Order and subjectivity

Anna Maria Maiolino

Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art

This exhibition, which opens on October 25, has been curated by Michael Astbury

Anna Maria Maiolino’s work has for some time been considered as central to the development of the late 20th century art in Brazil and Latin America, and the artist has increasingly received international recognition as a key figure on contemporary art.

Over a career that spans almost 50years, Maiolino has continuously re-appraised her production, initiating new lines of enquiry, often accompanied by the use of new media. Productive tensions have operated throughout the stages of her career, forming a contextual matrix that ranges from the personal to the historical, from the quotidian to the monumental.

Subjectivity thus accompanies the work’s relation to the wider history of art, guiding the ambivalence between the artist’s innate modesty and her impossible desire for completeness; a stubborn search for a sense of totality in the work.

This exhibition presents recent and historic works by the artist, ranging from drawings and photographs, to films and an installation.

A diptych

Charalambos & Vaso Sergiou

for Urbansoul Festival v 2

Here is a poetic description of the Sergious’ groundbreaking installation that was at the Urbansoul Festival v2, written by the two artists.

Read it. It’s very meaningful.

"On one side, a cubicle with mirrored symbols to accommodate people of any religious background. An interesting resting place perceived by some as a cemetery for the living and others as a holy spot in a no man’s land.

And there was a tree, a symbol of Nature or a man’s wisdom to welcome the rest of the crowd. It proved stimulating and knowledgeable finding oneself in a room with a tree, almost erotic After all, how often is one alone with a tree?

The epidermis of the cubicle was a graffiti making conversation, with the graffiti decorating the children’s playground on the other side of the park.

The other side of the coin was another space. A door was raised above a table held by strong metallic rods. Religious-related books were chained and hung over the table just above the ground.

Over the door, on the outside of this space laid a ‘dark’ figure with knife-like hands and feet.

Was it the other side of religion or was it a fanatical protector?

It disturbed because most of the people recognised it, either way."

Dreamscapes

Tatiana Soteropoulos

Art Prive, Metochi 56

Tatiana Soteropoulos is a Greek-Cypriot artist who studied as Fulbright scholar in the USA and graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in the Division of Illustration (Magna cum Laude).

As a fine artist, she has participated in many group exhibitions in Cyprus and in other European countries.

As a commercial artist, she has worked freelance in advertising firms, collaborated with publishing houses and illustrated 20 children’s and teenagers’ books. She teaches art in a public high school in Cyprus and is the art counsellor of the Inspector of Art at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus.

In 2005, she collaborated with Erik Maell to create the designs for the new national currency of Cyprus. These illustrations were chosen by the Central Bank of Cyprus to become the first ever euro coins to be issued for the country.

The exhibition continues until November 7.

Figure-lyricism–dream

COSTAS Joachim has an exhibition at the Alpha Gallery, Nicosia.

Joachim was born in 1936 in Bellapais, Kyrenia. He studied painting at the Bath Academy of Art at the Unversity of Bristol in England and the Athens School of Fine Arts.

His works can be found at the Cyprus Museum of Modern Art and at the National Gallery of Greece, in the collections of the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Archbishopric in Cyprus, at the office of UNESCO in Paris, and in many private collections including that of Takis Ioannou.

He is one of the seven founding members of the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts (EKATE) in 1966.

In 2003, 2004 and 2006 his lifetime achievements and contributions to the culture of Cyprus were recognised with awards from the President of the Republic.

He says that in his latest work of paintings he is concerned with themes that he created before 1974. They developed into paintings from drawings and studies in colour.

They date from a period of intense creativity inspired at Bellapais Studio by the idyllic countryside of Bellapais.

Colourful compositions in-clude figures, which have been characterised as swirling flowing free studies of movement in forms and colours, giving wonderful poetic dreamlike statements.

Figure compositions in a more sensitive, lucid approach, blending associated colours, thus luring the spectator into the aesthetic interaction.

The combination of the experiences into a non-representational context with graphic symbols is a gift. Although the study of the artist may have been done on a different level he may select and digest the experience to his own terms and his personally created forms.

Costas says: "In my artistic explorations, I study the numerous analogies that refer to space within the picture, to the line and to the form, as they exist as we see them, as they themselves as shapes have an impact on us.

"And then, while they are translated and transferred to the canvas, they are transformed, condensed and abstracted towards the basic concepts. This is a continuous ‘dialogue’ with the white surface of the canvas."

Dance master class

A master class - ‘ECHOES of SPIRIT DANCE ‘ - will be taught by Aziza, of the US and Arianna Economou, of Cyprus, with George Koulas and Moreno on the drums.

It will incorporate release, improvisation, storytelling, chanting, contemporary and African based movement

The workshop takes place on Friday , October 19, from 7pm– 10pm, at the old American Center, in Homer Street, Nicosia, next to the Cyprus Museum.

The event is addressed to all interested , choreographers, dancers, musicians, artists, theatre people, men and women, and all who love to dance.

Aziza is a native of Harlem, New York and long-time community activist, as well as a choreographer, performer and teacher, whose work focuses on the development of community-based art.

As a professional dancer she toured with Stevie Wonder, Dianne McIntyre's Sounds In Motions and David Rousseve and was assistant choreographer for the Broadway productions of Rent and Mule Bone.

Aziza is the Founder/Artistic Director of the Def Dance Jam Workshop, an inter-generational performing arts troupe and programme serving youth and adults who are deaf, hard of hearing, and physically or developmentally challenged.

Arianna Economou is an interactive artist/ performer, dance artist and dance- activist in the community.

A pioneer innovative artist giving dance a place for the last 25 years in the Cyprus contemporary arts scene and organiser and founding member and director of ECHO ARTS Living Arts Centre (www.echo-arts.info) for research and development of dance as a contemporary performance art.

A pioneer in organising bicommunal performance projects the last four years, also the initiator and founding member of the first professional registered dance groups association in Cyprus.

For further information call Arianna: 0357 22 777 046 or 00 357 99 685 662.