Does Europe exist?

Within the framework of the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union the ARTos foundation is organizing an exhibition entitled “Does Europe exist?”, which will take place 1-15 November 2012. This exhibition poses the question, among others, in how far Europe as an entity exists within her "geographical", among others, space.

How do we see Europe through the media? The complexity of problems and the hazards of these times should lead us to a re-evaluation of the situation. Culture, through the citizens who produce or consume it, should follow renaissance and anthropocentric approaches. Above all it should be able to aim towards social thought, through self-awareness and stepping out of the passivity that pervades us. Reconciliation with our history and coexistence with the environment and multiculturalism should be the only way for us. The Colosseum of ancient Rome should stop being reproduced on our flatscreens.

The exhibition "Does Europe exist?" primarily highlights, challenges and proposes actions that aim towards the self-awareness of Europe, criticism towards the blazing Middle East, reflections of the small but important Cyprus as Europe's outpost in the southeastern Mediterranean. Art does no longer concern us as a system, or as a production, but as a raison d'être and a voice that must position itself in substance.

The exhibition consists of the exhibition and roundtable discussion "Citizen Middle East", the installation "Relocated" and the exhibition "Stitching the Buffer Zone 1: Territories are but fear of space".

Citizen Middle East

An article published in The New York Times' arts and culture blogger page, entitled "Does Europe Exist?" in May 2008 by Barry Gewen, pondered the idea of whether Turkey should become part of the European Union, and whether Europe should consider the economical implications, as well as the cultural impact it will create across a continent that seemingly was not prepared to host an entire confrontation of religious and socio-anthropological diversities.

That thought has allowed for another mediation to occur towards the question: What cultures do exist in Europe, and to what extent does their diversity drive their national identities? Questioning the role of the European citizen vs. the ethnic who migrates to Europe, and transports with them their own cultural values, not to mention adopting new ones, designs a whole new understanding to the meaning of "cultural change". Europe shelters a large number of displaced and migrant cultures who came from the Arab countries and are still facing the fate of their political awakening today.

The diversity Europe serves today is of incredible growth compared to where it was 50 years ago. At a time where countries in Africa and the Mediterranean region were being freed from European colonialism, had also shown that today due to political displacement of post-colonialist countries, had it internationally changed the local dynamic designed amongst the cultures who migrated and became part of that "alternative" cultural set-up understood as "earning" a national identity. Their goal is to create and consolidate international collaboration, foster knowledge-exchange and support international mobility of cultural workers, theorists and artists.

The speakers we invite here are threefold; local environs and first and second wave generations who have become fully integrated into the national paradigms of their associative Euro-cultures. Discussing the diversity of their cultural belongings vs. the values created out of their professional markets of practice through the arts and culture of where they come from by origin, vs. where they are by placement and how that diversity arose from being the consequence during a digital age brought about a “Europe” with its incredible wealth of subterranean counterparts.

The action "Citizen Middle East" consists of a group exhibition and a roundtable discussion that will take place on Friday, 2 November 2012 at 19:00. "Citizen Middle East" is curated by Aida Eltorie from Egypt. Information on participating artists and academics follows:

ART TALK on Bio-Colonialism
Khaled Ramadan (Beirut – Copenhagen)
In the debate on expatriatism, nation-states most fear is the satellite dish and the Internet - in other words, any facility aiding the construction of a "virtual identity" and helping it to remain in contact with its roots and origins. I will present the way in which expatriates become the "authors" of their own identity and the processes by which they constantly draft and redraft themselves in virtual / personal logic.

The integration of Writing Systems in Visual Culture
Haytham Nawar (Cairo – Zurich)
Can we find a visual solution to aid societies in the development of a multicultural global community? How can new media be applied via multi-lingual design to decrease both the cultural and linguistic impact for the migrant? How can designers develop awareness of the complexities of using two coexisting languages in visual design?

Reversal Roles
Youssef Moscatello (Lecce – Sharjah)
The approach in my work carries an element of reversing roles. My work focus mainly on how the Islamic world is perceived from the international communities, and the misconceptions that the western world is having about the Arabic and Islamic world, whereby they often confuse culture with religion. My point of view on these issues is strengthened from the fact that I converted to Islam, from originally an Italian Christian background therefore, I can interpret everything in a singular way.

Europe and Beyond: Fortress or Global Community?
Ilka Eichkof (Berlin)
The racist culturalization within European societies of "the (Arab/Muslim) Other" is a topic I would like to address in this talk. Merkel's announcement of the failure and death of multiculturalism in 2010, David Cameron's call for the end of "passive tolerance", various attacks on Roma communities throughout European countries including France and Italy in the past years, or figures like Marine Le Pen or Gert Wilders are just a few examples of many.

The Magic Show
aladin (London)
aladin's multiple practices include that of professional magician: he is an elite "Gold Turban" member of the legendary Magic Academy, Bangalore - India, has appeared as himself in the Universal Pictures film "Magicians" and features in the global compendium of virtuosos "Book of Cool". Occupied with critically trespassing the frontier between the real and the illusive and in the spirit of putting "Art into Action", aladin will be conducting a one hour public intervention, "Becoming European by magic", questioning, and playing with ideas of ethnic and national identity through the device of "Magic Show".

Relocated

This work reflects upon current issues within the EU. In this united Europe the unity seems to be only present in the obliteration of the individual and the individuality of each country. The orange together with the orange tree is a reminiscent and a reminder of those other objects extrapolated from Cyprus in days gone by. History does tend to repeat itself!

I use the orange as a metaphor for a world where migration and globalization, dislocation displacement and relocation, conflicts and disputes, are second nature along with the demarcation of territories and pan-global hybridization. The orange is also used in this piece as an expression of temporality over time and space.

Several facts and factors
- Colonialism and thus dislocation and displacement in Europe happened especially from the XV Century onwards.
- Europe was the daughter of Agenor in Greek mythology.
- Europe "the dark" or the land of the setting sun.
- (HS) Harmonised Commodity Description System is the trading classification systems used world-wide, for the distribution of fruits and vegetables.
- In tombs like these, throughout Cyprus, excavations were carried out during the XIX century, and goods were removed and relocated to another continent.
Inês Rolo Amado
© October 2012

Stitching the Buffer Zone 1: Territories are but fear of space

Stitching the Buffer Zone is a collective initiative which aims to build up an open platform of interaction and exchange on the issue of the Cyprus Buffer Zone. By means of exhibitions, presentations, and/or public interventions, in Cyprus and abroad, Stitching the Buffer Zone is an ongoing open call to artists, activists, architects, urban planners, and researchers to question, reformulate and contest prevailing norms and ideologies concerning this spatial strip which is still excluded from everyday experience. In doing so, these events and collaborations aim to shift perspective, and, thus, to create new meanings, experiences, understandings, relationships and situations.

Territories are but fear of space is the first exhibition presented by Stitching the Buffer Zone. This exhibition brings together four women architects and urban planners. Their work grows out of a critical belief that histories of segregation produce territories of exclusion. Their approaches suggest processes of transformation of the buffer zone from such a territory to a space of multiple encounters.

In their own words:
Trans_experiences aim to invent mechanisms that transfer the experience of the buffer zone in to a real space, in order to redefine the perception of the boundary and to generate new spatial connections and transmutations. Through transient interventions, different elements are assimilated, intermingled and transformed, leading to a new "crossing experience".
[Stephanie Keszi & Georgia Frangoudi]

The Stitches - Connecting the "two Nicosias" again proposes a functional stitch aiming at recreating the broken threads of the City. Sound becomes a tool in urban context, promoting revival through encounter. Creating common experience aims at surpassing this zone of prohibition, remaining in space not only as an urban gap but also a gap in the memory of the city. It aims at challenging more stitches to occur.
[Maria Costi de Castrillo]

The GreenLineScapes Laboratory seeks to initiate healing ecologies in the physical and psychological rift of the Cyprus Buffer Zone - where the untamed forces of Nature have engendered a spontaneous
process of cicatrisation - and suggests the opportunity to create a beautiful scar through the creation of an ecological landscape of memory.
[Anna Grichting Solder]

For more information on Stitching the Buffer Zone, please contact: [email protected]

Exhibition inauguration: Thursday 1 November 2012 at 20:00
Roundtable discussion "Citizen Middle East": Friday 2 November 2012 at 19:00

Opening hours:
1 – 15 November 2012
Monday – Saturday* 10:00 – 13:00 and 16:00 – 20:00
*On Saturday 10 November the exhibition will only be open 10:00 – 13:00