From the labyrinth to the Angel

body, identity and technology in the work of Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki

Abstract

This paper offers a critical analysis of the pioneering work of Maria Klonaris and Katerina Thomadaki, focusing on their cycles Double Labyrinthe and Le Cycle de l’Ange. Through a critical feminist and posthumanist framework, it examines how the artists subvert dominant narratives surrounding the body, identity, and technology, centering their practice as a radical challenge to gender binarism and the patriarchal structures of representation. The analysis of Double Labyrinthe highlights their concept of cinema of the body as a political act, where the feminine body reclaims its agency from the male gaze through ritualistic self-representation. Subsequently, Le Cycle de l’Ange is explored as a profound meditation on non-normative identity, employing the figure of the Intersex angel to dismantle fixed categories of sex and gender and to propose a subjectivity In constant, fluid transformation. Their Innovative use of emerging analog and digital technologies is presented as a crucial tool for this deconstruction. The paper positions the work of Klonaris and Thomadaki as a vital precursor to contemporary digital feminist art, demonstrating its relevance to debates on posthuman embodiment and the politics of identity.