As part of MAPS exhibition: The Story of Public Art, artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi has been commissioned to create an installation for the museum’s atrium that transforms the foyer into a corridor of mirrors titled “passage” of MAPS indoor ‘museum street’. In addition, a choreographic work titled “forwards” is created site-specifically by the artist, exploring the interrelatedness between sculpture, architecture and the body.

The installation creates a mirror passage that constantly registers reflections. Our own and those of others as they pass. Functioning as a metaphor of actuality and potentiality. The visitors themselves are momentarily transformed into performers amongst a plurality of reflection.

Curated by Charlotte Sprogøe, The Story of Public Art, tells the story of groundbreaking artistic experiments in public spaces from the 1960s to the present, presenting over 120 artists from more than 40 countries in an organic and dynamic exhibition format that will evolve throughout its four-year duration. The Story of Public Art explores what artists do in public spaces. The exhibition draws connections to the lives we live and address, through the artist’s perspective, significant societal themes across time and geography. The exhibition offers an experience of art’s international reach and significance, created in dialogue with its contemporary context. It highlights time-based works that have become landmarks for future generations, as well as pieces that have changed our perception of identity, power structures, biopolitics, desire, labor, social relations, nature, and reality. 

passage, 2025
Gold, black, silver acrylic mirrors on wood, 20 m x 3.4 m
Sound design: Stavros Gasparatos and Maria Hassabi
Architectural Study: Maria Maneta and Maria Hassabi

forwards, 2025
Performed every other Saturday afternoon, by rotating dancers at MAPS’ foyer.
Choreographic Assistant: Elena Antoniou
Dancers: Casper Albrektsen, Elena Antoniou, Aikaterini Dimitrelli, Amalie Jasim, Maria Pearl Weise.

In Humming Gold, 2025
Gold leaf on Phototex, 287 x 250 cm
Produced by: Ash Bulayev

Zoë, 2025
Gold leaf on Phototex, 211 x 55 cm