visibilities / echoes /

With works by Vera Gavrielidou-Hadjida,Katy Staphanides, Eleni (Helene) Charikleidou, Pavlina Pavlides.

The exhibition visibilities / echoes / opens at Garage on March 15th 2019, with works by four Cypriot artists of the interwar generation. This exhibition concludes a thematic project dedicated to artists who are classified as second generation Cypriot artists in the historiography of contemporary Cypriot art. Preceded by the exhibitions α π ο χ ρ ω μ α τ ι σ μ ο ί (2017) και επιτελέσεις (2018), which shared the same thematic, it is organised upon the initiative of the Lefteris Economou Cultural Foundation. The aim of the foundation is to promote and recontextualise the work and artistic achievements of the artists of that period through the connection of their art and creative paths with contemporary artistic production. It also aims to encourage the involvement and familiarisation of current artists and culture professionals with the work, the overall contribution and the role of the artists of that generation in the formation and development of the contemporary reality of art in Cyprus.

The exhibition visibilities / echoes / collects and presents works by Vera Gavrilidou-Xajida, Kate Stephanidou, Eleni (Helene) Charikleidou, Pavlina Pavlidou. The four artists appeared on the artistic scene during the period of Independence and were active participants in the explorations and fermermentations of visual arts of their time. Graduates of Schools of Fine Arts, they held the tools, the knowledge and the penetrating artistic gaze that allowed them to carve out their own path in the field. Their work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions whilst some of them have represented Cyprus in important art showcases abroad. Bearing in mind the consistency, breadth and vitality of their work, one understands its importance and the contributions it made in the development of the artistic actuality in Cyprus and the promotion we owe to their work.

The choice of artworks for the exhibition visibilities / echoes / corresponds to the time period of 1960 – 1980 and indicatively reflects the path of each artist through the exposition of each’s aesthetic, expressive and thematic concerns. Seeking the multileveled utilization of the mass of information that came about due to the curatorial research, two contemporary creators were invited to suggest alternative responses to this material. Natalie Yiaxi creates an artist’s book, in which she introduces a hypothetical condition of a meeting and a talk with the four artists and their work, commenting on the absence or the inequitable presence they have on the historiographical narratives of Cypriot art. Athina Kasiou studies and approaches the material in which she is granted access to and in collaboration with an actress creates a theatrical response formed upon the need to approach and come closer the stories of these women.

The exhibition visibilities / echoes / aims to create the conditions for a reappraisal and contemporisation of the importance of the presence of these four women artists in the artistic scene by urging us to turn our gaze in manifold ways towards their work and practices.

Curated by Demetra Ignatiou
Assistant curator: AnnaMaria Charalambous
Exhibition graphics: Natalie Yiaxi

Opening: 15 March 2019 | 19:30
Duration: 16 March – 20 April 2019
Opening days and times: Tuesday – Friday: 17:00 – 20:00 & Saturday 10:00 – 12:00 & 17:00 – 20:00