Athena Vida, born as Gitte Schäfer (Stuttgart, Germany, 1972), lives and works in Oberwil im Simmental, Switzerland. She studied at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee with Hanns Schimansky and Katharina Grosse and at Chelsea College of Art in London. If Schäfer’s works openly acknowledges a tribute to artists who inspire her, particularly the Surrealists, like Meret Oppenheim, the encounter with Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Tarot and his ideas about the Psychomagic, deeply influenced the artist and her work. The work of the artist, who used to set up ‘objects trouvés’ with surprising results as funny portraits, useless machines, geometric and colorful patterns, turned into more complex installations in which every single element has a meaning as part of a syncretic mythology. As Gitte Schäfer, the artist had solo shows in galleries based in Berlin, Paris, New York, Rome, Copenhagen and Zurich. She showed in institutions  and exhibited in group shows all around the world, like in the ICA, Philadelphia, USA (2006); FRAC Bourgogne, Dijon, France (2006); CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Bordeaux, France (2008); CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA (2009); Château de Chamarande, Centre d’Art Contemporain, France (2010); LACE Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, USA (2010); Kunsthalle Marcel Duchamp, Cully, Switzerland (2014); Kjubh e.V., Cologne, Germany (2014); Kunstmuseum Luzern, Lucerne, Switzerland (2015). Athena Vida currently works with Mehdi Chouakri in Berlin, Germany, Lullin + Ferrari in Zurich, Switzerland and with Studio SALES in Rome. Credits photo: Marc Latzel.