The diploma thesis “Soul Kitchen” (The soulful kitchen) draws its inspiration from the eponymous song by The Doors and Fatih Akin’s film Soul Kitchen. Its aim is to explore the sharing of food as an act of human connection within the soup kitchen environment.
Volunteering at soup kitchens, Myrto Karlovits has captured through her photographic lens snapshots of the preparation, distribution, and consumption of food, as well as the atmosphere and energy of the space, conveyed through human expressions. As part of her thesis, she transforms this experience into anthropocentric acrylic paintings on canvas.
Her artistic work originates from elements that are primarily the thematic core of art, such as light, color, and plasticity, while simultaneously being interested in reality, everyday life, and their various facets. In this particular project, her works are characterized by intense chromatic energy and an expressionistic mood, with evident influences from artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Edvard Munch, and Cristina Troufa. Ideologically, her approach converses with participatory art practices like those of Rirkrit Tiravanija, Rasheed Araeen (within the context of documenta), and Lee Mingwei, where food becomes a vehicle for communication and intimacy.
Her personal volunteering experience sheds light on the soup kitchen as a meeting point for different lives and personal stories. Through her works, the artist seeks to highlight it as a “place” of coexistence, solidarity, and memory, as a ritual that transcends the need for food and touches human dignity.
With Soul Kitchen, Myrto attempts to awaken empathy, highlight the unseen daily reality of social vulnerability, and honor volunteers, the “silent heroes” of giving, reminding us—as Audrey Hepburn emphasized—that nothing is more important than compassion for our fellow human beings.
Myrto Karlovits graduated from AKTO’s BA (Hons) Fine Art & New Media university program.
