The exhibition “I’ve made you a palm tree” by PASHIAS is being presented within the fame work of the Nicosia Pop Up Festival 2020
By identifying the establishment of the palm-tree as a staple feature of Cyprus’ urban landscape and as an integral part of our cultural identity, the exhibition “I’ve made you a palm-tree” locates historically the seed’s arrival to the island, emphasizing its connection to the person that planted it and lived with it. A tall and sturdy column rooted into soil, defying the horizon with its vertical outreach, opening up towards the sky into an ‘eruption’ of long and sharp needle-like leaves.
Visual artist PASHIAS collaborates with art historian Iosif Hadjikyriakos (Phivos Stavrides Foundation – Larnaca Archives) and architect Katerina Scoufaridou (Emblem Gallery), presenting a multidisciplinary approach to the palm-tree, as an emblem of mobility and displacement of cultural ideals within an open field of chronological and geographical origin. From the relations of the ancient kingdom of Kition to the Phoenicians, the island’s connection to Egypt and the region of Mesopotamia, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, to the modernization of costal fronts according to international trade models.
The seed’s travel and spread presents itself through diverse perspectives of spatial placement or social perception, exploring the sense of ‘belonging’ in relation to current sociopolitical conditions. Through the practice of photography, installation, graphic design and writing, the
human body, as primary material for creation, is ‘planted’ in parallel to the palm-tree, as a symbol that appears to be local and familiar, simultaneously foreign and exotic.
24/7 Exhibition
The exhibition takes place this December, in the form of an urban intervention at former Hondos Centre (20 Zenas Kanther Street, opposite Paul Restaurant) in Nicosia’s commercial centre. Activating the building’s facade, the passerby-viewer can access all exhibits from the sidewalk, during the whole day and night, according to their own time and spatial comfort. In a joint effort with this year’s Nicosia Pop-Up Festival organised by the Nicosia Municipality and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, the exhibition aims at revitalizing the public’s visiting interest for the newly-constructed pedestrian lanes. Info: www.pashias.art/ive-made-you-a-palm-tree
Exhibition
December 2020, Hondos Centre, Open for the whole day & night
Collaborators: PASHIAS, Iosif Hadjikyriakos, Katerina Scoufaridou
Supporters: Phivos Stavrides Foundation – Larnaca Archives, Emblem Gallery, Pantelis Pashias Co. Ltd, Nicosia Pop-Up Festival 2020 – Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre