[Nettime-ro] show in cyprus

[perjovschi dan <perjovschi@yahoo.com>]

PRESS RELEASE
 

LEAPS OF FAITH: an international arts project for the Green Line and the city of Nicosia, Cyprus

 

13 to 29 May, 2005

 

Main Venues

The Green Line (UN buffer zone), public spaces, buildings and venues on both sides of the city of Nicosia, Cyprus

Curators
Katerina Gregos (GR), Erden Kosova (TR)

 

Project Partners 

Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Kolektif Productions, Artists-and-Artists. 

 

Introduction to the Project

Leaps of Faith is an international exhibition and multi-disciplinary arts project that will be held in Cyprus in May 2005.  It is being designed by two internationally renowned curators, Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova, and will mark the first time in 30 years that a part of the UN controlled Green Line (buffer zone) dividing the island is opened up for use in an international event.


The Theme of the Project

This project aims to animate and activate public spaces and sites in the divided city of Nicosia and the war-ravaged Green Line, partitioning the capital of Cyprus, through an international public arts event. The purpose of the project is to reinforce communication and exchange but also to encourage an alternative discourse which diverges from the political perspective that has been largely limited to the internal issues surrounding the perennial ‘Cyprus Problem’. 

 

This means exploring the parameters of the island’s unique geographic position – being poised, as it is, between three continents, and situated within a region marked by ongoing political conflicts.  The project also aims to bring into dialogue the issue of Cyprus with other areas which have also experienced division and political turmoil and ultimately the trauma that is the result of these. Thus it seeks to highlight the wider geopolitical realities of the region. 

 

At the same time, it aims to shift its attention to a host of existing socio-cultural issues and problems that have been marginalised as a result of the realpolitik such as gender and class issues, minority rights, the ill effects of tourism, de-regulated urban expansion, skewed notions of ‘development’ and economic and sexual exploitation of immigrants. Additionally, it wants to bring to the fore the hidden or unknown internal socio-economic and personal dynamics which have emerged since the opening of the first crossing point in April 2003. This has given Greek and Turkish Cypriots the opportunity to interact with eachother  for the first time since 1974. Rather than focusing solely on issues of opposition, division and closure the exhibition and parallel events hope to focus on the possibilities for such ‘openings’ – political and cultural – co-habitation, communication, and social change, as a way of imagining a peaceful and hopeful future for the island.

 

Structure
Leaps of Faith will include a main project organized by its curatorial team, which will feature 20 international and Cypriot artists whose work has conveyed an understanding of the notion of a contested territory, is engaged with a strong sense of social responsibility, operates site-specifically, and is in a position to be able to highlight the particular physiognomy of the city of Nicosia. The exhibition will be comprised of new, site specific works, which are based on local research and communication. 

 

The project also hopes to function as an enabling structure and will thus initiate a number of parallel events/projects which are an important part of the whole endeavour.  Hence, a series of film screenings, lectures, workshops and a conference will take place during the same time frame. The project also aims to activate and involve local artists’ groups and open up possibilities for collaboration thus alleviating - even to a small degree - the sense of isolation felt by the Cypriot artistic community.

 

The selection of artists and the development of the parallel projects will be the collective endeavour of the curatorial and organisational team. 

A tri-lingual (English-Greek–Turkish) catalogue designed by Cha Cha Cha Design is being produced for the exhibition. It will include texts by, among others, the exhibition curators as well as by Rana Zincir (project initiator, political scientist/economist), John Nassari (artist and academic), Neshe Yasin (poet), and Maria Hadjipavlou (political scientist, lecturer at the University of Cyprus)

 

Venues
For more than 30 years, the UN controlled buffer zone, with its shelled out homes and shops left in ruins since the armed conflict in 1974, has run through the heart of Nicosia, a visually dramatic and alarming reminder of the hostilities that split the island and prevented Cypriots from interacting with each other until April 2003.  The exhibition will be held in the heavily charged site of the so-called Green Line – in the abandoned buildings and on the street - and will spill into public spaces, buildings and non-art venues on both sides of the divided city, thus calling into question the function of public space as well as boundaries, visible and invisible, of the past and of the future. 

 

Artists participating in exhibition:

ARTLAB (Great Britain), KATERINA ATTALIDES (Cyprus), MARC BIJL (Netherlands), CALL#192 (Cyprus), HUSSEIN CHALAYAN (Cyprus), PHIL COLLINS (Great Britain), MINERVA CUEVAS (Mexico), KENDELL GEERS (South Africa), SEJLA KAMERIC (Bosnia), SERAP KANAY (Cyprus), SIGALIT LANDAU (Israel), PANAYOTIS MICHAEL (Cyprus), DAN PERJOVSCHI (Romania), SUSAN PHILIPSZ (Great Britain), PLATFORMA 9,81 (Croatia), MINNA RAINIO & MARK ROBERTS (Finland), AKRAM ZAATARI (Lebanon)

 

Artists participating in film/video screenings and presentations:

ARTISTS WITHOUT WALLS (Israel/Palestine), LONNIE VAN BRUMMELEN (The Netherlands), MARINE HUGONNIER (France), DAVID MASSEY (Israel), ANGELA MELITOPOULOS (Germany),  KATARINA REJGER & ERIC VAN DEN BROEK (Netherlands) HITO STEYERL (Germany), ZELIMIR ZILNIK (Serbia) 

 

Artists/groups participating with parallel projects: 

DEEP, EMAA Group, Maria Anaxagora, Emin Çizenel, İnci Kansu, İsmet Tatar, Katerina,  Neophytidou, Mehmet Yashin, Neshe Yashin, Nilgün Güney, Pembe Gaziler, Phanos Kyriacou, Rüya Reşat, Sophia Kakoulli & Chara Savvidou & Constantinos Evangelides, Vicky Pericleous, Dr.Yiannis Papadakis, Zehra Şonya & Nicholas Panayi, Hourig Torossian, Horst Weierstall, The 242 Art Group, Mustafa Hulusi

2/2n (Skevi Afantites, Hein van Dam, Jessica Goes, Meric Kara, Christos Kyriakides Alexis Marinis, Matalou@home, Jorge Moitas, Daniella Pais, Yiorgos Tsaggari, Zenios Tselepis – U4EA, Ayca Tuyluoglu, Kyriaki Costa Hadjipierri, Carolien Vlieger), Serhat Selisik, Anil Ozgurun, Anber Onar

 

Sponsors

Leaps of Faith  is supported by the Open Society Institute, the European Cultural Foundation, the Chrest Foundation, the United Nations Bi-communal Development Programme, which is funded by UNDP and USAID, and executed by UNOPS.

Additional support has been received by the Mondriaan Foundation, FRAME (The Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), the British Council, Technical Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK), The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Cyprus Mail, ‘Politis’ newspaper, Eastern Mediterranean University, Vakiflar Bank, TurkCell, the Goethe Institut, and the Pharos Trust.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus is giving support to parallel events organized by Greek Cypriot artists groups.

 

Contact


For more information: Rana Zincir, Project Initiator. E: rzincir@yahoo.com T: +90 533 734 5886

For press material/images: Göknur Gündogan, Kolektif Productions, Project Assistant 
E: pr@ifistanbul.com T: +90 212 243 7433

 

Web site

www.leaps-of-faith.com 


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