Contemporary Art from Cyprus: Politics, Identities, and Cultures across Borders

Description

To what extent does locality influence contemporary art? Can any particular artistic practices be defined as uniquely Cypriot? And does art from Cyprus transcend Western boundaries once it enters the global art scene? This volume uses Cyprus as a case study for the exploration of notions of identity, regionalism, and the global and local in contemporary art practice; it is not, therefore, a complete historiography of contemporary Cypriot art. Rather, this critical text provides a theoretical and historical framework that frames and contextualizes art practices from Cyprus, while always relating these back to the international art world. Numerous current and pressing issues-all relevant beyond Cyprus-are investigated in this book including, but not limited to, art as capital, the emergence of the “periphery”, the importance of thriving localities, issues of memory and memorialization, archaeology, artists’ identities, conflict and politics, social engagement, gender politics, and such curatorial alternatives as artist-run spaces. In doing all of this, Contemporary Art from Cyprus not only bears on current and future art practices in this region but highlights the importance of Cypriot art in a global context too. Cover Contents List of Illustrations List of Contributors Acknowledgments Introduction: Contemporary Art from Cyprus: Politics, Identities, and Cultures across Borders Elena Stylianou, Evanthia Tselika, and Gabriel Koureas Part 1 Shaping an Art Scene 1 Art History as Narration: Ideological Configurations of Greek-Cypriot Modernity in Art Louli Michaelidou 2 From Narration to Dialogue? Thinking about the Way We Talk about Contemporary Visual Art in the Turkish Cypriot Community Esra Plumer Bardak 3 Becoming and Being a Visual Artist in the Republic of Cyprus: The Prominence of the Artist-Identity Niki Zanti-Philiastides 4 Peripheral Visions: The “Peripheral” Position as Productive of Artistic Process Marina Kassianidou Part 2 Challenging Identities 5 A Forgotten Anglo-Cypriot Partnership: Glyn Hughes, Christoforos Savva, and the Apophasis Gallery in the Early 1960s Yiannis Toumazis 6 Who Are We, Where Do We Come from, Where Are We Going to?: Writing Greek Cypriot Women’s Art Histories in Contemporary Cyprus Maria Photiou 7 Nicosia’s Queer Art Subculture: Outside and Inside Formal Institutions Marilena Zackheos and Nicos Philippou Part 3 Excavating Place 8 Tracing the Local: Sense of Place and Identity in the Cypriot Landscape Elena Parpa 9 The Ground Beneath Our Feet: A Discussion on Contemporary Art and Archaeology in Cyprus Participating Artists: Alev Adil, Haris Epaminonda, Maria Loizidou, and Christodoulos Panayiotou. Organized by Gabriel Koureas, Elena Parpa, and Christina Lambrou 10 The Dig, the Fragment, and the Archive: The Archaeological Imaginary in Greek-Cypriot Contemporary Art Elena Stylianou and Artemis Eleftheriadou Part 4 Negotiating Politics 11 Transcultural Memory (Re)-Mediations in Cypriot Art History and Contemporary Art Gabriel Koureas 12 Two-Folded Account on the Attempt to Understand the Potential Source of Change in Cyprus Basak Senova 13 Conflict Transformation Art in Nicosia: Engaging Social Groups across the Divided City through Artistic Practices Evanthia Tselika Index