Hypersurfacing

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of NiMAC, the project seeks to showcase the plurality of practices among Cypriot contemporary artists, and will unfold via two platforms: an exhibition and a forum.

Starting in early November, the forum will involve a group of international curators who, in collaboration with the participating artists, will attempt to activate a space for creative exchanges and meetings. Curators Ioanna Gerakidi, Ryan Inouye, Katarina Kostandinović, Luca Lo Pinto, Salma Tuqan, and Andrés Valtierra will be participating in the forum. A series of events will be open to the public.

Featuring photography, film, sculpture, sound, text, installations, and spatial compositions, the exhibition evolves around the concept of the surface, foregrounding its inherent presence in the work of the artists.

According to the curator, “surface is understood here as a site of emergence, where material and conceptual exchanges enable artists to articulate thoughts. It stands as the most directly apparent aspect of our environment, material or immaterial, and emerges, hence, as a process of becoming perceptible. The state of being hyper, on the other hand, presupposes a mode of over-being. And when it meets the surface, the hyper opens up to possibilities beyond materiality and signification.”

Taking the notion of the hypersurface as a starting point, the exhibition sets out to explore the prospects that arise when one witnesses an event or a process of anticipation. To do so, the artists have posited the hypersurface in their own areas of interest and research, and delved into subjects ranging from natural and urban landscapes to autobiographical and imaginary relationships, material and immaterial studies, fact and fiction. Hence, the works presented in the exhibition are both a response to and—in many ways—a reverberation of the concept of the hypersurface.

The project will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays by Misal Adnan, Marina Christodoulidou, Eoin Dara, Ioanna Gerakidi, Mattia Giussani, Ryan Inouye, Jesi Khadivi, Carlos Kong, Katarina Kostandinović, Luca Lo Pinto, Francis McKee, Ceel Mogami de Haas, Edwin Nasr, Yiannis Toumazis, Andrés Valtierra and Andreas Vrahimis.

Forum
Exhibition as language/space/agency for contradicting ideas, forms, and experiences (English)
Talk by Luca Lo Pinto
Saturday, 16 November 2019, 11:00

“hit me baby one more time” or “a letter to my future self” (English)
Lecture-performance by Katarina Kostandinović
Wednesday, 27 November 2019, 19:00

A listening for subverted witnessings (Greek)
Artists’ talks, moderated by Ioanna Gerakidi
Saturday, 30 November 2019, 16:00

Fiction and poetry as curatorial devices (English)
Talk by Andrés Valtierra
Friday, 13 December 2019, 19:00

‘Haptic’ surfaces: Pedagogy and entanglement (English)
Talk by Natascha Sadr Haghighian and Ryan Inouye
Thursday, 23 January 2020, 19:00

Book launch
Talk by Marina Christodoulidou and Salma Tuqan
Saturday, 29 February 2020, 11:00

Further events, guided tours, and educational programs to be announced.