The Benchmark is a platform for fashion art practices, that focuses on wearable sculptures & body machines, founded by fashion artist Maria Foka and based in Athens (GR).
After graduating with an MA (Hons) in Architecture, she studied Fashion History and Theory at Central Saint Martins (UAL), Pattern-making and Sewing at Romina Karamanea Fashion School. She obtained experience in the fields of fashion philosophy, design, and the clothing industry through various workshops and seminars.
Her work revolves around bodily reflections that derive from the dialogue between the biological and the social self through their performative nature. Capitalizing on personal pathologies and mythologies as the benchmark for her inspiration, she infuses the notions of cyborg beings and everyday super-humans into her work. In her practice, she manipulates a plethora of mediums, mainly objets trouvés, fabric, and building materials, drawing from collage-like techniques to assemble her analog and digital pieces. Her creative process is heavily based on the connotative generation of forms, while she attempts to find merit in a postmodern absurdity.
