Christoforos Savva (1924-1968)

The SPEL building renovations, in the heart of old Nicosia, have been completed, yielding the infrastructure for a significant cultural project: the new State Gallery of Contemporary Art – SPEL. This new site opens its doors to the public for the first time on the 31st of January 2019, presenting a large-scale survey show of works by Christoforos Savva (1924–1968), curated by Jacopo Crivelli Visconti.

In a relatively short period of time, Savva produced an impressive and highly diverse body of works, ranging from the figurative paintings of the ‘50s to the abstract paintings, the sculptures, the experimentations with wire, cement, and fabric leftovers, as well as the forays in furniture design and the architectural interventions he undertook in the ‘60s.

Through more than ninety works, the exhibition Untimely on Time will present the inclusive, idiosyncratic diversity of Savva’s production, thus paying homage to a major figure of Cypriot art.

The exhibition is held on the occasion of a double fifty-year anniversary associated with the participation of Christoforos Savva in the first official participation of the Republic of Cyprus in the Venice Biennale in 1968, as well as the subsequent death of the artist in the same year.

The event is organised under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Mr. Nicos Anastasiades.

The Minister of Education and Culture, Mr. Kostas Champiaouris, will open the exhibition at 20:00. The Show will already open to the public at 19:00.

PROGRAMME OF PRESENTATIONS & TALKS

Friday 1st February
18:00 Guided tour of the exhibition by the curator, Jacopo Crivelli Visconti (in English, with consecutive
interpretation into Greek)
19:30 Discussion with the curator and visual artists Giorgos Skotinos, Giorgos Kyriakou and Polys Peslikas
(in Greek)

Saturday, 2nd February
11:00 Discussion with Ghika Savva-Coyle and Polina Nicolaou on Christine Savva-Duroe’s archive, presented
for the first time as part of the survey show (in English, with consecutive interpretation into Greek)
12:00 Presentation by Achilleas Demetriades, Advocate, on the subject of ‘Artists’ Resale Rights in the Cyprus
legal order’ (in Greek)
12:30 Presentation of the publication The Memory of The Archive: Christoforos Savva in the 1954–1968
Cypriot Press & Literary Periodicals, Bom Dia Books, 2019, by the author Maria Panteli, sociologist (in Greek)

Additional events to be held during the exhibition will be announced.