Eleni's Letters

A performative response by Athina Kasiou and Marina Argyridou

Thursday, 30 May 2019 | 8 p.m.
GARAZ, 16 Ammochostou Str., Nicosia
Reservation required at +357 22 001508
Free entrance

Garage hosts a performative response to the exhibition visibilities / echoes / by the director Athina Kasiou and the actress Marina Argyridou.

The exhibition, organised by the Lefteris Economou Cultural Foundation and curated by Demetra Ignatiou, was on view at Garage between 15 March - 20 April 2019 and it showed works by four Cypriot artists of the interwar generation: Vera Gavrielides-Hadjida, Katy Stephanides, Eleni Charikleides and Pavlina Pavlides. It aimed to create the conditions for a reappraisal and contemporisation of the presence and the contribution of these four women artists in the artistic scene by urging us to turn our gaze in manifold ways towards their work and practices.

Seeking the multileveled utilisation of the mass of information accumulated through the curatorial research, Athina Kasiou was invited to propose an alternative response to the topic of the exhibition. Approaching the material in which she is granted access to and in collaboration with Marina Argyridou they present a performance structured upon the need to approach and (re)examine the stories of these women.

Focusing their interest upon Eleni Charikleides’ correspondence, part of which has been featured in Telemachos Kanthos Foundation’s publication titled Ελένη Χαρικλείδου (2011), Kasiou and Argyridou set an appointment in order to delve into the material and experiment with it in a condensed time frame. They take over the premises of GARAGE in the morning of 30 May engaging in an intensive, durational performative process. The doors open to the public at 8:00 p.m. on the same day, inviting us to get acquainted with the temperament and life of the artist.

The event is under the initiative Project Sezon that supports, promotes and provides a platform for narratives of female experience through its’ story.
Special thanks to Mrs Eleni Kanthou for granting us access to archive material.