MVT: Sofia Dona

Artist and architect Sofia Dona’s practice consistently reveals new ways to view familiar and historically forgotten objects. In her essay “Defamiliarization as Architectural Practice”, co-written with Giorgia Aquilar, Dona explains her practice with reference to Viktor Shklovsky’s concept of “ostranenie”—originally claimed as a literary technique by which a familiar object is rendered strange, opening onto an enhanced understanding of its function. This method describes many of Dona’s projects, from architectural doublings in geographically disparate locations to miniature replicas and redubbed films. Keenly informed by art history and transpiring between Greece and Germany, Dona’s work is internationalist in concept and realisation, addressing landscape from the perspective of migrancy and cities with an eye to rejuvenated public space.

Cam Scott interviewed Sofia Dona to learn more about her approach to history, politics, economy, and symbolism.