Philosophy

Peny (Pinelopi) Spanou is an artist with a multidisciplinary background. She studied architecture and worked as an architect in Athens and Stockholm. During her studies, she started working as a costume designer and decided to explore movement and body through her fashion studies at Beckmans College of Design.

The body-movement exploration continued with the two master's projects at the Oslo National Academy of Arts, the performances: “Displaced Shadows” by the choreographer Tendai Makurumbandi and “The Choreography of Spaces” with the performer Anu Laiho as a collaborator.

Through these collaborations, the aim was to explore the relationship between performative space, body, and costume, within an interdisciplinary approach, composing elements from architecture, design, art, dance, and drama.

She currently works with different genres, film, dance, and theater, and deals with different roles, which are all strongly connected with her artistic identity.

Especially when she initiated the project The “Choreography of Spaces” the intention was to challenge the costume role in performance and establish a new field of practice where a costume designer is no longer only a collaborator who comes later in the process and follows the traditional hierarchy. Instead as an artist, she could experiment with her own interests while always encouraging an open dialogue with the performer.