THE CYPRUS PAVILION

AT THE VENICE BIENNALE OF ARCHITECTURE 2018

I Am Where You Are

Cyprus Pavilion

We call upon voices of resistance. We challenge the globalization of the built environment. We accentuate the crafting of humanitarian constructed fragments. We augment the simplicities of everyday rituals. We note the synergy of the untouched and the harnessed environment. We record an interwoven scenography of nature and the human condition”.

Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion

I Am Where You Are’ is a platform for communication. By highlighting, questioning and then deconstructing sets of binaries, key to cultural perceptions in and about Cyprus, we disengage from convention. Multiplicities, found in-between these binaries, “built_unbuilt, tradition_modernity, Island of Love_place of conflict, immigration_local identity”, are revealed in the pavilion, allowing unexpected experiences to be celebrated.

Architecture is the mediator and the lens used to investigate these often-unnoticed conditions. We focus on the importance of the architectural section. The Pavilion show-cases significant contemporary innovative projects, and incorporates important ancient and vernacular works. We collapse notions of time/space and presence/non-presence, utilizing digital and interactive means. The physicality of the body of the visitor dissolves, as it is enveloped in a wearable apparatus and immersed into a moving-scape of simultaneous projections.

I Am Where You Are’, because we are constantly moving and shifting, both physically and digitally. We continuously transform, therefore, ‘ I encompass some of what you are and you encompass some of what I am’. The Cyprus Pavilion becomes a transmitter and a receiver: within the exhibit, visitors interact with people in Cyprus and are transported virtually in space and time into the Cypriot context. Different languages, customs, cultures etiquette and built forms we experience on a daily basis mix and merge. They bring into focus that which differentiates, connects and binds us together.

The Team

The team is made up of a diverse international group of architects, a practicing video artist and a museologist. The Curators have collaborated on several projects in the past. In 2016 they represented Cyprus as the Curators of the State Pavilion for the Milano Triennale with their project ‘Human Topographies_Emerging Identities’. In 2010 they collaborated on the design for the A.R.C which houses the Department of Architecture at University of Nicosia. A.Swiny and Y.Hadjichristou have been working and teaching together at the Department of Architecture, UNic, since 2008. V. Antoniou and Y.Hadjichristou have collaborated in design projects since 2004. In 2014 V. Antoniou established Urban Gorillas (a non-for- profit organization involved in urban actions through community engagement) where Y.Hadjichristou is a member of the board.

Curators

Veronika Antoniou

Architect, Urbanist, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the NGO Urban Gorillas (www.urbangorillas.org)

Yiorgos Hadjichristou

Architect, Professor University of Nicosia, Board Director of the NGO Urban Gorillas (www.yiorgoshadjichristou.com)

Alessandra Swiny

Architect, Head of the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia (www.alessandraswiny.com)

Alessandra Swiny is an Architect of American and British origin.  She received a Bachelor of Arts from Barnard/Columbia University (2000) and a Masters of Architecture from Harvard University (2004) in the United States.  She is currently the Head of the Department of Architecture, and an Associate Professor, at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, where she has been teaching since 2005 and is a tenured faculty member.

Yiorgos Hadjichristou is Professor at the Department of Architecture of the University of Nicosia.  He studied at the Kiev University (Master in Architecture -Kiev Institute of Architecture -KICI – 1989) and at the Kyoto University (Research Course in Aritecture- Kyoto University- 1992). His studies were funded by the Scholarship system granted to Cyprus by the Ex-Soviet Union and the Monbusho Minister of Education of Japan. He also holds a Diploma to teach the Russian language to foreigners received at the Kiev Institute of Architecture (1989).

Veronika Antoniou is the co-founder and creative director of Urban Gorillas, a Nicosia-based NGO. She is also a licensed architect, landscape designer and urban planner. Her work spans many aspects and includes the practice of architecture, socially-engaged art and research on sustainable cities. Her academic work was funded by Japanese ministry of Education and the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Professional experience includes architectural projects in Japan, Switzerland and Cyprus. Her work has been exhibited in international exhibitions like the Venice Biennale and the Maxxi Museum. Since 2014 she has been actively involved in the operation and promotion of Urban Gorillas.

Collaborators

Matthieu Tercieux:

Video artist (http://youarehereelsewhere.com/)

Despo Pasia:

Museologist and museum educator

Team Members 

Stefanos Panteli, Anastasios Balabanides, Evdokia Demetriou, Jose Luna, Teresa Ditadi, Joanna Demetriou, Elena Kapakiotou and Lucia Calliari.

Organizers

Ministry of Education and Culture – Republic of Cyprus, Cyprus Architects Association

Main Collaborators

Urban Gorillas (NGO), ARC – University of Nicosia

Other Collaborators

Cyprus Architects Association, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, CCMC Bi-Communal Media Studio, Cyprus from Air (NGO), MOI Worldwide Company

Sponsors

Republic of Cyprus – Ministry of Education and Culture, University of Nicosia, Universitas Foundation, Tsentas Developers, Nice Day

Commissioner

Republic of Cyprus – Ministry of Education and Culture

Assistant to the Commissioner

Angela Skordi

Architects

New office building for the Synergasias CO-OP Bank Kiti, Larnaca, Cyprus
Theokleous residence Larnaca, Cyprus – 2016

The AMSA Architectural firm (afxentiou | mougiakos | stasinopoulou_architects) was founded in 2005 by architects: Nektarios Afxentiou, Anargyros Mougiakos and Zoi Stasinopoulou, 2002 graduates of the National Technical University of Athens. Since then, the firm has completed proposals on a variety of building types of high technical standard emphasizing on aesthetic and functional values. Having won competitions and awards, and having been published in acclaimed architectural publications, amsa delivers designs of the highest quality for its clients. 

New office building for the Synergasias CO-OP Bank  

The building lies along the central street, opposite the high school, reinforcing the public character of the street but also creating a continuous linear barrier from the heavy traffic. Access to the building is through the internal plaza connecting it with the existing facilities of the commercial department, the parking area and the newly created small public park. 

Theokleous residence  

Through the research of a series of similar sized residences the office has adopted a special typological approach for this type of building, in relationship to the lifestyle of the user and the characteristics of the plot. This approach lies in a clear separation of individual entities by both form and function, while seeking aesthetic integrity by minimizing morphological vocabulary and use of materials. The central element is the staircase with a two-story space opening onto the courtyard. This is an attempt to highlight the evolution of traditional architecture to modern Mediterranean trends resulting to a contemporary architectural production.

The craft of caning museum
Livadia, Larnaca, Cyprus November 2016 

Bio  

Eleonora Antoniadou holds a Degree in Architecture (Thessaloniki), an MA in Housing and Urbanism (AA, London), and a Fashion Design Diploma (Frederick University). She is a part-time tutor at Frederick University. Her research and PhD proposal is based on the “Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture”. She actively participates in workshops, art exhibitions, conferences and architectural competitions. She is a freelance, prize awarded architect, the co-founder of the urban group “sinthishes” and the founder of the “building fashion” workshops. 

The Craft of Caning Museum’s intention, a conversion of a kindergarden is to keep the usage and exploitation of cane in the memory of the local craftsmen. The main idea was to eliminate the existing spatiality and create a new inner shell that redefines the ground plan and creates different flows of motion and senses. The building houses three main functions: museum, educational center and shop. They are placed in different parts of the existing building, flowing into each other, tending to abolish their boundaries. The visitor’s experience is further enhanced by the textures and colours of reed. 

Long House
Larnaca, Cyprus 2015 

Bios  

Popi Iacovou is an architect and researcher investigating cross-disciplinary models of thinking and practicing architecture. Her research explores the intersections between architecture, performance and film. She received a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, funded by the A.G Leventis Foundation and the FfWG (UK) and an M Phil on ‘Architecture and the Moving Image’ from the University of Cambridge funded by the Cambridge Commonwealth Trust. She has taught at the University of Cambridge, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the University of Cyprus and Neapolis University. Her design work and films have been exhibited internationally.  

Georgios Artopoulos, Assistant Professor, Cyprus Institute, works on immersive and performative spaces, on virtual environments, modelling and simulation for the study of built heritage and the creative exploration of historical narratives in the context of public open space. He holds a Master of Philosophy and a PhD from the University of Cambridge (UK) with a Doctoral Award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Previously he was employed by the Heriot-Watt University (UK), the University of Melbourne, the University of Cambridge and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.  

Charis Gregoriou is a practicing architect, partner of Economou Architects & Engineers. Since 2002 he has been engaged in the design and implementation of a broad range of private and public projects, ranging from private houses, commercial buildings and offices, hotels and schools. He is a graduate of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. 

Long House is a single-family house in the outskirts of Larnaca, adjacent to a natural reserve away from the urban fabric and with a river that lies along its east boundary. With regard to the overall planning the building turns its back on to the existing house and opens up its spaces towards the landscape views. The spaces follow the topography, generating multiple transitional areas that meaningfully articulate the main spaces. The composition developed as the articulation of autonomous rooms, each with a specific relationship with the garden, the courtyard, extended views of the landscape and the horizon. The project emphased the relationship between house and landscape, and sought to create a new model of ‘housing’, which interprets domestic uses and actions as daily rituals.  

The way a building relates with the landscape suggests embodied experiences that can awaken critical and poetic readings that potentially reinterpret daily domestic actions, such as relaxing, dining, bathing, playing, swimming, socializing and gardening. In a cinematographic way, framed and staged sceneries develop sequentially and are animated by the movement of the users as well as by the changing seasons. 

House 1203 Ayios Theodoros, Cyprus – 12.2014
Art School House 1306 Akaki, Cyprus – 12.2016
Markideio Theater Paphos, Cyprus – 12.2017 

Bios 

Marios Christodoulides studied at MIT and the California State University SLO. After graduating he worked in Boston on housing, urban redevelopment, and university campus projects. Presently, and since 2003, he is a director of Simpraxis Architects in Cyprus. He has also taught Architecture studios as an adjunct faculty at the Department of Architecture at the University of Cyprus. His work was exhibited at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2006 and was an associate curator for the Cyprus Pavilion in 2008. His Architectural work has been awarded first prizes in numerous competitions and he has published in Cyprus and abroad.  

Christos Christodoulou studied Architecture in Manchester Metropolitan University. He received the BA(Hons.) in Architecture in 1995 and the B.rch. in 1997. From 1997 until 2000 was working as intern architect in Manchester, UK. He was involved with projects in the UK and abroad. In 2000 he relocated in Cyprus and worked in local architectural practices and as intern architect for the Municipality of Nicosia and the Nicosia Masterplan. Since 2003 he is a director at Simpraxis Architects. He has been a recipient of several awards in International Architectural Competitions and his work has been published in books and magazines.  

House 1203 

 The residence is located close to the coast in a pristine area and is intended for weekend getaways of a single father and his three adult children. A communal space is created on the ground floor as a ‘public’ yard interacting with a stair that runs along the inside perimeter of the two story communal space. The independent boxes that enclose the bedrooms offer privacy and create covered porches. The bedrooms have views into the central space and also out towards the seashore.  

Art School House 1306  

The program called for an Art School and a Residence for an Art Instructor and her family. The small Art School and House had to function independently with separate access from the street but with easysafe access from one to the other. Responding to the remote and sparsely populated landscape of Akaki village, a high perimeter wall is constructed that encircles all indoor and outdoor spaces. Work and living areas are separated by an intermediate outdoor space that can be used at alternated times by the residents and the transient students of the school school.at alternative hours.  

Markideio Theater 

 Markideio Theater, which began as a renovation, had to be located within the same structural frame of the existing theater. To create a better connection with the existing urban fabric, two ‘arms’ extendt out to the two surrounding streets. The one extension includes the public cafeteria that can accommodate both theater events and also occasional visitors. The other is a promenade, from the existing parking lot west of the building, that leads towards the second entrance into the theater. A public plaza is created between the two with a green plateau on the west side accessible to all visitors. An internal courtyard within the theater helps to maintain a connection with the outdoors and also accommodate events.  

New Athletic Park Of GCO Coastal area of Limassol, Cyprus 
Cyta Footbridge Coastal area of Limassol, Cyprus 
Re-configuration of the Coastal Location Verki Voroklini, Cyprus
Oroklini Coastal Promenade Coastal area of Voroklini , Cyprus  

Bio  

Margarita Danou studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA) receiving the AA diploma in Architecture in 1990. Upon completion of her studies she set up her own practice in Nicosia, mainly participating and being awarded prizes in many architectural competitions in Cyprus and Europe. Her work is widely published in local and international books and magazines. In 2004 she was jointly awarded the Cyprus State Prize for exceptional Architectural Work for the Voroklini Coastal Promenade, with Sevina Floridou. Her projects of “Voroklini Coastal Promenade”, “The Athletic Park at the GCO”, “The Re-configuration of Verki into a Pedestrian Walkway and a Water Basin” and “The Cyta Footbridge” were nominated for the European Mies Van Der Rohe Prize. 

New Athletic Park Of GCO 

 The project of the New Athletic Park of GCO, set at historical site of a neglected stadium along the coastal edge of Limassol, aims to re-qualify the site as an important link between the residential area and the coastal public space, allowing an articulated transition between urban landscape, the park and the sea. This transition blurs the boundaries between natural and artificial environments and offers a new vision of artificial landscape and  the city. The project aims to define the project area as a fragment of a more extensive urban renewal program.  

Cyta Footbridge 

 The footbridge of CYTA addresses the question of its urban context by interweaving existing and proposed circulation with its urban landscape. Its overall concept is based on overlapping fields and lines that knit together to form a constantly shifting whole. The footbridge connects an existing athletic park with the coastal area of Limassol, offering a unique variety of experiences.  

With Architect Sevina Floridou: Re-configuration of the Coastal Location Verki into a water basin and a coastal promenade along the coast of Voroklini 

 The Location “Verki” is an irregularly shaped public property that is comprised of a narrow stream discharging into a wider coastal estuary, previously allowing seasonal torrential flow to drain into the sea. The site adjoins the completed Oroklini waterfront promenade while the east bank borders onto raised courtyards of private summer houses. The south end of the estuary faces the coast, but. T the stream itself, entering from the north, has been partially encased in a concrete canal, which extends northwards into a discharge basin located between the villages of Voroklini and Pyla. 

 Oroklini Coastal Promenade  

The site lies between an existing resort development and the coastal edge, bordering a number of private and state properties that have, over time, encroached on the beach. We set out to create a promenade that would provide leisure activities for the public, and act as a threshold between private development and the public beach. The promenade consists of a series of platforms, canopies and lighting elements unified by a meandering path that loosely follows the coastline, widening and narrowing to create a series of scenic spotspecific places along the way. 

Smalto Nicosia, Cyprus – 2018 
Ifigeneia Kaizer project Cyprus – 2010 
Kaimakli house Nicosia, Cyprus – 2007
Athienou Town Hall Cyprus – 2007 
Dali House and workshop Cyprus – 1997 
ARC Nicosia, Cyprus – 2010 

Bio 

Yiorgos Hadjichristou is an architect and Professor of the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia. He received his MA in Kiev and continued his research in Kyoto. He is recipient of a number of awards including the Golden Prize of the Union of International Architects for the competition for the most public, friendly and accessible buildings. He was selected and participated in the Mies Van Der Rohe Awards six times. He organized and participated in a wide spectrum of local and international exhibitions and events including the Venice Architecture Biennale. He has been widely published in local and international publications. 

Smalto  

The dentist clinic is located on the main Strovolos avenue along the riverbed of Pediaios. The building is raised up so the city is reconnected with the green elongated park of the river. At the same time the ascending is proposed as a set of steps and platforms that continue the theme of the park. The vertical circulation is interwoven with the building and facilitates various social spaces and voids initiating various interior and exterior contacts. The skin of the building can be choreographed by the users accordingly to the weather, functional and other needs. 

ARC – Architecture Research Center Department of Architecture. University of Nicosia. 

Architects: Petros Konstantinou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou Collaborators: Veronika Antoniou and Joao Teigas External Collaborator: Alessandra Swiny  

The ARC, a conversion of a dilapidated shoe factory in a derelict industrial area in Nicosia triggered the regeneration of the area. The flexible interior space responded to the complexed functional needs of various sizes of studio spaces, meetinglecture-exhibition spaces, workshop, offices, computer labs, cafeteria etc.. The arrangement of the dividing, sliding panels can orchestrate a wide spectrum of diverse spatial conditions, while they serve for the acoustic needs and for exhibition surfaces. The envelope of the building is treated with polycarbonate panels in various soft coulour tones which transmit a controlled, pleasant light condition in the interior of the building. House and workshop of a sculptor and an artist in Dali Architect: Yiorgos Hadjichristou The project accommodates a house with a sitting and a dining room, a kitchen, three bedrooms and artists’ workshop. All the spaces face the north in order to enjoy the magnificent view towards the valley and the mountains of Pendadaktylos, while safeguarding winter south orientation too. The spaces are orchestrated by the slope of the hill and organized around a courtyard covered by the hanging volume of the bedrooms. The workshop has a variation of heights and an indirect natural illumination which will enhance the creativity and the productivity of the sculptor and the artist. 

 Ifigenia Kaizer House 

Architects: Yiorgos Hadjichristou and Petros Constantinou The building aims to accommodate the needs of a family with two children and a small private teaching institute of Greek language on the lower level. The surrounding area, full with alienated to the island houses, triggered the idea of a shelter that functions in introversion around a courtyard organization. The spaces are enveloped by a concrete cube raised above the ground with openings carved like a sculpture. They serve as small peripheral courtyards, the main connectors with the ‘outer world’. They can be closed by shading panels and provide the interior spaces by controlled natural light and cross ventilation. 

Refurbishment of a listed house in Kaimakli  

Architect: Yiorgos Hadjichristou Collaborators: Veronika Antoniou and Petros Konstantinou The project is the remaining part of a traditional house, adjacent to the dividing “green line” of Cyprus. It is organized around two courtyards. During the biggest period of the year, all the new spaces change, open and become parts of a unified courtyard depending on the weather, the mood of the inhabitants, the functional needs etc. All the spaces enjoy generous cross air ventilation and protected south orientation while the old vegetation that took over in the past revives in the form of ‘shading panels’, dividing surfaces and natural balustrade. 

Aretaeio Hospital Nicosia Nicosia, Cyprus – 2004
Colocassides Residence Platres, Cyprus – 1990 
Strovolos residence Nicosia, Cyprus – 1989 

Bio 

Haris Hadjivassiliou is a practising architect from Cyprus, holding degrees from the Pratt Institute and Columbia Univeristy, New York. He has an ongoing collaboration with Professor Emilio Battisti in Milan and has acted as a visiting critic at the Milan Polytechnic for the Bocconi University Competition. He is a permanent member of the Board of Directors of the N. Michaelides Foundation, Nicosia, Cyprus. Two of his projects have been selected for the Mies Van Der Rohe foundation archives. 

Aretaeio Hospital Nicosia 

The two building axes facilitate circulation, regulate diverse functions, and provide the opportunity if needed to expand the building linearly. The L-shape of this building forms a courtyard, the focal point of most of the interior public spaces, from which light is provided to the first basement. A semi-basement level is connected to the ground floor public areas using ramps, offering the possibility of an architectural promenade. The main void above the ramps, dialectically connects the ground and first floors, and acts as a light well, illuminating the internal spaces being placed along the building’s glazed side.  

Colocassides Residence  

The steep site is surrounded by a pine forest where minimum construction is permitted. The landscape, orientation and the client’s requests resulted in an elongated counter sunk house (minimum cut and fill) in which all spaces are organized linearly looking south to the uninterrupted vistas. A flat roof was used to fit in with the surrounding vineyard with stone terrace walls. Such flat roofs are indigenous to the nearby villages for drying grapes. Structurally and functionally this house is defined by a series of five cube outlines. The resulting rectangular volume is dissected by a curved retaining wall. Circulation is possible in the resulting space, which is illuminated from above with natural light. The “piano nobile” (first floor) comprises living spaces and master bedroom whereas the ground floor contains the guest area, utilities and garage. 

Strovolos residence

The brief asks for a single house with a simple, uniform space in which a middle-aged couple could live, work and house their art collection. The house spaces comprise two private areas located on the two short sides of the building and separated by their common social areas. The common area, which includes the kitchen, encircles the main courtyard and relates dialectically to its surrounding nature. The centralised courtyard, the focal point of the house, is integrated with the main space. The two utility areas are located between the common central spaces and private quarters. Their suspended ceiling is lower than the vaulted ceiling of the rest of the house to allow for the mechanical and electrical facilities. The main parameters used to generate the house’s form were the elongated site, the land orientation and the surrounding views. The form also abstractly mirrors local traditional building typology, which also determines the layout of the interior spaces. 

House in a half plot in Engomi Engomi, Cyprus 2016  

Bios

Yiorgos Kalavas and Yiannis Agisilaou studied architecture in Thessaloniki and founded the “Architectural Studio Agisilaou & Kalavas” initially in Pafos and later in Nicosia. Their office’s projects have been awarded in architectural competitions. They have represented professional bodies and Societies to scientific and advisory committees and juries of architectural competitions. In 2016 they were awarded with the State Architectural Award. Their articles on architecture and space have been published in the daily press and architectural magazines.  

Yiannis Agisilaou was also involved in playwriting and scenography. 

House in a half plot in Engomi 

Having as a basic limitation the unfavorable orientation of the building site, as south orientation was impossible, ambient daylighting and solar radiation benefits are ensured through the fifth elevation (the top) of the building, by pushing away from the partition wall the basic spaces of the house and by creating high inlets and south openings. In addition to this, the glass floor of the atrium of the first floor allows daylight and direct sunlight to reach the ground floor spaces during winter period, while in the summer period, shading devices in the atrium (aluminum louvers) block direct sunlight and overheating. 

Restoration and reutilization of Ibrahim’s Khan Pafos, Cyprus – 2017
Remodelling of the district Administration’s Office Square and adjacent streets Pafos, Cyprus – 2017 

Bio

Demetrios Loucaides was born in Pafos, in 1962. He studied architecture at Weimar University, Germany, graduated in 1988 and began working as an architect collaborator at an architectural firm in Pafos. In 2000 he established, with his wife who is also an architect, his own architectural company in Pafos.  

Restoration and reutilization of Ibrahim’s Khan

Ibrahim’s Khan is located in the historic core of the city of Pafos. It constitutes a complex of listed structures that were built in the late 19th century. It was a traditional inn functioning as a venue for exchanging cultural values. The central architectural unit was defined by two storey buildings developed around two stone-paved courtyards. The Inn’s image was significantly altered by the passing of time and the consecutive ad hoc additions. The main objective of this project was the reuse and reutilization of the Khan’s old buildings, to redefine its role in today’s contemporary society and to create a vibrant city hub with the appropriate mix of traditional and modern uses. Today the place is fully restored and reutilized as a contemporary cultural space. The new additions engage in a dialogue between the traces of the past and readings of new reversible lightweight structures that move between the existing built boundaries.  

Remodelling of the district Administration’s Office Square and adjacent streets 

The above project consists of the remodeling of the square as well as repaving and redefining of the adjacent streets spanning 7300 square meters in size. The fundamental objective of the project was to reclaim a degraded part of the town and to transform it into a landmark through an effective urban intervention. In this setting dominated by contemporary architectural expression, a public space has been created, drawing on the site’s unique geomorphological characteristics. The reconfiguration of the square presented a unique opportunity to visually connect this part of the town with the sea while highlighting the buildings of the District Administration Office. Side lighting along the decking platforms of the square, defines its limits and accompanies the pedestrians at night. The square also features a café-restaurant, a circular steel canopy for shading, a water feature and a glass elevator that connects the square with the parking area at the lower level. 

 

Chrysaliniotissa Kindergarten Nicosia, Cyprus January 2004 

Bio

Athina Papadopoulou is an architect with experience in the field for over 25 years and employed by Nicosia Municipality since August 1999. She has been project architect for numerous conservation, urban redesign-regeneration projects as well as projects for the historic city of Nicosia under the bi-communal (Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot) Nicosia Master Plan project. Since August 2010 she is head of the Nicosia Master Plan (NMP) office, the Greek Cypriot team and since then manages the majority of EU co-funded Nicosia Municipality integrated urban development projects.  

Chrysaliniotissa Kindergarten  

The project includes the restoration, extension and reuse of an early 20th Century Urban Traditional House in Chrysaliniotissa quarter to be used as a kindergarten. A new extension along the east side of the courtyard was designed in order to accommodate the needs of a neighborhood kindergarten. This project aims to provide community facilities to the neighborhood of Chrysaliniotissa, in the framework of the general Rehabilitation Project of the area. Furthermore, the project aims to preserve and re-use a significant example of Nicosia’s architectural heritage. The project was funded by USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and Implemented under the bi-communal Nicosia Master Plan through UNDP / UNOPS / Bi-communal Development Program 

FORUM Greek private secondary school Dhali, Cyprus 2011

Bio

Born in Nicosia in 1972. Graduated from the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki (1995) and from the Bartlett School of Architecture (U.C.L.), M.Arch, in Architectural Design (1996). A member of ETEK and CAA, serving as vice president for many years. 

Founded ‘’Eraclis Papachristou Architects” in Nicosia in 1998. The practice handles a formidable portfolio of projects from architectural design to the supervision/coordination of construction work of private and public projects. Awarded 24 awards in Cypriot and European architectural competitions, including 10 First prizes for public and private projects, most of which have been implemented or are under construction. Received the Cyprus State Architecture Prize twice. Has been nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Prize five times. Participated in Venice Biennale in 2008. The Cyprus Architects Association honoured Eraclis Papachristou for his contribution in the Cyprus architectural field in 2012.  

FORUM Greek private secondary school 

 The design of a school involves giving shape to a program but also to inform a pattern of spaces which encourage positive social interaction and enable good education practices. The school’s presence is established through the most important element of the architectural synthesis, a linear volume along the busy road which simultaneously acts as a noise and visual shield for the school’s functions. Library, laboratories and the music rooms are situated along the top of the structure. The reception extends its function outdoors, while simultaneously establishing a certain level of privacy for the multipurpose hall. The prism at ground level acts as an extension of the courtyard with total transparency. The multipurpose hall is capable of operating independently from the rest of the school complex. The wings extend parallel to one another, creating interstitial gardens and providing a visual sequence and a functional logic. The main courtyard completes the pattern of these spaces, as an extension of the lobby and the main outdoor areas. Visual identity of the various elements is achieved in various ways, increasing legibility for the occupants. 

GGP-ZK House, Family House Engomi, Nicosia, Cyprus 

Bio

G. Patsalosavvis Architecture + Design is located in Nicosia and was established in Cyprus in 1996. Gregoris G. Patsalosavvis graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in 1985. He has worked in London since 1996 in well known architectural offices such as Norman Foster and Partners, Richard Rogers Partnership, Benson & Forsyth Architects and Building Design Partnership. In 1993 he established his own practice and founded the studio “Clepsydra Design Workshops” in London and Cyprus. His portfolio includes individual houses, apartment blocks, offices buildings, public buildings, entertainment and interior designs. He was a nominee to represent the Republic of Cyprus in the European Mies Van Der Rohe award in 2000. He also represented Cyprus in 2006 at the 10th Venice Biennale of Architecture.  

GGP-ZK House, Family House 

The building is located in the village of Malounta, a community 20 km northwest of Nicosia. The site is the old village centre and the client’s brief required an office space and meeting room for the Community Committee, a multi purposed hall, a youth centre and an open air theatre with a landscaped play area. The architect’s aim was to redefine the borders between the old village centre and to create both a collective space and memories of the past for the inhabitants of the small community. The project was completed in two phases as a response to the limited budget of the community.  

C+T house Nicosia, Cyprus – 2012
Prince. Nice Day Developments Nicosia, Cyprus – 1996 

Bios  

Mike Seroff studied architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA).London, England. After graduation he had worked for Bolles and Wilson, London and Cosmos Architects, Cyprus.  

Sotos Papadopoulos completed his studies in architecture at the Robert Gordon University (RGIT), Aberdeen, Scotland. After graduation he worked for Cosmos Architects, Cyprus. They founded Seroff and Papadopoulos Architects in 1990, in Nicosia. 

C+T house

The project is a family house on a large plot. The house was placed at one end of the plot in a U shape facing towards the south and the garden. The house provides its own shade and outdoors courtyard through a simple use of overlapping volumes, pergolas and vertical screens. This allows the house to open to the outside completely, blending both the internal spaces with the shaded external spaces creating various degrees of privacy. Horizontal and vertical circulation is screened allowing light and air to flow through. 

Prince. Nice Day Developments 

 The project is an apartment building of six floors, with one apartment per floor, and is located in the residential area of Ayios Andreas in Nicosia. The project was won in an invited competition for a luxury apartment building offering a novel view of apartment living in Cyprus in 1996. The main concern was to create an environment of privacy and at the same time a feeling of living outside. This was achieved by creating various types of verandas open or completely enclosed with different types of screens which allowed the internal spaces to completely open to the outside while still maintaining privacy from the street. This carried through even in the entrance lobby, which becomes a social space as it is a light filled space where one can connect with the open platforms leading to each flat, while at the same time standing as if in the air with a view through the trees. 

Traditional Cypriot Homes of the Future Nicosia, Cyprus – 2018 

Bio

George Themistokleous is an architect and lecturer in architectural design, history and theory. He has studied architectural design, theory and art history at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The inter-disciplinary scope of his work operates between media, art and architecture. His practice focuses on the changing relationship between the visual body and space-time through emerging media that probe conventional limits between self and self-image, interior and exterior. His visual and written work has been presented, exhibited and published internationally in various platforms. He is co-editor – with T.Stoppani and G. Ponzo – of the book This Thing Called Theory (Routledge). 

Traditional Cypriot Homes of the Future 

 This project takes a single storey residential house built in the late 1940s in Nicosia as its starting point. The deserted and deteriorated house hosts a virtual reality corridor. As such, it gives a second life to this abandoned and neglected edifice. The house overtakes the sala -the main living room – via a constructed digitized corridor that is extended towards the room at the far end of the house. The participant who unexpectedly crosses this interval will see themselves through this immersive space from past instances in three-dimensional formats stereoscopic imagery. The house strangely reappears in the background of this immersive space, through the fragmented perceptions of the door, venetian blinds, mosaic tiles, white washed walls. The abandoned traditional residence hosts a technological space of the 21st century. This threshold invites speculation upon the juxtaposed building type developed within a particular context around eighty years ago and one that is born from today’s electronic culture. The space between these two types informs a strangely emerging spatial type that is marked by the entwined social virtual and actual environments of today.  

Western Coastal Promenade Paphos, Cyprus – 2012
AB House Yeroskipou, Cyprus – 2016  

Bio  

Vardastudio is located in Paphos and was established by Andreas Vardas in 1997. Andreas Vardas graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, in 1993 and gained his working experience in London. He is a member of the RIBA, as well as ETEK. The studio’s work includes mainly individual houses, housing developments as well as public buildings and a number of competitions. The studio’s practice has been distinguished in international competitions as well as the Republic of Cyprus President’s award. 

Western Coastal Promenade  

A project that establishes a formal coastal promenade, it includes platforms at strategic locations to provide stops and resting points along the walk. The platforms constructed from recycled wood, are supported by columns, so as to give the impression that they ‘float’ above the rocks and water. Stops are also signified by bespoke benches, which provide resting places and shelter from the sun. Their materials and construction echo that of the platforms. The promenade itself is paved with local white limestone. This enhances the local character and reflects materials used in the ancient city. Another hint towards the heritage of the site is the patterns in the concrete strips and in the paving, designed by the architect and some by the builders, out of off-cuts of marble. 

AB House  

The architect’s own residence-project was born of the combination of two materials often found near this location: concrete tube pipe sections and metal sheet. The materials are translated here to the two separate envelopes: a metal structure clad in metal and glass, and the two walls of stacked concrete pipe sections running along the north and south facades. The layout of spaces is linear along the east-west axis. The open plan living area is to the east, providing a dining area, kitchen, and sitting area. Three bedrooms and a study are placed along a corridor-gallery that runs the length of the house.  

Huge glass doors slide open to the deck veranda that runs outside to the south. The veranda is dispersed with garden pockets, containing small trees and fragrant plants. To the North is a water corridor that abuts the house 

New Primary School in Paphos Agios Theodoros area, Paphos, Cyprus – 2012
The Archives Building of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) Nicosia, Cyprus – 2012 

Bio 

The Architectural practice “Solon Xenopoulos – Eleni Hadjinicolaou Architects” was formed in 1993. The practice had been involved in a multiplicity of projects relationg to professional work, the participation in Architectural Competitions, exhibitions, publications, as well as Teaching and Research.  

Solon Xenopoulos: Architect, Professor Emeritus of the National Technical University of Athens. Visiting Professor at the University of Cyprus and the University of Nicosia. Currently Dean of the School of Architecture, Land and Environmental Sciences, Neapolis University, Pafos. 

Eleni Hadjinicolaou: Architect, MSc. in Advanced Architectural Studies, UCLondon Assistant architect for many years with the distinguished architect George Candilis Visiting lecturer at the School of Architecture, Land and Environmental Sciences, Neapolis University, Pafos. 

New Primary School in Paphos  

Design concept: A polycentric organisation of the school’s spaces, reflecting the contemporary educational and social reality. The compact building disintegrates in conjunction to the decentralised information. The idea is being implemented both through the specific formal plasticity of the built volumes, as well as the form of the spaces and their connectivity, to produce different grades and possibilities of moving interfaces. 

The Archives Building of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation  

Design concept: a subdued architecture, which materializes as a three zone structure. A public zone emerges over ground and contains all public spaces such as a multipurpose hall, exhibition space and library. A linear patio which provides natural ventilation and lighting, providing the means of connecting the other two elements. A complex of archives, workshops and offices is hidden under an artificial hill. 

Nice Day Developments was founded in Cyprus in 1995 by the DESTE Foundation owner Dakis Ioannou and his son Christos Ioannou. The company single-handedly created a niche market in Cyprus that caters to urban dwellers that demand the highest level of design and quality.  

Nice Day Developments has completed more than 60 projects including “Prince”, awarded the Cyprus State Architectural Award for Residential Buildings in 1998, “Nice Day Tower”, nominated to represent Cyprus in The European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, Mies van Der Rohe Award, as well as the beachfront complex “The Elysian Gardens” which was awarded the International CNBC Awards for 2009 as the best Cyprus and European Development. True to its spirit of encouraging projects of exceptional architecture, Nice Day has just completed White Walls, a high-rise tower in the centre of Nicosia designed by Jean Nouvel. White Walls has been named Best Tall Building of Europe for 2016 by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). 

Nice Day Developments, is a ‘land development’ company whose focus is ‘on developing residential and commercial buildings’. Established in 1996 by a businessman and art collector Dakis Joannou and his son Christos , the company places emphasis on ‘quality buildings of unique and outstanding architecture’ on aesthetics and the mobility of contemporary lifestyles. In certain cases our designs are selected via a process of architectural competitions. 

Architecture is one of those elements which document society’s creativity, which bear witness to successive technological, aesthetic and social changes and to a common experience of habitation. The ways of livng, the ways we perceive our needs and wants of habitation, are no changing on a personal and collective level. In recent years we have witnessed a rebirth of architecture which is restored at the core of cultural interest. More and more people, in more places around the planet, realize that architecture is a major factor in social evolution. Based on this dynamic, Nice Day Developments has striven, since its inception, to systematically encourage Cypriot architects from different “schools” and generations who share an internationalist outlook in their work, and to multiply the opportunities for the realisation of outstanding architectural projects. It is our belief that an enhanced architecture can enhance our cities which, with a parallel improvement in infrastructure and social services, can become liveable, friendly, attractive and, above all, creative, thus promoting social and cultural development. 

Artists

(In)forming Memories: The Cyprus Buffer Zone Cyprus  

 Bio  

Charalambos Artemis worked as an editorial and advertising photographer in London for about ten years. His portrait work was consequently exhibited at London’s National Portrait Gallery. Artemis currently works on personal projects and a select few commissioned projects. His project, ISLANDLISTENING, a meditation on surveillance and Cypriot landscape, was exhibited at the AG Leventis Gallery in 2016. His latest work is part of International Association of Photography & Theory’s (IAPT) ‘Ar[t]chaeology’, a collaborative project, investigating the relationship between archaeology and contemporary art photography. 

(In)forming Memories: The Cyprus Buffer Zone  

This project depicts a largely inaccessible, underdeveloped, and undocumented part of the Cypriot landscape, the Buffer Zone. A strip of no man’s land allocated in August 1974 following the two-month period of armed conflict, it runs laterally across the island, separating the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.  

The idiosyncratic temporality, location, and space captured by my images stand against the narrative relayed by the state-produced imagery that dominates Cyprus’ post-war period. The barbed wire foregrounding most images of the BZ, the romanticised pictures of lost lands, the enemy portrayed as a bloodied boot, and photographs of those mourning their loved ones, all serve to illustrate the sanctioned story of a young republic re-ascertaining its compromised sovereignty. A story crucial to the Greek Cypriot collective memory.  

This series of photographs unfolds a narrative that contradicts collective memory and questions rigid perceptions of inaccessibility. The photographic process took three years of repeated clandestine visits to locations restricted by state authorities in the south (accessibility to the BZ from the militarized north is impossible). Concurrently, this collections’ juxtaposition of a serene landscape with subtle elements indicative of its troubled past coupled with traces of current human presence, challenges the collective memory’s obsession with unaltered pre-war landscapes that no longer exist. Consequently the project reclaims the BZ as more than just a location barricaded to the present and to the public. The question thus arises, can these photographs offer an alternative narrative, and in doing so, fill voids in formed and forming memories? 

Family Ties 2012 Cyprus 

Bio 

 Melita Couta has graduated from Central St. Martins College, London – BA Sculpture and the Slade School of Fine Art, London – MFA Sculpture. She has been working with sculpture, installation art, photography, drawing and collage.  

Some of her participations include “BEAUFORT 04”, Triennale of Sculpture, Belgium 2012. “The Location of Culture”, Pulchri Studio, The Hague 2011. “CHYPRE 2010: L’ art au Present”, Gallery Espace Commines, Paris 2010. “AGORAFOLLY OUTSIDE – INSIDE”, Place de Grand Sablon, Europalia 2007, Brussels. 

Couta has been working extensively in theatre as a scenographer. Since 2006, she has been the co founder of  “Paravan”, an independent experimental theatre company.   

Family Ties 

 Houses under construction, family photographs, archaeological artifacts are collaged together with samples of emulsion paint charts. These empty vessels of concrete, act as places of expectation where lives, memories, actions are standing by, waiting to occupy the void in between the concrete walls. As the urban environment expands and new constructions grow against a blooming spring background, past and present generations coexist as a collective memory in space.  

Room Under My Skin August 2017 Koilani, Cyprus  

Bio 

Popi Iacovou is an architect and researcher investigating cross-disciplinary models of thinking and practicing architecture. Her research explores the intersections between architecture, performance and film. She has taught at the University of Cambridge, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, the University of Cyprus and Neapolis University. Her design work and films have been exhibited internationally.  

Erica Charalambous, is an Independent Dance & Multidisciplinary Performance Artist and a co-tutelle PhD research student at the Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE), Coventry University in the UK & Deakin University, Melbourne Australia, with a full Scholarship and studentship. Her research focuses on the study and digitisation of archives of dance in the UK, USA, Germany and Australia. Erica has received, participated and won various grants and fellowships in prestigious art institutions. 

Room Under My Skin  

‘Room Under my Skin’ is a dance film that explores the threshold of internal and external space, when their boundaries become blurred and the mind slips, gets lost and struggles to be located physically, imaginatively and emotionally in one space: I manufacture a step against gravity, just to move me forwards… her presence superseding mine. 

I travel and roam in the remedies of some…it comes and it goes evaporating into a revolution of nothing. 

Chronic Sinus Temporary Minus …Can you hear how I sound from the inside? Is my body still mine when I am ill? Am I still me when my mind is not? 

The film is shot in Shelley’s Residence, the house and private medical practice of a British doctor, who lived in Paphos during 1947–1953, and who was well known for his curiosity for poisons and antidotes in African rituals of magic.  

Nicosia’s shadows, Memento Mori, Architectural fragments 

2016-2018 Nicosia, Cyprus 

Bio  

Stefanos Kouratzis (b. 1975, Athens, Greece) is a photographer living and working in Cyprus since 2001. For the last years has been working for Phileleftheros Group and the European University of Cyprus. Studied at Focus, School of Art Photography (Athens, Greece) and took online courses at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York). His career in Photography starts at the same time with his studies in 1994. For his work he has received international awards from organizations such as PDN (Photo District News), IPA (International Photography Awards), Px3 (Prix de la Photographie), Fujifilm EuroPress Awards etc. His photos are in books and private collections.  

Nicosia’s shadows, Memento Mori, Architectural fragments 

“Structural and other elements, through processes that receive and transmit multileveled and multidimensional stimulations through messages, both at an emotional and mental level, are used as means to start a dialogue through a landscape that changes, alters or is denatured while accepting challenges and invitations of architectural fragments with Anthropos, being the protagonist. Thus, by provoking and encouraging new ways of thinking visually, but also of consciousness, perception and understanding, through a constantly changing natural and artificial landscape, it prescribes a continuous search of the relationships that are created between Anthropoi, everyday life and works, with signs and practices becoming a place and a point of reference. Answers, becoming questions and have as their basis, a purely anthropocentric character and discuss with space and time and the seemingly long distance of yesterday and tomorrow, revealing or hiding in the light and shadows a whole world, the physical presence or absence.” 

A

rchitectural views: Neoptolemos Michaelides, NIC 

Nicosia, Cyprus  

Bio  

Orestis Lambrou was born in Nicosia Cyprus. He is a film maker and a photographer whose interest in documenting urban spaces from an anthropocentric point of view. Through his work, both still and durational, he attempts to bring forth what is otherwise missed. He has a BA (hons) in film from the University for the Creative Arts in Surrey England and an MA in Image and Communication from Goldsmiths, University of London. He currently lives and works in London. 

Architectural views: Neoptolemos Michaelides 

 A photographic study into the architecture of Cypriot modernist architect Neoptolemos Michaelides and the current (2009) use of his buildings. The photographs are a selection from the book of the same title, published by Tramba Publishing with support from the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Cyprus Architects Association. 

NIC  

A series of photographs from the Nicosia International Airport (NIC). The terminal building was built in 1968 only to be soon after abandoned in 1974 and since enclosed inside the UN buffer zone. Its grounds are today used by the UN peacekeeping forces in Cyprus (UNFCYP) and its runway— still featuring an abandoned Cyprus Airways jet—is used to give driving lessons to UN personnel.  

Refugio 

9th and 10th of November 2017  

Selimiye Square, Faneromeni Square, Nicosia, Cyprus 

Bios  

Yiannis Pappas is a Berlin based artist. Throughout his work runs a deep fascination for the relation between space and the human body in natural and urban environments. His visual language is rich and varied, encompassing multiple forms of expression, such as video work, photography, performative, installative and interventionist practices, all of which bear the signs of Pappas’ anthropological and phenomenological approach toward his subjects. Underscored by a critical interest in space, as sites of physical and symbolic enactment, his artistic work and research explores how different places are sustained collectively and individually throughout history. 

Alexandros Michail’s work attempts to enter into a creative discourse with the hidden dynamics of domestic and public power, and investigates the construction of the self in the context of cultural, national and gender identities. It aims to unlock the unfamiliar, unfold the tremendous oddity of the ordinary and strip objects, relationships and space off from their given meanings through a process of progressive abstraction. He is interested in testing the narrative volume of silence, the embodied anxiety of stillness, the inconvenient (sometimes violent) but also comforting impact of passing from “I” to “we”. 

Refugio 

 Refugio (refuge), from the Latin Fugere (to escape, to flee) but also of similar sound with Fugare (to hunt, to chase) is a comment on the dynamics of identity, something we always try to lay hold upon but is in constant flux. The two performers transform the public square in a field of constant negotiation of rival identities through their non-ending attempt to redefine the territory in their favor. A symbolic game of power where each one struggles for themselves defining the inside and the outside, the familiar and the foreign. Presented at Buffer Fringe Festival. Supported by Roberto Cimetta Foundation. 

“US”/”BİZ” Cyprus

The work is created as a short story telling film. The story is based on my parent’s 1960’s memories. My grandmother describes Agia Varvara Village in Paphos – its buildings and the social life. The project is created by me and my sister Eser Keçeci. 

Together 
January 2017
Nicosia, Cyprus
 

Together is a short documentary exploring the concept of genuine interaction and human connection under the context of the Cyprus Problem. It expresses the fresher perspective of young people who have overcome the boundaries of nationality, politics, history, and have understood the importance of connecting through their differences. 

Easter Bonfires, Off the Map, Coffee-house Embellishments
Various Locations in Cyprus  

Bio 

Nicos Philippou is a photographer with a strong interest in the Cypriot vernacular, topography and material culture. He cocurated the exhibition Re-envisioning Cyprus and co-edited a book with the same title (2010). He participated in Sense of Place at the BOZAR in Brussels (2012) and in Terra Mediterranea-In Crisis at NiMAC (2012). His Coffee House Embellishments was included in The PhotoBook Exhibition at the Benaki Museum in Athens (2015). He coedited Photography and Cyprus: Time, Place, Identity (2014). NiMAC hosted his solo exhibition Sharqi and published a photobook with the same title (2016). Philippou lecturers at the University of Nicosia. 

Easter Bonfires, Off the Map, Coffeehouse Embellishments   

Construction of bonfires begins on the morning of Good Saturday every year and follows a rather standard procedure and architectural pattern. For a short while between the commencement of construction and the structures being set alight in the early hours of Easter Sunday these stacked bonfires stand as impressive, ephemeral and makeshift urban monuments. Philippou’s seven yearlong photographic exploration of this intriguing architectural practice follows and complements a sustained pre-occupation with vernacular material culture and working-class aesthetics. His work on interiors of homes as well as coffee-houses invites viewers to reflect on hierarchies of aesthetics and the processes through which beauty comes to be defined. 

Between Fences, By the Gate Cyprus 

Bio  

Efi Savvides is a visual artist and art educator based in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her work seeks to investigate conditions of exclusion set up by institutions of power, especially in relation to minority groups in Cyprus. Savvides has presented her work at the 21st Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, the 4th International Cairo Biennale, and the 5th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art as well as in group shows at institutions including House of Cyprus and Benaki Museum, both in Athens; European Economic and Social Committee, Brussels; Paris; Goethe Institute, in Thessaloniki; and NiMAC, Thkio Ppalies, and Phytorio, in Nicosia. 

Between Fences, By the Gate  

For several years, Efi Savvides’ work has focused around issues involving migration, knowledge production, cultural diversity, and, integration. Concerned with new meanings of human behaviour and the impact of mass migration in adopted countries where economic falls have been the cause of other forms of crises – social, psychological, environmental, and, health – the artist pays particular attention to the type of social awareness surrounding immigrants in Cyprus today. Aware of the prescribed positions of “native” and “foreign”, these images, captured in an almost ritualistic progression of “spotting” through a camera lens, reflect on, rather than represent, arrangements of social status […].  

From colourful carpets and laundry hanging in the back yards, and portraits of strenuous daily moments, to passersby taking a peep into “otherlooking” life experiences of economic exclusion, Savvides’ research works at the level of uncovering experiences of borderline survival, at the same time, that they expand demarcations of peripheries in nationally divided countries. 
(Excerpts from Maria Petrides’ texts, titled, Between Fences and By the Gate) 

Unseen Views Cyprus 

Bio  

Charis Solomou is a practicing Architect and Lecturer at Frederick University Department of Architecture in the field of Computational Design and Fabrication, Parametric Design focused on Architectural Design Process dealing with innovative design methods and material solutions. He is also an Architectural Photographer and his work attempts to capture and present views that highlight the distinct character and particularities of the urban city and at the same time inspire and activate the reader-viewer toward a detachment from his everyday bland image of his city and force him to tour, to discover and re-experience the city in a different sight. 

Unseen Views  

The work strives for alternative ways of describing the city where concealed, unseen characteristics and particularities of the urban experience, begin to become apparent through the photographic lens. The photographic portfolio focuses on well-known landmark buildings as well as thematic compositions of anonymous architecture. The light and shadows, texture, the geometrical characteristics of space and the morphological elements of buildings are considered in the expression of their unique identity and presence in the built environment of the city. 

Liquid Time
2016 Municipal Garden, Nicosia, Cyprus 

Bio 

 Re-Aphrodite is an independent evolving group of practitioners, artists, researchers, activists and different individuals and social organizations based in Cyprus, which focuses on issues of gender, social difference, and other Cypriot political and social paradoxes through research, educational, curatorial, and creative practice. The initiative, created by Evanthia (Evi) Tselika and Chrystalleni Loizidou, first emerged in 2010 and has since been developing into an evolving collective with a wide range of critical academic and creative actions 

Liquid Time is the video documentation of the Re-Aphrodite project Shrines/ Habits, which has been developed through public space interventions that took shape as a series of fluid installations of shrines to Water Goddesses around Cyprus and Brazil. They were ritually set up as a series of itinerant, ever-evolving and sitespecific public installations or meetings that invite the intervention of friends and strangers.  

These meetings were perceived as non-happenings that begun with a fluid, repetitive, and nomadic gesture: the spreading of a cloth that connects to the translocation of people, faith, mobilization, and ideas, and the sharing of habits during “time off work”. The cloth Colcha de milagres cotidianos [Cloth of everyday miracles], which can be seen in the video, has been used by a growing number of people in spontaneous discussions and rituals. This video documentation has been gathered mostly from interventions in the Nicosia Municipal Garden in Nicosia, Cyprus; in symbolic sites of Aphrodite in her perceived birthplace Paphos, Cyprus, with a glimpse of its translocation in sites in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  

The protagonist of the video is the Nicosia Municipal Garden, a public space accessible twenty-four hours a day that is used by different communities, social groups and individuals for diverse purposes and social practices.  

Liquid Time has been edited by Evi Tselika and uses footage captured from 28.12.2015 until 06.08.2016

Just like Home, The Coop 2013 – 2018 Nicosia, Cyprus  

Yiannis Zouris was born in Nicosia in 1982. He studied Political Sciences and History, Cultural and Media Studies in Athens, Norwich and Leiden. He currently lives in Cyprus where he works as a photographer and filmmaker. In both his still and motion work, either documentary or fiction, Yiannis’ work explores the human condition in demarcated spatial and socio-temporal environments. 

Just like Home  

‘Just like Home’ is a series of photos about a specific street in the southern part of Nicosia, Trikoupi Street. The stimulus for the recording of life on this street was the perception of a common lifeworld, a small universe that is both cause and consequence of the co-existence of the diverse cultures, religions and ways of being that constitute it.  

Starting from the OXI roundabout and ending abruptly on the green line on a roadblock of white and blue barrels, Trikoupi Street is a spatial strip within a walled city where a strong presence of people from the middle-east, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe mingle with the local element resulting in the creation of a hybrid habitus. This distinctive lifeworld, a particularity in the Greek-part of Nicosia, is at the same time a living articulation of an intrinsic universality of humanity. 

The Coop 

 A short film by Yiannis Zouris. 2016. 20 minutes. A young man named Polis commutes to a village to finish the building of a small construction. Due to a series of unexpected events Polis will be introduced to new knowledge and perceptions that will eventually help him realize and claim his condition of existence. Just like the film in itself, Polis is moving on equilibrium between reality and fiction and between allegory and literality. 

Presence in Absence Cyprus – 2005  

Bio  

Kyriaki Costa studied Byzantine and Applied Arts in Greece and the United Kingdom. She is a member of the Cyprus Visual Artists Association. Her work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally. Costa is also an activist in Cyprus and she deals with topographies, histories, and place-making, by using art as an anthropological practice. Since 2013, she is the Artistic Coordinator of the Non Profit Organization Phaneromenis 70. 

Presence in Absence  

An animated story of text-iles and text-s… An animated story of lines making up my own understanding of “home”. Many interwoven themes & contrasts: Life / Death – Presence / Absence – Nature / Technology … A bittersweet journey between lines I crossed, stories I imagined, threads I created and contrasts I experienced. My work Presence in Absence aims to be seen as a visual open work, with no apparent beginning or end: Weaving is an open-ended work, experience and being is an open-ended work, History, stories and cultures are open-ended works. All we are is an amalgam of emotions in motion… 

Date Time Location Koilani, Cyprus – August 2017 

Bio enacttheatre was founded in 2014 by Marina Makris and Elena Kallinikou. Their work has toured extensively in several cities and was presented in several festivals in Cyprus and Greece. Their latest production “The Dust is Expected to Retreat by Tomorrow” was selected to represent Cyprus at BJCEM Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale. 

Dimitris Chimonas’s work appears in the intersection of performance and textbased narration, exploring spectacle and context. He presented works in galleries, museums and theatres in Cyprus, London, Edinburgh, Athens, Tirana, Paris and New York. 

Date Time Location  

One body of work consisting of 13 performances, in 13 locations around sunset time. Three performers enter and exit a public space and engage in a non-scripted ritual of rhythmical clapping allowing a series of failures, successes and familiar rhythms to unravel. By deconstructing the folk music and dances of the Eastern Mediterranean and European region, the rhythms and vibrations become an accommodating platform for an essential meeting with the present moment and location. 

The Rest of Us 
March 2018
Karpaz Golden Beach, Bedi’s Salamis, Ayios Sergios, Famagusta Supermarket, Ambeliku – Cyprus 

Settings are commonplace: a supermarket, countryside, a seaside. Work and leisure are juxtaposed within these indoor and outdoor environments. 

The blue waters of the Mediterranean surrounding the island evoke the feeling of a way out and being trapped at the same time; a metaphor for the situation most Cypriots experience living in Cyprus. Yet, we turn to the great architect, nature itself, to escape from the entrapments of work routines, to reiterate our existence in tradition and cultural rituals; we celebrate ourselves and carry on. 

Tatbikat Famagusta, Cyprus – 2018
So close Larnaca , Cyprus – 2017 

Bio  

Born in London 1989, lives and works in Famagusta, Cyprus. She holds BA in Fine Arts / Painting from the Hacettepe University, Turkey and MA in Fine Arts from the University of Brighton, England. Her practice is mostly painting and installation which cover cultures and politics with a childlike aesthetics. 

Tatbikat civil defense organization operation/battle: tatbikat (TR) Committee of Emergency Situations and Civil Defence According to the exercise scenario, electronic warning sirens will be operated simultaneously in the city centers of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on 10th of October, Wednesday, October 25th, and warning sirens will be operated in Girne city center on Thursday, October 26 at 15:00. 

The Traces Series
 Elements Series 
Cyprus  

Bio  

Anthimos was born in 1992 in the small city of Larnaca in Cyprus and in an early stage he discovered the passion he had for architecture, that later on choose to have also as a profession with a small twist on photography that he found as a mean for capturing the qualities that derive from architecture. 

The Traces Seriedeal with various aspects that define and describe the element of time, with the only difference now being that its measuring unit is no other that the actual human presence and usage in all scales and durations. 

Elements Series revolves are the idea of seeing space through a different type of perspective. A perspective that is defined and framed by layering a variety of several other elements that have different diversities in matters of form, depth, and transparency. 

The Burden
“Memorial Dedicated to the Missing”, Latsia Municipality, Nicosia, Cyprus – 2009 

Bio 

The practice of visual artist Pashias is grounded in the field of performance art, installation and photography, by establishing the artist’s body as basic material for creation. PASHIAS has participated in solo and group exhibitions, as well as international festivals in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Norway, Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Bulgaria, Turkey and Brazil. 

The Burden 

 In the video performance “The Burden”, the artist’s body is multiplied and placed underneath a ‘burning’ yet heavily ‘still’ flame – joining a number of female figures at the public monument “Memorial to the missing” found in Nicosia. PASHIAS approaches the act of ‘bearing weight’ as a physical exercise, and a metaphor for the ‘burden’ or ‘honor’ to be carried by an individual – attached to an ideological framework. This site-specific act of corporeal support to a sculptural symbol, transforms into a ‘monumental’ protest of solidarity to a social struggle, functioning at the intersectional point of real and imaginary, public landscape and private space, shadow and light. 

me@t 
Limassol, Cyprus – 2015 –2016 

Bio 

Constantina Peter studied Theatre Studies in National University of Athens and continued in Utrecht University for her master degree in Contemporary Theatre and Dance. She collaborated with theatre organizations both in Cyprus and abroad. Dimitris Spyrou, known as Acapella Solo Loop, is a musician performer who experiments with music, poetry, movement and theater.  

me@t  

The project me@t was created by Constantina Peter in the frame of theYard.Residency.15 of Centre of Performing Arts MITOS and was supported by the Cultural Services of Ministry of Education. me@t is a visual comment, which carries the memory and life of four immigrants that live and work in Cyprus. It negotiates subjects as: Place, Displacement, and Memory. According to Martin Heidegger, the human being is part of the place; it’s been defined from it and revolts through it. Having this theory as a reference combined with the artist’s background; how life revolts when a human is being displaced?  

Old Nicosia, Trikoupi Street Site Analysis Nicosia, Cyprus – February 2018 

Bio 

Karin is a Dutch researcher and visual artist (photography, drawing, painting, collages and filming) who has worked in Greece, Syria, Egypt and Turkey and is now living and working in Cyprus. She has been working on ethnographic and visual projects in Istanbul and on an ethnographic film on migration, focusing on Istanbul and Athens. 

A moonlit night in North Nicosia: connections between the tangible and intangible. 

 When it gets dark on winter evenings in North Nicosia, the moonlit streets become silent and empty. Inside buildings, however, social life and work life of different ethnic and cultural groups is happening. This project intends to show Cyprus’ multi-identities, apart from the binary identities that are often ascribed to the island. This project is composed of two videos. 

Arte-facts Cyprus – 2017-2018 

Bio 

Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert is a visual artist, researcher and educator. She is currently associate professor at the Cyprus University of Technology and the coordinator of its “Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Lab”. Her artistic and research interests include museum studies and visual sociology with an emphasis on photography.  

Arte-facts  

In my search for contemporary visual evidence of the everyday relationship of Cypriots with archaeological artefacts, I decided to photograph the owners of life-sized replicas of “Aphrodite of Soli” next to their statues. While the original statue is exhibited at the Cyprus Museum on a pedestal, these replicas step down from their pedestals and become domestic objects, exposed to the elements and placed alongside plants and other everyday objects. For this project, I’m creating a new archaeological photographic record with an emphasis on alternative narratives: the everyday people behind the replicas of Aphrodite of Soli, and the different meanings and uses of archaeological artefacts. 

Red transparency Card 2014, Nicosia,Cyprus 

A man trying to capture the light of a Cyprus land scape through a red transparent card. The video refers to works by William Turner and many other romantic artists who tried to manage the physical light of landscapes. There  is also a natural obstacle, the wind, which is making the action even more difficult. 

Memory of Death  

2017
Cyprus 

The care of the burial site has been the duty of the living to the deceased as a deposit of love and loyalty. The daily ritual focuses on objects that decorate the last dwelling; on their emotionally charged symbolism, and, above all, on the ceremonious care that is transformed into compulsion, obsession and need. 

Ayios Sozomenos – Place of barley – Timeless encounters 

20.04.2018 Nicosia, Cyprus  

Footage from Ayios Sozomenos – Place of barley – Timeless encounters event organized by the Creative Center for Fluid Territories CCFT, the NGO Urban Gorillas with the University of Nicosia. 

In the abandoned village of Ayios Sozomenos, silence penetrates oneself,  yet the event “Ayios Sozomenos – Place of barley – Timeless encounters” set up a framework where new traces were to be created. People reflected upon the peculiarity of the space through presentations, discussions and art interventions installed around the village.  

The Venice Biennale of Architecture

16th International Architecture Exhibition

Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2018

“Biennale Architettura is one of the most prestigious architecture exhibitions in the world, funded in 1980 and directed by famous architects and scholars over the years, such as Francesco Dal Co, Richard Burdett, David Chipperfield, Rem Koolhaas and Alejandro Aravena. After fifteen editions, La Biennale is commonly considered the most influential and significant benchmark for both experts and architecture lovers: it attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each edition (260.000 in 2016, on top of the 14,180 visitors of the preview days), and in particular young people under 26, which represent almost half of the total. 65 national participations took part in the last edition. To investigate, to find answers and stimuli, to reveal: La Biennale has been able to approach not only architecture professionals. During the last edition, its commitment for education, research, international dialogue has permitted the organization of three Meetings on Architecture, itineraries addressed to almost 44.000 participants (above all young), 20 collateral events.”

Open Call

The curating team of the Cyprus Pavilion for the Venice Biennale of Architecture invites artists and NGOs to send video and image material that will be presented within the Cyprus Pavilion upcoming exhibition.

 

Open Call for Architects:

EN & GR ARCHITECTS Open Call

Open Call for Artists:

EN & GR Artists NGO’s Open Call

Location

Cyprus Pavilion

Calle Pestrin, Castello, 30122 Venezia, Italy

Cyprus Base

Vasileos Pavlou 78, Kaimakli 1021, Nicosia

Contact

Phone:  22511550
Email: [email protected]

Social Media:

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