With a background in architecture and visual arts, Nefeli Papadimouli works across media, from participatory actions in public space to sculpture, drawing, costume design, moving image, installation and performance. Inspired by phenomenology, feminism and contemporary political theory, she explores spatial configurations of distance as essential elements in processes of social conflict, negotiation and equilibrium.
Nefeli Papadimouli (born 1988, Athens) lives and works between Paris and Athens. She graduated from the School of Architecture, National Polytechnical University of Athens, followed by a Master of Fine Arts at the École Nationale Supérieure de Beaux-Arts de Paris.
Her work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions, including at Le Grand Café and Le Radôme, Saint-Nazaire (2026); THE PILL, Paris (2026); Galerie du Regard – Résidence Blason, Le Havre (2025); and the École d’Art and La Barcarolle, National Theatre, Saint-Omer (2024). In 2021, Papadimouli created Skinscapes, a sculpture and performance commissioned by M Leuven for Playground Festival. The work subsequently travelled to various venues internationally.
Papadimouli has also developed performances for international institutions and participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at Frac Artothèque Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Limoges (2026); Romero Paprocki, Milan (2026); Fondation Hermès, Tokyo (2025); the New Museum × Deste Foundation at the Benaki Museum, Athens (2025); Louvre-Lens (2025); the 17th Lyon Biennale (2024); and the Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts (2024). Her works are held in public and private collections.
Central to her practice is a series of modular, connective sculptures that function at once as prompts for collective movement and architectures of assembly. Through these works, Papadimouli investigates the interdependence of cultural and natural forms and explores the notion of space in relation to the body.
Conceived as spaces of encounter, her radically inclusive works manifest a desire to engage the bodies of performers and spectators, humans and non-humans, in gestures and reciprocal movements. Her textile objects both produce and dissolve the boundaries of the body, individual and collective, in a playful and emancipatory shift of perspective.
‘Idiopolis (I - X)’, Nefeli Papadimouli, 17th Lyon Biennale, Les Grandes Locos, 2024, photo: Jair Lanes
‘Dream coat’, Nefeli Papadimouli, DESTE Foundation & New Museum, Benaki Museum Pireos, Athens, 2025, photo: Владимира Яроцкого
M Leuven is inviting Nefeli Papadimouli for a solo exhibition featuring a diverse selection of works from recent years, alongside the production of a new body of work activated through performances at specific moments throughout the exhibition. The new performative work and the exhibition will premiere during Playground Festival on 19 November 2026.
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