resembling natural elements preserved like artificial Christmas trees.
The Hill invites viewers to investigate this artificial, technology-enhanced environment, where nature itself becomes an ornament, frozen and unable to sustain life. In this way, it explores the ambiguity of what is “natural” and questions whether nature, frozen as mere decoration, represents a kind of monstrous reality.
Daphne Klagkou
Daphne Klagkou is a multidisciplinary artist working across glass, ceramics and material-based practices. She graduated from the Athens School of Fine Arts (Integrated Master in Fine Arts, 2021) and completed the master’s programme in Glass & Ceramics Art & Science at VICARTE (FCT NOVA & FBAUL) Lisbon, in 2024.
Her work explores power relations, social structures and the mechanisms through which knowledge, technology and material culture shape human experience. Combining traditional craft techniques with contemporary technologies and material science, she develops works that emerge from technical experimentation, research, and the intersection of artistic practice and scientific inquiry.
Klagkou has presented six solo exhibitions in Portugal and the Czech Republic, including Hyperobjects at the National Museum of Natural History and Science, Lisbon (2026), State of Man, State of Human at INDUSTRA Gallery, Brno (2025) and Hybrid Realities: Identity and Transition at Fundação Leal Rios, Lisbon (2024). Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions and biennials in Greece and internationally, including Cabinet de curiosité at MOMus – Alex Mylona Museum, Athens (2025), Dialogues in Clay at Batagianni Gallery, Athens (2023), and the International Ceramics Biennale of Aveiro (2023).
In 2020, she received the First Prize in the Athens School of Fine Arts Graduate Competition, and in 2024 she was awarded the Best Student Diploma by FCT NOVA University.