12 October 2006

Urban Soul Festival 2006This summer group show, with artwork, music and food and drink was held in the moat near Eleftheria Square, Nicosia.The artists taking part were Aspasia Papaderna and Euripides Zantides, Anna Photiadou and Christos Polydorou, Andreas Tombin, Charalambous and Vaso Sergiou, Eliza Pieri, Kika Kazamia, Lia Lapithi and Marianna Kafaridou, Marianna Constanti, Stefanos Karambambas, Vassilis Vasiliades,Vicky Pericleous and Tatiana Ferahian. Charalambous and Vaso Sergiou told the arts page about the effect of their installation on the Saturday crowd"The installation was an experiment towards unprotected artworks in public spaces.The pools were left unprotected for 4 hours in a public park in Nicosia and were observed.. Festival visitors (a more specialised crowd) behaved reasonably towards the works."The pools were most popular with children and … with the inhabitants of the park!"The children between two years and seven years old innocently touched the water and some of them tried to get in rather than being with the artistic arrangements inside the pools. On very few occasions did the accompanying person attempt to explain that these were in fact art works and demanded respect!"A large percentage of children attempted to actually take the coins from the swimming pool that acted like a wishing well rather than throwing a coin in."This perhaps indicates the lack of a central square in Nicosia and the presence of a real wishing well which, of course, should be protected by police but at the same time offer the opportunity of a romantic gesture to anybody who today, more than ever, wants to wish for something."The most striking effects were noticed in the evening, after the party, when the people who normally spend a lot of time in the park, perhaps viewing the installation as hostile, attacked it. The most desperate group of individuals collected the whole lot of coins from the particular pool by the second day."The most destructive group has actually destroyed most of the artistic arrangements inside the pool without actually having an interest."The work demands more investigation."The lack of public sculpture in Cyprus was obvious"The act of placing a group of aesthetically-unfamiliar items in the way of unsuspecting people, with no artistic background caused a physical reaction rather than mental satisfaction".Here is a written handout by Vicky Pericleous, whose verbal comments on her work on the actual evening were less intellectual and more easily understood. Vicky Pericleous created "A route to a Passage", which went from one moat, then under Eleftheria Square to the next moat:"The work presents an empirical mapping of the current ‘landscape’ of Nicosia within the walls. It documents through sound and visuals, an empirical route of the city, thereby revealing and exploring perceptions, relations and other parameters between the personal ‘look’ - that many times appears to be without any camouflage and no sense of guilt, emotional, negligent, banal, unkind, politically not correct, kitsch or notions of collective consciousness, heritage and socio-political context."According, of course, to the ‘eye’ that enters the work, the perspective of perception changes, therefore, creating multiple interpretations of perception, realities, grey zones and notions of the landscape. "The Tunnel works both literally, as a point of reference for recorded route, as well as semiologically, highlighting notions about the idea of ‘rite of passage’ and change of perception.""The installations of all these artists in the moat was of a very high standard indeed. A real breakthrough in Cyprus Art deserving a full-length spread in a top art magazine abroad."










Sculpture on displayDO NOT miss the Philippos Yiapanis sculpture park at Fasoula, Limassol district. Nothing but the very best. Is this self-taught artist the best sculptor in the land?

Great Joints STASS Paraskos and Stelios Votsis have a joint show at Morphi Gallery, Limassol, until November 6.You see them here. You see them there. Now together everywhere. But why? Later, when seen.
Nina Sumarac at Pizza Express until October 25.Brand new work by this talented artist who is branching out in new directions. Tel 99852123 .
Invisible Dialogues
Demetris Menikou’s Invisible Dialogues was opened last week, at Kypriaki Gonia, Larnaca, by former Minister of Education Dr Chrisostomos Sofianos to a packed and responsive gallery.The exhibition will continue until October 20.This is a brilliant debut - superb paintings full of vital imagination and superb colour, enough to make most of the rest of the country’s artists look as of they are in mourning. A true discovery. Go .
Karpas artistP.M CHRYSTALLA’s exhibition continues until tonight at En-Plo Hall, Kato Paphos Harbour. Chrystalla is a Karpassian woman, who has been engraving since 1998 and is a former pupil of Hambis at his school in Plataniskia.
Sophia Hadjipapa’s Trifling Sanctuaries
SOPHIA Hadjipapa is at the Pantheon Gallery until October 27.Entitled Trifling Sanctuaries Sophia’s works explore the role and significance of a viewpoint in painting. The series of paintings being exhibited began a few years ago with a sketch in the bath that made the artist contemplate on the small rituals that each one of us invents to’ lengthen up our lives". Quite an unusual look at the usual.

In transitionTHE rather confused focus of this exhibition at the Evagoras Lanitis Centre, Limassol, is ‘displacement’, whether it is caused by political, economic, environmental or social reasons. The exhibition will present the work of 67 artists from 31 countries, including Cyprus, most of which has been created specifically for "In Transition". Through connecting different sites and different people, the exhibition will be searching for a contemporary perception of the realities and dilemmas that confront displaced people. The opening was a bit like ‘ glancing in the dark.’Comment on this mammoth show next week.Comments also on Artos. Waiting for the designer sheets.

Exhibition of Documents at Famagusta Gate
THE Goethe-Zentrum, Nicosia, presents, on the 50th Anniversary of the death of Bertolt Brecht, in cooperation with ETHAL documents from the personal archives of Minas Tinglis, Artistic Director of ETHAL This opened earlier in the week but tonight, at Famagusta Gate, two films will be screened; Man is Man and the Beggar’s Opera 1. Start 8pm.