Metaforés is a mural by Navine G. Dossos, created for the newly renovated walls of the Hematology and Lymphoma Clinic and the Bone Marrow Transplant Unit on the tenth floor of Evagelismos Hospital in Athens. The work builds on a series of watercolor paintings the artist produced during her treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia, diagnosed in 2023.
The mural takes the form of a partially abstracted landscape inspired by a cove along the Cretan coastline, where Dossos spent several weeks shortly before her illness. Yet the work extends beyond a depiction of the landscape or the temple she encountered there. It reflects on what it means to endure an experience as overwhelming as cancer and to emerge on the other side. It explores how survival is modeled in the face of traumatic health crises, and the mental spaces one inhabits to weather the storm of illness. At the same time, it considers how a hospital environment can, and should, function as a safe harbor, a place of refuge during that storm.
The title Metaforés refers to the mythical transport of the goddess Diktynna from Crete to Aegina, while also operating metaphorically: the hospital becomes a vessel that carries patients from one state of being to another, from sickness to health.
Visual reference, Metaforés, Navine G. Dossos, 2025
Navine G. Dossos is a visual artist based on the island of Aegina, Greece. Over the past decade she has developed a practice that spans painting, installation, ceramics, and sewing, often grounded in collaborative processes and community workshops. While she is best known for her large-scale murals, her work consistently explores how art can circulate beyond the studio and contribute to the public realm. Trained in Islamic Art, Dossos’s practice initially engaged critically with the cultural and political climate shaped by the so-called War on Terror. In recent years her focus has shifted towards ecology, sustainability, and the ways in which art can reframe our relationship to the natural world. Since 2020, she has also been active as a founding member of Vessel, an artist collective established with her partner James Bridle, dedicated to developing artistic and pedagogical projects that foster collective learning and ecological awareness