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anNa

Anthi Papatheodorou

I am Anthi (anNa),  I am a Movement and Arts Practitioner, Researcher, Writer and Instructor, specializing in Creative Improvisation and Tuning Practices in Arts.

I graduated from the Department of Theatrical Studies at the University of Athens and earned a Master’s degree in World Theaters and Cultures from UFC in France. My focus was on researching Eastern theatrical traditions, with a particular interest in their symbolic practices. As part of this research, I studied at the National Taiwan University of Arts (NTUA) in Taipei, fulfilling a long-held aspiration.

Immersed in the school's cretaive environment and my own personal inquiries, I explored Chinese visual arts alongside theater, profoundly expanding my understanding of art and the creative processes.

The most meaningful contribution of my studies was that they introduced me to the subtle and intricate world of stories, symbols, and scenes — a world hidden in plain sight. I witnessed how art is not merely a form of expression or demonstration of skill; it is a vehicle of wisdom and understanding — a way of exploring existence through the act of creation.

My studies, along with my life’s demands and its poetry, gradually led me toward a more direct, lived engagement with creation. Together, they shaped the ground for what would become my ongoing discipline.

Over the past decade,  I have cultivated a practice of Improvisation and Tuning Practice in Arts, across multiple forms. This practice is a space for discovery, a method to explore presence, perception, and attentive engagement—both deeply personal and profoundly artistic—revealing new ways to approach creation, inhabit materials, and respond to what emerges in the act of making.

As an Instructor

I work with individuals and groups of all ages, backgrounds, and experiences—including creative practitioners, art students, professionals, children, and communities from diverse contexts. At the core of my work is the invitation to enter that liminal stage where the arts converge. My aim is to cultivate a space in which attentiveness, intuition, and creative exploration intersect and to inspire each of us to educate ourselves on that exquisite “instrument” that is the creative human.

This "tuning" training, as I call it, supports self-refinement while also advancing artistic perception, practice, and the development of substantial bodies of work.

As a Writer, Artist and Researcher

I follow the flow of life, engaging with its infinite variations through a research - driven practice. My work unfolds across three primary realms:

Visual inquiry: A broad practice of revealing the image that ranges from all forms of painting, drawing and printmaking to mosaic creation and photography, utilising a limitless spectrum of mediums and forms exploring the raw potential of each.

Linguistic Exploration: Moving from written narrative and automatic writing to fragmented texts and poetry developed through a trilingual practice in English, French and Greek. 

Movement Practice: A dedicated discipline of embodied presence. I work through an integrated synthesis of physical languages, as a tool for dialogue and discovery.

The essence of this cross-disciplinary work is distilled into artist books, limited editions and site-specific art and movement projects. These works serve as the physical intersection where my research takes a concrete form.

Through this profound engagement with materiality and the body, I investigate the creative potential 0f limitations, uncovering new layers of perception, form, and relationships between body, word, medium, and environment. In this ongoing inquiry, everything becomes my collaborator — intuition is my foremost partner, attention is my medium, and the infinite subtleties of life on Earth are my canvas.