The Body: Stories and representations

The first exhibition, Human figure in the Modern Cypriot art: the first generations, cared for by Antonis Danou PhD, dealt with the first generations.
The second one, 1960-1980, Discourse with contemporary trends in art and the quest for identity - Cypriot artists born between 1929 and 19492009), cared for by Andri Michael PhD, dealt with the generation of artists born from 1929 to 1949.
The third set comprises artists born from the late ’50 till the mid ’60 included. This period marks the end of the British occupation and the newly established Cypriot State’s first years of being. Most of the artists have either few or no memories at all of the pre-independence period or they are born in the post-independence period. Therefore, many of them start acting as artists approximately in late ’70 and they pursue this activity till now.

The great number of artists coming up throughout these years makes the partial presentation of their work in the context of various exhibitions, imperative. The first exhibition, on The body: stories and representations, will be inaugurated on 16th June 2010 and 34 artists will participate. The body is “a battle field where we’d better return” Antonin Artaud argues, stressing the tragic state of the body as a field where forces and feelings come up to be contradictory. The body in relation to each artist’s personal stories, erotism, fiction and sub-conscious enters space and time. The body either injured and imprisoned, in jeopardy or missing, is integrally linked to the history of Cyprus, acting as a means, transmitting the plagues of the country itself. This body, either idealised or prostrated and ravaged, dismembered or absent in itself, still develops allegorical and hybridic actions: body-home, body-nest, body-crutch, stressing the multidimensional character of its modern images.

The exhibition is devoted to the 50years anniversary of the Republic of Cyprus.

Works of the following artists will be presented: Maria Andreou, Stavros Antonopoulos, Rea Afantitou, Spyros Demetriades, Andros Efstathiou, Doros Eracleous, Andreas Ioakim-Kaimakis, Kyriacos Kallis, Elena Kalotari, Andreas Karayan, Marlen Karletidou, Kakia Katselli, Argyris Konstantinou, Konstantinos Konstantinou, Lia Lapithe, Andreas Makariou, Toula Mala, Eleni Nicodemou, Lefteris Olympios, Nicolas Panayi, Xenia Panteli, Andreas Paraskevas, Christakis Polydorou, Loizos Sergiou, Paris Sivacas, Rinos Stefani, Efi Savvidou, Koulla Savvidou, Panicos Tempriotis, Daphni Trimiklinioti, Panicos Tsaggaras, Layia Frangofinou, Mattheos Christou, Christos Christou.