ABOUT

ASTRO is an Artistic Research Collective with a liminal identity. As a collective, we exist  between places, navigating an increasingly diasporic world. We embrace the transitional  and the transformative, inhabiting multiple territories at once.

ASTRO's mission is to challenge traditional notions of belonging, approaching it as a flui state that defies borders and fixed definitions. We explore how ‘belonging’ unfolds a multiple spaces, resisting static narratives of identity and home.
Our work critically  engages with the shifting nature of home, the relationship between space, movement,  and identity, and the ways in which bodies navigate mobility through an intersectional,  feminist, and diasporic lens.

ASTRO aims, through multidisciplinary hybrid projects, to disrupt conventional artistic  disciplines, creating work that reflects the complexities of being in transition. Our approach is rooted in collective research and experimentation, exploring alternative  curatorial methods that challenge fixed ideas of place and identity

ASTRO’s main objective is to foster an open dialogue through exhibitions, public  programs, installations, co-curation, participatory workshops, and community-building  practices. In doing so, we center the practices of the artists involved while creating  spaces for exchange, collaboration, and reflection.

At the core of ASTRO’s work is the creation of an alive archive—an evolving resource that  documents and reimagines the themes we explore. This archive serves as a site for  continuous inquiry, offering new ways to engage with the fluidity of space, identity,  movement.

The word “astro” (from the classical Greek “ástron”: star) derives ultimately, like the English “star” from the Proto-Indo-European root “h₂stḗr” also meaning star.  This, in turn, appears to derive from the root “h₂eh₁s” meaning “to burn”, cognate with modern English “ash”.

The name was inspired by folklore sayings in multiple cultures, stating that we are all under the same sky, no matter where we are on earth as well as by the concept that when we are looking at the stars and other celestial bodies we are not seeing their present moment but into a previous state of their existence because of how many light years they are away from earth.

Since ASTRO is dealing with the complexity of “Home” as a concept for people and also the distance from it, the name serves as a reminder of a shared experience of home which is universal.

COLLECTIVE MEMBERS

Raisa D
Art Director & Curator
contact@thisisastro.com

Dimitra Kar
Curator
dimitra.kardasi@thisisastro.com

Vasilia So
Visual Artist & Video Maker
submissions@thisisastro.com

Kanella Petro
Photographer & Visual Artist
cinnamene@thisisastro.com

Katerina Mark

katerinamarkoylaki@gmail.com