Disability Politics of Representation in
Artistic Practice — Fotini Michailidi

The workshop functions as a collective and experiential process, where participants are invited to explore how disability is represented, narrated, and made visible within contemporary art and cultural discourse. It examines how artists with and without lived experience of disability challenge dominant visual languages and structures of visibility. The session invites participants into an open dialogue around embodiment, identity, and the politics of representation in artistic practice. Fotini Michailidi (born in 1993, Paphos, Cyprus) is a visual artist whose practice explores the body, identity, and the lived experience of disability through photography, installation, and socially engaged art. She holds a BA in Fine Art from Middlesex University, London, and an MA in Digital Art and Design from the University of Nicosia. Since 2015, she has participated in exhibitions, symposiums, artist residencies, workshops, and festivals in Cyprus, Mexico, Italy, UK and Greece. She is a member of the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts (E.KA.TE) and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Muscular Dystrophy Association Cyprus (MDA) since 2023. Her recent work reflects on her personal experience with myopathy, exploring themes of body awareness, vulnerability, resilience, and social perceptions of disability. The Kartzin SEA Lab is a Visual Voices initiative funded by the Commonwealth Foundation.