Terra Mediterranea: In Action

Pafos2017, European Capital of Culture presents in Nicosia and in Pafos Terra Mediterranea: In Action, a project that includes a major contemporary art exhibition, an international conference and a series of parallel actions with the participation of a great number of artists from Cyprus and abroad. The project is organised by the Pierides Foundation and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC) and is curated by Dr Yiannis Toumazis.

Terra Mediterranea: In Action aims at detecting, investigating and presenting the reflections of contemporary artists on today’s universal landscape of economic, political, religious, social, but also deeply existential crisis of identity, especially as viewed through “Mediterranean” eyes, from both a political and a poetic stance.

The tragedies currently taking place in the Mediterranean Basin bring again to the fore the importance of this enclosed sea, which may be characterised as a “liquid continent” that is an extremely political and politicised space. One could also argue that the Mediterranean is for Europe the “irrational underbelly that brings disorder, border breaching, colonial phantoms, and an uncanny claim to a common, mythically glorious, ancient past.” [rivistapolitics.wordpress.com]. Today, this multifaceted and complicated entity, for years marginalised in western eyes as an orientalist haven of corruption and backwardness, has become an obvious and unavoidable focus of political action.

In particular, the Terra Mediterranea: In Action exhibition intends to illustrate how, in this era of globalisation and the increased visibility of “peripheral” artistic activity, contemporary artists from the Mediterranean region and the international art scene negotiate issues of history, memory and politics. The exhibition includes a variety of presentational formats such as visual works, performances, theoretical discussions, film screenings, talks, literature and poetry readings, public interventions and educational programmes.

A different version of the project was organised and presented in collaboration with Halle 14 in Leipzig, in September 2016, co-curated by Yiannis Toumazis and Michael Arzt.

VENUES:
Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation [NIMAC]
Opening: 7 April 2017, 20:00
Duration: 7 April – 29 July and 5 September – 25 November 2017
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00 – 21:00
Participating artists and theorists: Ana Adamović, Marwa Arsanios, Sofia Bempeza, Banu Cennetoğlu, Marianna Christofides, Kyriaki Costa, Βassam El Βaroni, Silvia Giambrone, Hackitectura, Lia Haraki, Elizabeth Hoak-Doering, Eleni Kamma, Serap Kanay, Nurtane Karagil, Mahmoud Khaled, Zissis Kotionis, Mona Marzouk, Panayiotis Michael in collaboration with Pascalle Burton, Isabel Carvalho, Peter Eramian, Erden Kosova, Flavia Malusardi, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Christopher Rey Pérez, Maria Petrides and Liv Strand, Yael Navaro and Emrah Gokdemir, Erkan Özgen, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Despo Pasia and Antonis Hadjikyriacou, Polys Peslikas, Alexandros Pissourios, Ran Slavin, Neoterismoi Toumazou, Evi Tselika, Paola Yacoub and Michel Lasserre

Fabrica’s Cave, Pafos 
Opening: 8 April 2017, 11:00
Duration: 8 April – 25 November 2017
Opening hours: Monday – Sunday: 10:00 – 19:00
Installation: Chiharu Shiota, A Walk through the Line
Α collaboration between European Capital of Culture – Pafos2017 and the EU-Japan Fest Committee

Pafos Medieval Castle 
Opening: 8 April 2017, 12:00
Duration: 8 April – 25 November 2017
Opening hours: Winter (16 September – 15 April) – Sunday: 08:30 – 17:00
Summer (16 April – 15 September) Monday – Sunday: 08:30 – 19:30

Participating artists and theorists: Ana Adamović, Tom Dale, Elina Ioannou, Panayiotis Michael in collaboration with Pascalle Burton, Isabel Carvalho, Peter Eramian, Erden Kosova, Flavia Malusardi, Iordanis Papadopoulos, Christopher Rey Pérez, Maria Petrides and Liv Strand, Erkan Özgen, Alexandros Pissourios