CyprusT O D A Y

Vo l u m e L I I , N o 4 , O c t o b e r - D e c e m b e r 2 0 1 4

Contents

Volume LII, No 4, October-December 2014

Subscription Note: For free subscriptions please contact: anikolaidou@pio.moi.gov.cy. Cyprus Today is also available in electronic form and can be sent to you if you provide your e-mail. If you no longer wish to receive the magazine, in either print or electronic form, or if you have changed your address, please let us know at the above e-mail address. Please include your current address for easy reference.Editor’s Note: Articles in this magazine may be freely quoted or reproduced provided that proper acknowledgement and credit is given to Cyprus Today and the authors (for signed articles). The sale or other commercial exploitation of this publication or part of it is strictly prohibited.Disclaimer: Views expressed in the signed articles are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the publishers.The magazine can also be found on the Press and Information Office website at www.pio.gov.cy.

A quarterly cultural review of the Ministry of Education and Culture published and distributed by the Press and Information Office (PIO), Ministry of Interior, Nicosia, Cyprus.

Address: Ministry of Education and CultureKimonos & Thoukydides Corner, 1434 Nicosia, CyprusWebsite: http://www.moec.gov.cyPress and Information OfficeApellis Street, 1456 Nicosia, CyprusWebsite: http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio

EDITORIAL BOARDChairperson: Pavlos Paraskevas, Director of Cultural Services, Ministry of Education and CultureChief Editor:Jacqueline Agathocleous

jacqueline@gnora.comGNORA COMMUNICATION CONSULTANTS (website: www.gnora.com)Tel: +357 22441922 Fax: +357 22519743

Editorial Assistance: Natassa Haratsis-Avraamidesnavraamides@pio.moi.gov.cyPress and Information OfficeMichaela Mobleymmobley@spidernet.com.cy

Design: GNORA COMMUNICATION CONSULTANTS

Printed by: Printco Ltd

Front cover: Scene from Homer’s Iliad, directed by Stathis Livathinos, which was performed at KYPRIA 2014 International Festival

Back cover: Exhibit from the photography exhibition Cyprus at the turn of the 20th century by the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece

PIO 238/2014 - 7.000ISSN (print) 0045-9429ISSN (online) 1986-2547

Editorial ..........................................................................................2

Axiothea Festival ...........................................................................3

KYPRIA .......................................................................................18

Goddess Aphrodite ......................................................................24

Stelios Votsis ................................................................................28

Perfume of Cyprus ......................................................................29

Treasure Island .............................................................................30

Cyprus at the turn of the 20th ......................................................35

Glyn Hughes ................................................................................37

Digital Corpus ..............................................................................38

Unknown history .........................................................................40

Europa Nostra ..............................................................................50

Arshak Sarkissian ........................................................................51

I am not the cancer ......................................................................54

Soprano Tereza Gevorgyan ........................................................58

This is Italy ...................................................................................59

Short Matters ...............................................................................60

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This issue of Cyprus Today starts off with the University of Cyprus’ annual Cultural Festival, which took place in September and October at the beautiful Axiothea

Mansion. Audiences got the chance to enjoy a multitude of performances, concerts and workshops – to name but a few items – all under the theme of the day, which was poetry!

Following on is KYPRIA 2014 International Festival, with its performances based on older and newer texts or musical works which certainly did not disappoint. Festival-goers were spoilt for choice, with options including Homer’s Iliad, the CTO’s Constellations and the very popular comedy Oi fonisses tis Papadiamanti – among others.

Cyprus Today was saddened to hear of the untimely death of visual artist Glyn Hughes on 23 October 2014. Our issue takes a look back at this important artist’s work. Another great artist who left us suddenly in 2012, Stelios Votsis, was honoured by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture in cooperation with his family with a retrospective exhibition of his work, entitled Remembering Stelios Votsis – An Artistic Overview.

Our issue also features the documentary The Great Goddess of Cyprus, Cypriot director Stavros Papageorghiou’s film about the Greek Goddess Aphrodite.

In other interesting topics covered in this issue, the Cyprus Institute presented its Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus, a digitised record of the island’s ancient history, while the Cypriot Home of Cooperation won the Europa Nostra Award for cultural heritage.

And of course, there is a variety of exhibitions to choose from: The moving I am not the cancer installation, which toured several countries and arrived in Cyprus for two days in November, attempting to sensitise viewers to the inner struggles of advanced breast cancer sufferers. Readers will also be touched by the Unknown History exhibition held at the Pancyprian Gymnasium Museums, which tells the story of the Jewish Holocaust survivors’ final stop in Cyprus on their way to the land of Israel.

Other proceedings reviewed include the exhibition project Treasure Island featuring visual works, performances, public debates and events selected through an Open Call; the photography exhibition Cyprus at the turn of the 20th century; and Armenian artist Arshak Sarkissian’s art exhibition The Week of Madness.

Editorial

Treasure Island

Short Matters

Unknown History

Kypria

17th University of Cyprus Cultural Festival

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The beautiful Axiothea Mansion in Old Nicosia once again hosted the University of Cyprus’

annual Cultural Festival from 6 September to 12 October 2014.

Of Love and DeathBy Michalis Pieris (16 May, 2014)Of Love and Death is the title and theme of an anthology of Modern Greek poetry, proven in time, which the Theatrical Workshop of the University of Cyprus presented in Kastelliotissa in April this year, partly as a reaction to the conventional global day of poetry. An “Anniversary” established by government decree that gives any aspiring poet the opportunity to assume that it is time for him to be honoured by poetry rather than to honour poetry. This explains why major poets who are considered milestones on the evolutionary path of a national poetic tradition are often absent from most of the events organised on this occasion, not

only in our small province but also elsewhere. So are great poems, which in one way or another have determined the character of a “poetic territory”. Our “poetic territory”, the territory of Modern Greek poetry is small in its geographic scope (compared to the “poetic territories” of the major languages). However, it is vast in its genre diversity and depth. Its origins date back to the 12th-15th century, it reaches its Renaissance peak in the 16th and 17th century (the Anonymous Cypriot poet, Georgios Chortatsis, Vitsentzos Kornaros), while in the 19th and 20th century it achieves international recognition, culminating in two Nobel prizes (George Seferis, Odysseas Elytis) and many other important distinctions: International interest in the revival of the Delphic Festival, inspired and spurred by Angelos Sikelianos; Lenin Peace Prize for Ritsos; international acknowledgment of modern Greek literature thanks to Kazantzakis and Cavafy.

17th University of Cyprus Cultural Festival

Cavafis by THEPAK A Strange World

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This observation leads quite effortlessly to the conclusion that the nature of Modern Greek poetry was basically defined by the Greek poets of the periphery: Cyprus, Crete, the Ionian Islands, Alexandria, Asia Minor, and the Dodecanese. That is why its most important achievements have been written in the vernaculars of the greater Hellenic World.High poetry, like any other form of art, is produced by poets who express the historical epoch in which they have matured and which has defined them, but at the same time tune in to the rhythms of the language spoken by the ordinary people, listen to it breathe, and savour the juices of the verbal and musical wealth of the traditional and modern expressions of culture.With an anthology made with quality criteria that seek to bring us closer to the best examples of this high poetry, this year’s Festival offered a lot of music from different regions and different traditions that have one thing in common - the musicians that create it, though coming from different cultural backgrounds and belonging to

different schools, are not just musicians. Because they do not bring to stage already-established forms of art, either their own or created by others, but are true artists who toil on the threshing field of genuine creation as if they begin from scratch each and every time. As if they seek recognition and relive the experiences that form the essence of their art over and over again.That is why they are not just musicians but poets in the original Ancient Greek sense of the word, i.e. creators. Thus, each concert they give is a work in progress because they never cease to explore and create through improvisations that allow them to embark on daring quests.This is the rationale underlying the decision to enrich our programme with precious gems of poetry that create a poetic mood and shed an emotive light on all the events of this year’s Festival (theatre, concerts, and readings). Gems of poetry, which one should probably experience and analyse at a deeper level in order to feel the undercurrents that connect them to the various events, which Axiothea welcomes this year…...the navigable river of Axiothea, which flows gently through time, dividing it in two, and swells again and again, has nursed lovingly this year the beautiful jasmines at the entrance; an entrance that seeks to be a passage – to the world of art; a passage under a delicate roof of recognisable scent that blends with the shadow of the moon and bonds with the melody governed silently by “the laws of the starry dome”. And all this with one aspiration only: To offer to its itinerant birds that return every summer and every fall “nights full of miracles, nights sown with magic!”

Strings and piano concertSix artists from different parts of Europe, with outstanding educational background in music and notable achievements in the field of classical music, presented a virtuoso repertoire for strings and piano, featuring works by Niccolò Paganini, Franz Schubert, Ernest Chausson, Antonio Bazzini, Eugène Ysaÿe, Joseph Haydn, Camille Saint-Saëns and Giovanni Bottesini.The soloists Melina Harrer (violin), Aische Wirsig (double bass), Petru Iuga (double bass), Menelaos

Menelaou (violin) and Nikolas Alessandro Dante (violin), accompanied by Jana Drhova on the piano, contribute with their talent, expertise and love for classical music as teachers at the Music Talent Development Programme of the Ministry of Education and Culture. They prepared this unique programme especially for the audience of Axiothea to give a taste of their high art, but also to “pave the way” for their students, the talented children of the Cyprus Young Strings Soloists ensemble, which also performed at the Axiothea Mansion in September.

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata by Costas MontisTheatrical Workshop of the University of CyprusAdaptation and stage direction: Michalis PierisMusic: Evagoras KaragiorgisSet and costumes: Christos Lysiotis, Eliana ChrysostomouMovement coaching: Michalis PierisChoreography: Elena ChristodoulidouLighting: Giorgos KoukoumasSound supervision: Stamatia LaoumtziTechnical support: Kyriakos Kakoullis

Production manager, assistant director: Stamatia LaoumtziCast: The Chorus of Old Men and the Chorus of Women features all the members of THEPAK, while the major roles in this year’s performances are played by: Lysistrata: Christina Pieri Magistrate: Dimitris Pitsilis, Myrrhine: Myria Hadjimatthaiou, Cinesias: Stavros Aroditis, Coryphaeus of Old Men: Michalis Yangou, Coryphaeus of Women: Eftychia Georgiou, Lampito: Miranda Nychidou, Calonice: Angela Savvidou, Old Man: Chariton Iosifides, Old Woman: Michalis Michael.In honour of the “Year of Costas Montis”, and in response to an exceptionally high demand by the audience, the Theatrical Workshop of the University of Cyprus (THEPAK) offered two additional performances of Aristophanes’ famous comedy Lysistrata, translated into Cypriot dialect by Costas Montis.The performances, which were given in September at the Axiothea Mansion as well as Kourion Amphitheatre, were offered free to the public in an effort to disseminate and promote the work of the major contemporary poet of Cyprus.

Aristophanes’ Lysistrata by Costas Montis

Melina Harrer (violin) Strings and piano concert

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Montis’ Cypriot Lysistrata – with its luscious idiomatic language, full of brilliant translator’s choices – has already been recognised as a standard-setting rendition of an ancient text, which preserves the freshness and vivacity of Aristophanes’ writing style and highlights the richness of the Cypriot vernacular in all its beauty, adding an intense local flavour to the Ancient Greek comedy, an unmistakably Cypriot character.In THEPAK’s performance, this Cypriot character extends over to the broader musical and metrical organisation of the play, thus fitting the ancient comedy into the cultural context of Cyprus’ demotic and popular narrative tradition. This is achieved not only through stage direction and kinesiology, but also through the music of the play, composed by Evagoras Karagiorgis, which enters into a creative dialogue with Cypriot folklore, as well as through Christos Lysiotis’ approach to costume design, which is inspired by the traditional Cypriot costumes.Since its premiere in the fall of 2000 at the Rethymno Renaissance Festival, THEPAK’s version of Lysistrata has been performed dozens

of times in Cyprus and abroad (at municipal festivals in Cyprus and in Crete, at the International Meeting of University Theatre in Ancient Olympia, at King’s College of the University of London, at the Society of Cretan Studies – Kapsomenos Foundation in Chania, and even at the Rizokarpaso Gymnasium in the occupied part of Cyprus). The performance has achieved great recognition by both audiences and critics, becoming one of the most successful productions of the University of Cyprus Theatrical Workshop. This year, the performance underwent a revision with the inclusion of new cast in major roles.

Mark EliyahuA fantasy of Kamancheh and PianoMark Eliyahu: kamancheh, bağlamaAdi Rennert: pianoMark Eliyahu, composer, master player of the Persian-Azeri kamancheh and the Turkish bağlama, and one of the leading and most influential musicians in the Israeli world music scene, has been living and breathing music from the moment he was born. The son of musician parents, he started travelling

the Middle East at the age of 16 to study and research music, and has studied in Greece, Azerbaijan, Turkey and the Netherlands.Mark has composed and performed music for film, dance companies and theatre productions, and has written, arranged and produced music for various leading artists, such as Rita, Idan Raichel, Ishtar, Sevda (Azerbaijan), and many others. Mark was chosen by the European Union to represent Israel in various international projects and has performed on some of the most prestigious stages across the globe with his projects and ensembles, along with his father, Piris Eliyahu.In his first concert at the Axiothea Mansion, accompanied by the prominent Israeli pianist Adi Rennert, Mark Eliyahu presented a selection of pieces, inspired by the ancient CentralAsian, Persian and Middle Eastern musical traditions, and brought together with European and modal harmonies that preserve the essential emotional qualities of the music, while making it accessible and inviting to everyone across boundaries of time and space.

Waters of Cyprus, of Syria and of EgyptTheatrical Workshop of the University of CyprusText selection, adaptation and stage direction: Michalis PierisMusic: Evagoras KaragiorgisCostume design: Stavros AntonopoulosSet, stage and costume assistants: Kypros Georgiou, Anna KyriaziLighting design: Michalis Pieris, Gregoris PapageorgiouLight technician: Kyriakos KakoullisProduction manager, assistant director: Stamatia LaoumtziCast in leading roles: Stavros Aroditis, Myria Hadjimatthaiou, Christina Pieri, Gregoris Papagregoriou, Chariton Iosifides, Michalis Michael, Dimitris Pitsillis, Nicholas Kakkoufa, Michalis Yangou, Angela Savidou, Eleni Efthimiou, Makis Alampritis, Giorgos Koutsodontis, Loizos Gavriel, Michalis Philippakis, Christophoros HatzichristoforouChorus: Eftychia Georgiou, Maria Christodoulou, Georgia Liasi, Stella Alexiou, Andri Chatzigeorgiou, Michaella Protopapa, Kontstantina Evangelou, Christodoulos Santziakkis, and the remaining cast.

Study on the “Dramatic” CavafyAfter its successful journey to Delphi, Rome and Athens, the theatre production Waters of Cyprus, of Syria, and of Egypt. Study on the ‘Dramatic’ Cavafy by THEPAK was presented in October at the Teloglion Fine Arts Foundation upon special invitation by the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki.To mark the occasion, THEPAK gave an additional performance for the audience in Cyprus, giving theatregoers yet another opportunity to enjoy the multidimensional poetry of the Alexandrian in a modular play, grounded in the study of the “dramatic” Cavafy.The performance is based on the entire Cavafy oeuvre and combines those poems or parts of poems in which the Alexandrian makes use of techniques and elements characteristic of the dramatic art. The stage presentation is further enhanced by Evagoras Karagiorgis’ inspired music composed specifically for the play, as well A Woman’s Heart...

Mark Eliyahu

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as by Stavros Antonopoulos’ choices in costume design, both of which add a distinctive aesthetic to the performance.The director’s approach, which takes into account the different stages in Cavafy’s development as a poet (early, formative, mature), as well as the thematic areas of his poetry (philosophical/ didactic, historical/political, sensual/erotic poems), makes the performance not only an enjoyable artistic event but also a productive educational experience.

Waiting for the BarbariansLes HypocritesStage direction: Eleni Apostolopoulou, Alexandros GiannouPerformed by: Dimitra Kontou, Ilios Chailly, Alexandros Giannou, Eleni Apostolopoulou, Ioannis Michos, Topi PudasWith the voice of George CorrafaceVideo Art: Ilya ChorafasMusic: Orestis KalampalikisChoreography: Ioannis MichosLighting: Manon GarsinStage design: Manolis NtourliasLes Hypocrites – a theatre company established in Paris in 2012 and comprising artists of Greek and

Greek-French origin, working professionally in different arts but sharing a common interest in the Greek language and culture – present a fusion of theatre, music and video art, inspired by the poetry of Constantine P. Cavafy.Having the oeuvre of the Alexandrian as a set-off point, Les Hypocrites have created their own story in which the poet himself and his works play the leading role. The performance came to the Axiothea Mansion just a few months after its successful premiere in April 2014 at Theatre de Menilmontant in Paris.

A Woman’s Heart...Agioi Omologites Cultural WorkshopStefanos Filos: violin, voiceMaria Ploumi: lute, voiceAndreas Chatziandreas: clarinet, bagpipeAndreas Christodoulou: violin, lute, voiceFilippos Dimitriou: percussionNeophytos Kalogirou: guitarAgioi Omologites Cultural Workshop Music and Dance EnsemblesWith the friendly participation of Niovi CharalambousWith the performance A Woman’s Heart…, which blends together theatre, music and dance, the Agioi

Omologites Cultural Workshop seeks to explore the roles that a woman is often called to embrace – partner, sweetheart, mother, the driving force and source of inspiration for all arts in all epochs.A journey that begins in Cyprus and leads us through Asia Minor, Crete, the Cyclades, Chios, Thrace, Epirus and the Peloponnese in an effort to reveal the image of the woman as it evolved throughout the centuries.The script of the performance was written by the up-and-coming Cypriot writer Maria Papandreou (First Prize at the International Single Act Play Competition organised by the Union of Theatre Writers in Cyprus in 2012, Award at the Antonis Samarakis International Short Story Competition in 2014).

Cyprus Young Strings SoloistsEnsemble of the Music Talent DevelopmentProgramme of the Ministry of Education and CultureSoloists: Cleo Karpasiti, Anna Economou, Annisia Iacovou, Fivos Stavrou, Nicoletta DemosthenousPiano Accompaniment: Jana DrhovaUnder the guidance of Professor Matheos KariolouThe Cyprus Young Strings Soloists ensemble was

created in the framework of the ground-breaking Music Talent Development Programme of the Ministry of Education and Culture, which was conceived by and operates under the guidance and supervision of the distinguished Cypriot violinist and music pedagogue Professor Matheos Kariolou. The Programme aims at identifying children aged 3-10 with recognisable talent in music and providing them with high-level instruction in stringed instruments with the assistance of a group of internationally renowned instructors.In the short time span since the establishment of the Programme the children who participate in the Cyprus Young Strings Soloists ensemble have impressed audiences with the exceptional quality of their performances and have already gained international recognition with appearances in some of the most famous concert halls in Europe (Vienna, Brussels, Moscow, Rome, Vatican).In their first performance at the Axiothea Mansion, the Cyprus Young Strings Soloists presented a demanding programme with works by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Georg Friedrich Handel, Antonio Vivaldi, Fritz Kreisler, Carl Bohm, Pablo de Sarasate, Astor Piazzolla, Henryk Wieniawski, Nikos Skalkotas, Franz Schubert and Nicolo Paganini.

Cyprus Young Strings Soloists

Les Hypocrites

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The Arts of Psarantonis“It is in Nature’s garden alone that such arts can grow” – ErotokritosAntonis Xylouris-Psarantonis: Cretan lyre, vocalsNiki Xylouri: pitcher, drum, vocalsGiorgis Xylouris: lute, vocalsLambis Xylouris: oudNektarios Kontoyiannis: luteDeeply versed in the musical traditions of his land but also nonconformist and inquisitive by nature, Antonis Xylouris-Psarantonis has established himself as a living legend of music, having enriched the Cretan, Mediterranean and European music with inimitable sounds, exquisite music and singular interpretations.His music and also his thoughts on music, embody the ancient mythology of Crete. Either singing about Zeus or telling the story of how the mythical shepherd Hantiperas made the first lyre, or talking about Zeus’ protectors, the Kourites, or expressing with his lyre the living myth of his native land, Psarantonis gives body and soul – with his physical presence and his art – to the ancient myths of Crete.He does so not only with his virtuosity, but also with his belief in those myths, which he approaches with heart and mind, convinced of their modern-

day presence and their energy. In Psarantonis’ music one sometimes hears running waters that purl, other times the sound of lonely trees battered by the wind, or “the hum of the earth and the rumble of the wind”, as Kornaros has put it. There are also occasions when his upright, abrupt hold of the fiddlestick drives you to the edge of the cliff “where times collide and meet”.Psarantonis has now gained international recognition. Already in the 1980s prominent foreign musicians and scholars of ethnic music globally had discovered his talent and had invited him to major festivals in Australia, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United States, Cyprus and elsewhere. Most recently, in 2014, Psarantonis measured up his musical genius against high poetry from across the world, performing works by major poets such as Baudelaire, Pushkin, Rilke, Lorca and Borges, set to music by Dimitris Apostolakis from Hainides. Art, as these and other great artists have taught us, is the fruit of artistic loneliness. It is the personal path towards an artistic vision, which every great artist follows with faith and devotion for life. Such artistic loneliness accompanies Psarantonis all his years as he treads the difficult path of his personal quest into quality music.

Cafe BalkanAlexander Gagatsis: vibraphoneVassilis Kommatas: clarinetGlafkos Kontemeniotis: pianoIoannis Vafeas: drumsCahit Kutrafali: bass guitarMaria Pseiropoulou: vocalsCafe Balkan has its roots in earlier collaborations and longstanding friendships. The idea for the band was conceived in Thessaloniki in the winter of 2012 and took shape at a reunion on stage at the Axiothea Mansion back in September 2013.Through Cafe Balkan, Alexander Gagatsis and Vassilis Kommatas build upon their common origin and different experiences, balancing between traditional and modern sound along with their collaborators Ioannis Vafeas and Glafkos Kontemeniotis in an effort to express themselves in a personal language through traditional melodies of the Mediterranean and the Balkan Peninsula.The band is welcoming for the first time Maria Pseiropoulou on vocals and Cahit Kutrafali on bass guitar. The band’s quest for musical identity (or rather the outcome of this quest) is based on improvisation (jazz or other), on deconstruction and maybe reconstruction of rebetiko songs and melodies from Greece, Bulgaria, FYROM and Turkey.Music from the Outposts of HellenismLimassol Folklore SocietyWith the love and respect for tradition that have characterised its activity over the years, the Limassol Folklore Society prepared a performance featuring songs and dances from Cyprus, Lesbos,

Asia Minor and Thrace.The journey begins in Cyprus with male and female dances, songs, erotic couplets and tsiattista, before continuing to the village of Messotopos on the island of Lesbos with characteristic folk poetry, carnival songs and traditional dances, and then further away to Asia Minor and Thrace, ending at the village of Asvestades in the Evros region.With this tour around the outposts of Hellenism, the performance seeks to highlight the connection and cross-borrowing between different local traditions in music and dances but also in traditional costumes.The performance featured folklore music instrumentalists and performers from the village of Asvestades in the Evros region, as well as the Dance Ensemble of the Limassol Folklore Society.Concept and realisation: Konstantinos Protopappas

The Secret SongsVakia StavrouVakia Stavrou: vocals, guitar, compositionsCarlos Bernardo: orchestrations, guitar, Irish bouzouki, viola da gamba, charango, melodicaInor Sotolongo: percussionStelios Pittas: cello, guitarThe already established songwriter Vakia Stavrou presented a set of songs from her latest album “ΑΝΕΜόΕSSA”, written and recorded entirely in Paris, and new compositions from her upcoming album “Secret Songs” to be released in early 2015, after a series of concerts in the historic Lucernaire Theatre in Paris. An exceptional selection of songs with a pronouncedly acoustic sound, accompanied

The Arts of Psarantonis

Cafe Balkan Music from the Outposts of Hellenism

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by instruments such as cello, acoustic guitars, viola da gamba, charango, Irish bouzouki and percussion, which create a highly intimate atmosphere, partially owing to the orchestrations made by Vakia Stavrou’s Brazilian collaborator, Carlos Bernardo, musician, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, and the imaginative approach of Inor Sotolongo on the percussion.Songs of a personal nature in which, however, anyone can identify moments and pieces of his own life and experiences. New and older compositions, coupled as always with Vakia’s favourite classic songs (Hadjidakis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Henri Salvador, Jacques Brel, and others).

The Cyprus Chronicle by Leontios MachairasTheatrical Workshop of the University of CyprusAdaptation and stage direction: Michalis PierisMusic: Antonis Xylouris-PsarantonisSong lyrics: Michalis PierisSong composition: Evagoras KaragiorgisSet and props, costumes: Christos LysiotisLighting: Grigoris PapageorgiouTechnical support: Kyriakos KakoullisAssistant director: Stamatia LaoumtziOn the occasion of its performance at the

Leventis Μunicipal Museum and the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation (MIET) in Athens, the Theatrical Workshop of the University of Cyprus presented the historical production The Cyprus Chronicle by Leontios Machairas, which marked the beginning of THEPAK’s activity in 1998.The play is the first and so far the only attempt to bring to stage the most important narrative (and potentially stage worthy) work of Medieval and Modern Cypriot literature “Recital concerning the Sweet Land of Cyprus entitled Cronica, that is Chronicle”, which came as a result of a year-long research into the work of Machairas.Awarded at the Ithaca Festival in 1998, this historical production has had more than 50 performances in Cyprus, in Greece and elsewhere (Munich, Paris, London, and Barcelona).The performance received high critical acclaim and was characterized as a “major philological and theatrical event” (Yorgos Hatzdakis, Kathimerini, Athens, July 19, 1998). Apart from the positive critical reviews in the Cypriot and Greek press, the production was also praised internationally, while its significance for the awareness of the people of Cyprus of their history was emphasised by the distinguished Professor

of Medieval History at the Cardiff University, Peter W. Erbury (Journal of Medieval History, vol. 25, issue I, 1999). In his analytical critical review, published in the Spanish philological journal Erytheia, Revista de Estudios Bizantinos y Neogriegos (vol. 20, Madrid, 1999), the Catalan Hellenist Eusebi Ayensa i Prat noted, among others, that “the production highlights one of the most important works of Medieval Cypriot literature, which precedes similar works of the Cretan Renaissance”.

Women that Became One with the EarthTheatrical adaptation, interpretation: Marinella VlachakiVideo: Thodoris Papadoulakis, Giannis KritikosAdaptation of folksongs: Leonidas MaridakisVocals: Leonidas Maridakis, Danae BotikThe performance Women that Became One with the Earth comprises seven popular narratives of women from Epirus, which refer mainly to the period around 1940 and have been recorded by the writer Georgia Skopouli (Those Who Became One with the Earth, Dodoni 2008).Several rural women marked by the elements of nature, by poverty, war, civil war, exile, the cruelty of men, talk about their lives in a plain language, sincere and true, reviving a Greece that we have almost forgotten.These illiterate women share their experiences with dignity and faith in life, but above all without bitterness and hatred, turning their troubled lives into a song.

A Strange WorldCHEAP: Low Quality – High FunA project of the String Theory Ensemble featuring:Argyris Bakirtzis: vocals, narrationStavroula Pavlikou: vocals, fluteMaria Ploumi: luteGiorgos Paterakis: pianoTsamiko songs next to Chopin’s polonaises. Giannis Floriniotis next to Japanese songs of the 1930s. Stamatis Gonidis and Filippos Nikolaou’s “Megiemele” next to Himerini Kolymvites’ songs.Bigalis’ “Melissoula-Melissaki” next to Amalia Rodriguez’s songs. Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas next to Teris Chrysos’ “Taka-Taka”.Is this an aesthetic Armageddon or a musical farce? A reanimation of second-rate pop-folk or yet another wayward musical acrobatic extravaganza? Everyone can see it as they want.For the String Theory Ensemble, however, it is a general stance toward the world around us: do we take it for granted and try to cope with it as it is, or do we have the power to change it into something completely different? In the first case, we need to do nothing but follow the stream. But what weapons do we need in the second case?In any case, apart from inspiration, it took the String Theory Ensemble a lot of skill, a lot of musical knowledge and many hours of work and rehearsals to create this strange project. It is this band’s belief that the meticulousness, knowledge and work behind every “spontaneous” comic scene in a Charlie Chaplin movie always deserve to be taken into consideration.

Print Act Art PerformanceA ground-breaking partnership between engravers, members of the Cypriot Printmakers Company, and artists working in music, theatre and dance for the co-creation of a visual performance.Under the common theme “Nicosia”, works by Cypriot poets served as a guide and inspiration for the printmakers who experimented in creating various engravings, based on which actors, a director, a choreographer and a musician then developed further the common theme through their art, turning the print act into a performance.

Vakia Stavrou The Secret Songs The Cyprus Chronicle by Leontios Machairas

Scene from Women that Became One with the Earth

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Love unconquered in BattleChristos PittasA song cycle based on erotic poetry from Sappho to KornarosPerformed by:Margarita Syggeniotou: mezzosopranoPantelis Stamatelos: violinAntonis Hatzinikolaou: guitarAn original song cycle by Christos Pittas, featuring older and new compositions, which was presented with great success in Britain and in Greece. Original Greek poetry by Sappho, Sophocles, Euripides, Kornaros and Chortatsis, among others, coupled with a selection of Petrarchan 16th-century Cypriot love poems from the so-called Rime d’Amore manuscript found and kept at the Marciana Library in Venice.

Christos PittasChristos Pittas was born in Alexandria in a family originating from Cyprus. He was raised in Nicosia where he began to study music. At the age of 16 he graduated from the National Conservatory of Cyprus and in the same year (1961) recorded his first compositions for CYBC – a cycle of songs for baritone and piano, based on poetry by Palamas, Drosinis, Lipertis and Pashardis.In London, where he went to continue his studies in music, the BBC Drama Department commissioned him to compose the music for two theatrical productions, Menander’s Samia and Sophocles’ Electra. In the years that followed, drama became a steady part of his creative endeavours with music for dozens of theatre productions. In England, most of his compositions for the theatre were commissioned by the BBC Drama Department, while in Greece and in Cyprus – by the national theatres or by other theatre companies and institutions such as Desmoi, Popular Experimental Theatre and THEPAK.His productive relationship with the theatre as a composer took him into other creative paths, which led to the creation of original music compositions worthy of the stage. A milestone along this path was the Choreo-Dramatic Music 106 Act Idola for orchestra, dancers and solo percussion (London

1984, Queen Elisabeth Hall), which was followed by a series of dramatic compositions such as Spring, Sibylla, Antigone, Heli-Om.In addition to his ‘staged music’, Christos Pittas has also composed four Poetic Symphonies for orchestra, choir and vocal soloists (Hamathen, Lumen Tristis, Rime d’Amore and 1973), as well as a large number of compositions for smaller ensembles and vocal and instrumental soloists.Most of Christos Pittas’ compositions have been performed by orchestras and ensembles such as: The London Chamber Orchestra, New London Soloists, BBC Singers, National Symphony Orchestra of Britain, New York North & South Ensemble, the Athens State Orchestra, Cyprus State Orchestra, ERT National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.In 2003 he was awarded the Melina Mercouri Prize for his music for the play Phoenician Women by Euripides (translated by Michalis Pieris, directed

by Nikos Charalambous, THOK, 2002), while in 2005, he composed the music for the choruses and songs of THEPAK’s production of Erotokritos.

The Ballad of the BridgeTheatrical Workshop of the University of CyprusAdaptation, stage direction: Michalis PierisMusic: Evagoras KarageorgisSet and props: Christos LysiotisCostumes: Marina KleanthousChoreography: Michalis PierisKinesiology: Arianna IkonomouLighting: Yorgos KoukoumasProduction manager, assistant director: Stamatia LaoumtziOn the occasion of its upcoming participation at the Agia Napa Medieval Festival, THEPAK gave one performance of its successful production The Ballad of the Bridge, which has been piquing the interest of the audience for 11 years now.The play is a stage adaptation of some of the most expressive versions of the famous Greek folk ballad The Bridge at Arta as preserved in Cyprus, Pontus, Crete, and Epirotic Greece.More than just an enjoyable theatrical event, the performance constitutes a truly productive

educational experience, since it gives students and educators the opportunity to come across some essential issues in the research of verbal folklore, such as the different approaches to and interpretations of a given theme, as well as the historical and ideological perspectives that open up as a result of the creative approach to demotic songs. At the same time, the performance offers an innovative stage interpretation of traditional folklore that takes into consideration the context, pursuits and collective dilemmas of modern times.The music of the play is performed live on stage by the composer Evagoras Karageorgis (lute) and the musicians Andreas Christodoulou (violin), Christiana Antonoudiou (clarinet) and Yiannis Soulos (drum).

Costas Montis was born on February 18, 1914 in Famagusta, and died on March 1, 2004 in his home in Nicosia, surrounded by his family. He has received numerous honours and awards throughout his life, and his books have been translated into several languages. Costas Montis has received honorary doctorates from both the University of Cyprus and the University of Athens. He has been nominated for the Nobel Prize, and in 2000 he was declared Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens, the highest honour conferred upon intellectual creators living outside Greece.In support of his proposal to the Academy of Athens, Professor Nicholas Konomis included the following: “Costas Montis is one of the greatest living Greek poets, and certainly one who renewed in a unique way modernistic lyric poetry, and enriched modern Greek poetry from the point of view of Cyprus. With his uninterrupted literary creation of 70 years, he has been able to depict artistically the authentic rhythms, the temperature, and the action of the deepest historical and emotional fluctuations of the soul and breath of Cyprus and its people. In his extremely powerful work he has recorded every vibration of the island (erotic, social, political), and all the thoughts of the people of Cyprus have been set down..... He has made use of the whole wealth of the linguistic, historical, and cultural tradition of greater Hellenism, and entrenched in his work, with unprecedented poetic force, the indelible character of the deep-rooted values of the Greek nation.” For more information on Costas Montis, visit his official website: http://www.costasmontis.com/

Costas Montis

Print Act Art Performance

The Ballad of the Bridge

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“KYPRIA 2014” International Festival took place from 3 September to 8 October

2014 and its performances based on older and newer texts or musical works certainly did not disappoint.The programme of the Festival included, among others, the Cyprus Theatre Organisation’s Constellations, Homer`s Iliad, the popular comedy Oi fonisses tis Papadiamanti and Aeschulus` Prometheus Bound, as well as the Rosamunde Trio, Tradition Re-Loaded, Giselle by Adolphe Adam and Fotis Nicolaou’ Unravelling.Referring to the Festival, Minister of Education and Culture Costas Kadis said that such high level cultural events, coupled with the development of key infrastructure on cultural issues, have led to an upgrade of the cultural events held in Cyprus.“This is the approach and the philosophy of the Ministry of Education and Culture for the next period,” he added.

Programme ConstellationsCyprus Theatre Organisation (at New Stage of THOC, ETHAL and Town Hall, Sotira) Constellations is a love story that evolves with varying versions in parallel universes; a touching work about love and free will, as well as the celebration and mourning of existence.Translation: Dimitris KiousisDirection: Vangelis TheodoropoulosVideo/Scenic space/Costumes: Pantelis MakkasMusic: Stavros GasparatosMovement: Elena AntoniouLighting Design: Georgios KoukoumasCast: Neoklis Neokleous, Stela Firogeni

I is someone elseRosamunde Trio – Martino Tirimo, Daniel Veis and Ben Sayevich (at Larnaca Municipal Theatre and Strovolos Municipal Theatre)

KYPRIA 2014 International Festival

Three top musicians, including famous Cypriot pianist Martinos Tirimos, in a superb musical journey with works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Peter Fribbins and Antonín Dvořák.Shostakovich: Piano Trio No.2 in E minor Op.67; Andante; Allegro non troppo; Largo; Allegretto;Fribbins: ‘Softly, in the dusk...’ (2007)Dvořák: Piano Trio in E minor Op.90 (‘Dumky’); Lento maestoso; Poco adagio; Andante moderato (quasi tempo di marcia); Allegro; Lento maestoso.

Homer’s IliadDirected by Stathis Livathinos (Strovolos Municipal Theatre and Rialto Theatre) This monumental and epic performance, revered for its energetic, intense and yet so precisely executed production, was presented at the festival after its successful European tour. Translation in Modern Greek: D.N. MaronitisDirector: Statis LivathinosAdaptation: Stathis Livathinos, Elsa Andrianou

with the contribution of the actorsSet and Costume Design: Eleni ManolopoulouMusic and Sound Design: Lambros PigounisLighting Design: Alekos AnastasiouMovement & Martial Arts Coach: Shi Miao Jie Shaolin Warrior MonkMovement Supervisor: Pauline HuguetStage and Costume Design Assistant: Tina TzokaWith: Argyro Ananiadou, Vasilis Andreou, Lefteris Angelakis, Dionysis Boulas, Giorgos Christodoulou, Dimitris Imellos, Nikos Kardonis, Nefeli Kouri, Gerasimos Michelis, Giannis Panagopoulos, Maria Savvidou, Christos Sougaris, Aris Troupakis, Amalia Tsekoura, Giorgos TsiantoulasPercussions: Manousos KlapakisTechnical Manager: Manolis VitsaxakisSound Engineer: Kostis PavlopoulosElectrician: Panayotis PatelisProduction Assistant: Aggeliki ChristopoulouSpecialised constructions: Nectarios DionysatosMake up Consultant: Yannis PamoukisHair design: Daniel’sSet Construction: Lazaridis Scenic StudioConstellations

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Photographer: Elina YiounanliInternational Sales: Alexandros VrettosProduction Manager: Elina FessaProducer for the Cyprus tour: George G. PapageorgiouProducer: Yolanda MarkopoulouProduction: POLYPLANITY productions

Oi fonisses tis Papadiamanti (The murderesses of Papadiamanti)By Alexandros Rigas and Dimitris Apostolou (Pattichion Amphitheatre and Arch. Makarios III Amphitheatre)A hilarious comedy with the participation of leading Greek comedians, Oi fonisses tis Papadiamanti follows the story of six women accused of murder, each of them having killed someone who was not that innocent. But it looks as if things in life are not always what they seem…Papadiamanti’s murderesses are six women who are “sane” enough to devise and invoke all sorts of mental illnesses for themselves in order to avoid conviction for their crimes.Text: Alexandros Rigas - Dimitris ApostolouDirector: Alexandros RigasCostumes - Edited scene: Maria KarapouliouLighting: Dionysis Lampiris

Actors: Helen Kastani, Konstantina Michael, Natalia Dragoumi, Jenny Botsi, Foteini Demiri, Sophia Vogiatzaki, Patrick Kostis, Parthena Chorozidou and Jessie Papoutsi.Production: FILOTHEATON E.E.

Giselle Adolphe Adam (at Arch. Makarios III Amphitheatre, Pattichion Amphitheatre and Municipal Garden Theatre)For lovers of classical ballet, the wonderful, imaginative story of Giselle by the St. Petersburg Theatre Russian Ballet, was a great success at the KYPRIA 2014 International Festival.Libretto: A. Saint-George, T. GautierChoreography: Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius PetipaMusic Composition: Adolphe AdamCast: Giselle, a peasant maiden (international competition winner Anna Voutina); Count Albrecht (international competition winner Alexander Voutin); Berta, Giselle’s mother (Maria Chernova); Hans, forester (Sergey Laletin); Batilda, bride of the Count (Svetlana Markova); Duke (Andrey Provotorov); Armourbearer (Mikhail Onuchin); Mirta (Olga Pudakova); Monna (Natalia Safonova); Zulma (Victoria Ivanova)

Une saison en enfer (A season in hell)Giorgos Christianakis (at THOC Central Stage and Rialto Theatre)Prominent Greek musician Giorgos Christianakis stands against the poetry of Rimbaud in an interesting and challenging performance with live music and multimedia projections.Piano, keys, percussion, narration: Giorgos Christianakis Guitar: Babis Papadopoulos Violin, viola: Fotis SiotasViolin: Michalis VrettasCello: Tasos MisyrlisDrums, percussion: Vasilis Bacharidis Electronics, loops: Christos HarbilasF.O.H sound engineer, loops: Titos KargiotakisVisuals: Giannis PiralisStage monitor engineer: Vangelis Haholos

Prometheus BoundBy Aeschylus (Curium Ancient Theatre and Arch. Makarios III Amphitheatre)Aeschylus’ ancient Greek tragedy Prometheus Bound is a stunning piece with a direct relationship with today and human life as it is experienced by modern man in contemporary societies. It is not just about the Titan Promitheus’ punishment, who decided to help human beings by stealing Fire for them, and who taught them the alphabet and the use of numbers. Resemblances are not only limited to the State (“Kratos”) and Violence (“Via”) being actual mythic persons in ancient time, while today they act as agents of human suppression. We have here all the elements of a modern tragedy. On the one hand the ruling

Oi fonisses tis Papadiamanti

Giselle

Directed by Apostolos Apostolides (Deryneia Municipal Amphiheatre, Arch. Makarios III Amphitheatre, Pattichion Amphitheatre and Municipal Garden Theatre)

Traditional music is, without a doubt, the manifestation of popular oral culture, but it’s also the intellectual and historical life of the nation, as it is transmitted from older to younger generations as the quintessence of wisdom providing us with spiritual growth, self-awareness and a well-shaped cultural identity.

“Tradition Re-loaded is a proposal which seeks to interpret and present traditional Cypriot songs, through a contemporary approach, using most unusual instruments that are made out of recycled material, even out of vegetables. This approach does not interfere with our goal of remaining faithful to the original musical sound, while at the same time we shape for each one of the songs an innovating and unique course of acoustics. This is a contemporary artistic creation, a musical journey in the field of our popular musical tradition, producing a colouring in the sound that shows the coexistence of the old with the contemporary and the fusion of opposite yet absolutely compatible hearings.”

This ‘journey’ was accompanied by the narration of selected poems of Costas Montis, thus honouring one of the greatest poets and writers of Cyprus, on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of his birth, and the narration was uniquely embodied in the whole musical journey, leading the audience into an innermost redefining of the universal values and their position in the world today.

A wonderful musical journey along the paths of Cypriot musical traditions with the award-winning Tat Tnabar musical group, combined with selected poems by Costas Montis.

Tradition Re-loaded

Apostolos Apostolides & Tat-Tnabar

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class, the establishment, which does not want any change, and on the other side the ‘Other’ who is introducing both a new cultural element and is also acting as a vector of substantial changes. Violence, (the character “Via”) representing the interests of Zeus, is a cruel reality that we see and sense, since the one being tortured is the Other, yet this Other is so similar to us. He is us! There also exist those who sympathise with the tortured Prometheus, but they do not dare show their sympathy because they are afraid of Zeus. They are present. They are there! But they are afraid of the Power... The Logos…Cast: Filippos Sofianos, Christopher Greco, Eleana Papadopoulou, Yiannis KokkinosChorus leaders: Tzortzina Tatsi, Skevi Papamiltiadous, Irini AndreouTranslated by: Savvas Pavlou – Andreas Pantzis (Based on Ioannis Gryparis’ translation)Set & costume design: Theodoulos GregoriouMusic: Vasos AgyridisChoreography: Alexia NicolaouLighting: Vasilis Peteinaris

The princess and the witchesCypriot folk tale (THOC Central Stage, Rialto Theatre, and Larnaca Municipality Theatre)An imaginative dance-theatre performance directed by Yiolanda Christodoulou and choreographed by Chloe Melidou.Concept / Direction: Yiolanda ChristodoulouMovement: Cloe MelidouDramaturgy: Constantina PeterArt Direction: Elina Ioannou, Evelyn AnastasiouActors / Performers: Yiolanda Christodoulou, Thanasis Ioannou, Maria Philippou, Demetris Constandinides, Marina VrondiMusic Composition: Demetris ZachariouLighting Design: Alexander JotovicProduction Management: Yiangos Hadjiyiannis

The world of Diamantis Dancecyprus and Cyprus Symphony Orchestra (Strovolos Municipal Theatre and Rialto Theatre)A modern ballet performance by Dancecyprus, based on the monumental painting of Adamantios Diamantis The World of Cyprus, choreographed by Margaret Markidou and the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra.Conductor: Alkis BaltasChoreography: Margarita MakridouDancers: Alexandra Antoniou, Alexia Anderson Koutzis, Gianmarco Beoni, Demetra Demetriou, Luca Cesa, Eveline Drummen, Tarsia Economidou, Siro Guglielmi, Vicky Kalla, Loizos Constantinou, Ilaria Larkou-Kalispera, Konstantinos Karavos, Ketija Knazeva, Evangelia Lambrou, Elizabeth Lintzerakou, Hamilton Monteiro, Manuel Di Pietro, Sara Previtali, Frangiskos Sklikas, Fouli Stylianidou, Valeria Solea-Makri ,Giovanni Visone and the Dancecyprus Junior Company.Choreographer’s Assistant: Fouli StylianidouCostume Design: Margarita MakridouDressmaker: Eleni PapavasiliouStage Management / Lighting: FX Sound Productions Projections: DigiFrames

UnravellingFotis Nicolaou (Rialto Theatre, Strovolos Municipal Theatre)How familiar are we with others but also with ourselves? How strong are the traces we leave behind in the experience of history? How do we interact with the dead and how do we manage to have the accumulated past and the collective memory stand in the present? Unravelling negotiates this uncertainty, the impulse of wanting to feel familiar in what we call the Cosmos. Choreography: Fotis NikolaouDramaturgy: Thanasis GeorgiouStage - Costume Design: Alexis Vayianos, Elena KotasviliMask: Martha FokaLight Design: Panagiotis ManousisStage Manager: Sofronis Efstathiou

About Kypria KYPRIA International Festival, right from its inception in 1993, aimed at presenting Cypriots and visitors alike with a variety of cultural events of the highest possible standard. Having been launched in a period characterised by an almost complete lack of important cultural events, it became the catalyst for the creation of an unprecedented cultural movement which gives audiences a plethora of choices. The Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture have always been searching for new approaches aiming at the further improvement and upgrade of the Festival with regards to both its conception and further course and also the character of the events hosted in the Festival´s programme.

Throughout its 20-year history, the Festival has always aimed at presenting Cypriot as well as foreign artists and ensembles of international acclaim, and putting on high quality productions in various fields of the performing arts. In selecting each year´s participants, it also aspires to provide an opportunity for the representation and participation, to the greatest possible extent, of Cypriot artists and groups without, of course, detracting from the international character of the Festival.During the past two decades, KYPRIA has hosted an array of distinguished artists and ensembles from the fields of Dance, Theatre, Music, Visual Arts and Cinema. In the field of Dance, the Festival has hosted, amongst others, the Rhine Ballet, the National Ballet of Cuba, Omada Edafous by Demetris Papaioannou and the Batsheva Dance Company.Theatre performances by prominent directors featuring distinguished actors and theatre groups of worldwide acclaim have been in the forefront of the Festival, some of the most celebrated being the National Theatre of Greece, the Greek Art Theatre of Karolos Koun and Spyros Evangelatos Amphitheatre. Moreover, one of the Festival´s most prominent highlights was John Malkovich´s outstanding performance in the Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer, presented at KYPRIA 2011.The KYPRIA Festival has also hosted a number of celebrated music ensembles of worldwide renown such as the English National Symphony Orchestra, the Madrigalisti di Venezia, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, the Salzburg Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, as well as, the Mikis Theodorakis Popular Orchestra and the State Orchestra of Greek Music conducted by Dionysis Savvopoulos.

The world of Diamantis

Unravelling

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Everyone knows that Aphrodite is the Great Goddess of Cyprus and that she was born on

the coast of Paphos where she was worshipped. We imagine her as the beautiful nude Aphrodite of Praxiteles, the Goddess of Love. But beyond these, what do we really know about her?Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of beauty and love, whom we Cypriots consider our own, has a unique place in the island’s mythology and archaeology. Ancient sources cite Cyprus as her birthplace and the epithet “Kypris” follows her in abundance in ancient literature. Her ancestry is lost in the depth of time, emanating from ancient acts of worshipping fertility, and she was called the Great Goddess. Cyprus had harboured this Goddess from the very ancient times. The inhabitants of the island had worshipped the fertility of people and nature in some form as a supernatural power at least since the 3rd millennium BC. Through the years, the Goddess took on many forms; by the 2nd millennium BC she was already a strong sexual Goddess; towards the end of the 2nd millennium BC, when the island was firmly influenced by the Aegean world, she lost the fierceness of sexual urge and became an entirely respectable Goddess of love, beauty and fertility. She was then exclusively the Goddess of Cyprus, Kypris. It is very possible that she was discovered here by the Greeks in the 12th century BC, because the Goddess was unknown in the Aegean world back then. The Greeks adopted her, gave her beauty and grace, and named her Aphrodite, while for centuries the Cypriots merely referred to her as Thea (Goddess), Paphia, or Golgia, from the names of her ancient sanctuaries.The history of the Great Goddess and her worship is as appealing as she is, and this is imprinted both in the edition by Dr Jacqueline Karageorghis, Kypris: Aphrodite of Cyprus, Ancient Sources and Archaeological Evidence, and in the

documentary, directed by Stavros Papageorghiou, The Great Goddess of Cyprus by TETRAKTYS FILMS (www.tetraktysfilms.com), which revives sites, items and forms of worship. The procession of the Cypriot Goddess’ worship could be considered as an expression of the eternal culture of the island itself, which has acted as a meeting point between the East and West, where cultures intermingled to create an original civilisation.Aphrodite Kypris is still known nowadays thanks to the poets of the Renaissance who rediscovered her through the ancient poets as the Goddess of love, born in Cyprus. Kypris granted love to the world, along with multiple emotions as a cultural value that would grace life and would inspire so many masterpieces. She is the greatest gift Cyprus has offered to Europe, and the whole world.

The Great Goddess of Cyprus

A documentary by Cypriot director, Stavros Papageorghiou

The documentary film about Aphrodite The Great Goddess of Cyprus, by Cypriot director Stavros Papageorghiou, is a breath-taking journey through time from the Chalcolithic period to the Roman era. Guided by Dr Jacqueline Karageorghis, an internationally renowned French Archaeologist, we investigate known and unknown aspects of the worship of Aphrodite on her island.

Spreading the Love abroadProducer/director Stavros Papageorghiou and his core creative team – namely scientific consultant Dr Karageorghis and script-editor Stalo Hadjipieris – are vigorously working on the English version of the documentary, hoping to launch the Great Goddess into the international market. The aim of the producer is to see his documentary participate in various archaeological/anthropological documentary film festivals around the world. Furthermore Stavros, a documentary distributor, will promote the film at key documentary markets such as MIPTV in Cannes, France, at MEDIMED in Sitges, Spain and DOC MARKET at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, among others, in an effort to license the broadcast rights to television stations and digital platforms. The

film will also be available for sale to academic institutions and individuals in the form of DVD or VOD, through the TETRAKTYS distribution service at www.tetraktysfilms.com.TETRAKTYS FILMS, founded by Stavros Papageorghiou, is also interested in scheduling screenings of the documentary in Cyprus and abroad, especially to countries where the presence of the Cypriot and Greek diaspora communities is significant, according to the director.

And it does not end here“Ideally we want to show the documentary in all the great cities in the UK, USA and Australia to introduce the Cypriots and Greeks of Diaspora to the true identity of this great deity of the Greek Pantheon whose origin started from the humble island of Cyprus,” Stavros Papageorghiou explained. He added, “The journey of The Great Goddess of Cyprus will not end with this project. We already have a second one in the pipeline, which focuses on the correlation of the Goddess with the arts, local tradition and mythology, as well as on how modern society perceives this diachronic ancient female deity. The legacy of the Goddess is enormous and I feel that it is my duty to continue to make it

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accessible to the entire world, not only Cypriots and Greeks but also to any person regardless of his/her nationality. From the first moment we started production eight years ago, many thousands of people around the planet had embraced this project with anticipation and gave me strength to continue and complete this documentary despite the many obstacles I faced during its production process.I believe my compatriots still love their ancient Goddess. When I co-organised the premiere screening of the film with the Director of the Department of Antiquities, Dr Marina Solomidou-Ieronimidou, on 24 November 2014 at the Philoxenia Conference Centre in Nicosia, I was expecting around 300 people to turn up in the best case. However that particular night we broke the national record. Over 500 guests honoured the Great Goddess of Cyprus with their presence. For me, this was the best reward for all my efforts to achieve this extremely difficult project. I was so happy that night,” Stavros concluded.The makers were keen to point out that this project would never have been completed if it was not for the invaluable financial contribution of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and from a number of sponsors

such as the Electricity Authority of Cyprus, the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority, the Press and Information Office, Cyprus Tourism Organisation, Hellenic Bank and Medochemie Industries, as well as many individuals from Cyprus, the US, Netherlands, and other countries, who donated money through the www.indiegogo.com crowd-funding website platform.

About Stavros PapageorghiouStavros Papageorghiou was born in 1958 in Nicosia. He worked as a photographer for about four years before going to the US to study at the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he received his degree in Cinema with honours. He returned to Cyprus in 1986, at a time when cinema barely existed. Initially he was employed at the TV station “O LOGOS TV”, where he remained for 4 years as a director-producer. His personal need for creative expression led him in 1994 to the bold step of creating his own film production company, TETRAKTYS FILMS LTD. Since 2013, Stavros has also been a documentary distributor and sales agent. Within this very short period of time, Stavros managed to license the broadcast rights of many of the documentaries in his catalogue to foreign TV

stations, and the educational rights to various universities and libraries, mainly in the USA.During the past twenty years, Stavros has directed and/or produced a significant number of audio-visual projects, the majority of them belonging to the documentary genre. Four of these have been developed with the support of the MEDIA Development Programme, the audio-visual programme of the European Union and their productions were supported by the Cyprus Cinema Advisory Committee. Diomides Nikitas, the representative of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, mentioned the following about Stavros in his short introduction speech at the premier screening of the documentary The Great Goddess of Cyprus:“Stavros Papageorghiou is an old acquaintance of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Cyprus, with whom he has cooperated in various ways before, sometimes through the commissioning of projects, through the process of bidding, and at other times through the support policy for audio-visual projects that is promoted by the Ministry, based on the suggestions of the Cyprus Film Advisory Committee.

With the support of the Cyprus Film Advisory Committee he has completed some notable productions, such as the short fiction film The entomologist and the documentary films: Skiagrafies Kyprion Logotechnon (Sketches of Cypriot Literature Figures) and Entelechy, to name but a few.The Great Goddess of Cyprus is his current directorial project, which is supported by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture. The proposal was accepted after considering his seriousness and sense of responsibility, and the level of research that characterises his documentaries. The presence of expert Dr Jacqueline Karageorghis as a scientific consultant only validates our trust. The documentary is a complete comprehensive educational tool, which provides all the vital information about the existence of Aphrodite in Cyprus over the years, and the important role that she played in our ancient history. As a result, and taking the importance of this effort into consideration, the Ministry of Education and Culture will distribute DVD copies of this documentary to all secondary schools in Cyprus, to be used as an educational tool in history lessons.”Dr Jacqueline Karageorghis (left)

“THE BODY: lived experiences in ancient Cyprus”

The Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Communications and Works

opened the temporary exhibition The Body: lived experiences in ancient Cyprus at the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia on 17 May 2014. The exhibition, which was organised within the framework of International Museum Day and European Night of Museums 2014, ran until 17 February 2014.

For archaeologists, who study human civilisation through the ages, the body constitutes the creator, as well as the witness of history. As the creator, the body shaped society in a dynamic way through the use of objects and its involvement in cultural practices, such as work, food consumption or ritual and recreational activities. Lived experiences that resulted from the connection of people with the world were inscribed on the body becoming integral parts of personhood and social identity. The human body, therefore, preserves indications of its tangible and elusive action and bears witness to the culture of ancient societies that shaped it, literally and metaphorically.

With the above in mind, the exhibition “The Body: lived experiences in ancient Cyprus” presented antiquities dating from the Neolithic to the Early Christian period, originating from archaeological sites throughout Cyprus. Figurines, sculpture, vessels, jewellery, grooming and medical tools, musical instruments, and skeletal remains were presented, some for the first time to the public, inviting the visitor to explore some aspects of the ancient body’s lived experiences. Although bodies have left their traces in the form of skeletal remains or artefacts, the exhibition fleshes out the invisible male and female protagonists who were once active on the island of Cyprus.

Parallel to the above archaeological exhibition

the Cyprus Museum has also been hosting in its Galleries the exhibition Curating Body by artist Maria Loizidou (works from 1981 to the present). Loizidou curates her own works afresh, aiming to enter into a dialogue with the ancient cultural landscape of the island but also with the spaces of the Cyprus Museum itself. In this way, new stimuli are received and new questions are set.

On the opening day of the exhibition “Dance met Archaeology”, choreographer Pascal Caron along with dancers Ariana Alphas, Mιlissa Garcia Carro, Styliana Charalambous, Evi Kazamia, Aneesha Michael and Phedonas Odysseos performed the work Excavation Movements.

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The Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture in cooperation with

the family of the artist Stelios Votsis organised a retrospective of his work entitled Remembering Stelios Votsis – An Artistic Overview. The exhibition served as an artistic tribute to this significant Cypriot artist who died suddenly on 9 November 2012.

The exhibition, held at the headquarters of Hellenic Bank until 30 October, was inaugurated by the Minister of Education and Culture Minister Costas Kadis, on 15 October 2014.

Stelios Votsis was born in Larnaca in 1929. He studied art at Saint Martin’s School of Art, Sir John Cass College of Art and the Royal

Academy in London. He graduated from the Slade School of Art of the University of London in 1955.

A representative of the generation of Cypriot artists who came to the spotlight in the period after independence, Stelios Votsis’ ground breaking work embodied with remarkable clarity Cypriot art’s interest in the accomplishments of the international artistic scene and the resulting, inevitable rupture with the accepted values of the time.

Stelios Votsis was one of the first Cypriot artists who embraced the teachings of abstract art, identifying within this artistic style his own worldview on the cosmic harmony of the universe.

Remembering Stelios Votsis – An Artistic Overview

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The exhibition project Treasure Island took a look back on Cyprus’ history in

its own unique way. Featuring visual works, performances, public debates and other events selected through an Open Call, next to a number of preselected works, Treasure Island sought to expand discourses of the past in Cyprus.

Organised by the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre - Associated with the Pierides Foundation (NiMAC), in collaboration with the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) and the SIDESTREETS Initiative, from 26 September to 8 November 2014 visitors got the chance to enjoy a variety of presentational formats; besides the aforementioned, the exhibition project also featured theoretical discussions, film screenings, talks, literature and poetry readings, public interventions and educational programmes.

“Treasure Island seeks to shed critical light on dominant modes of historical representations, and address those stories that have been subjugated, manipulated or silenced by hegemonic historical discourses and artistic, literary or theoretical practices,” NiMAC explained. “Moreover, the project aims to underline the broader meaning of the political in art, in the local context: On the one hand, as a drive for critical (re)negotiation of the modern history of trauma, conflict and violence, as well as of any totalising ideological strategies of approaching, thinking and narrating the past, particularly in relation to national or cultural identification. On the other hand, as an attempt to deal with a broad spectrum of crucial issues that affect Cypriot society beyond the Cyprus Problem. Ultimately, the project aims to bring forth the culturally inconspicuous, and the latent patterns of Cypriot historical experience, both in the colonial and postcolonial contexts.

Treasure Island

The project has welcomed a variety of presentational formats such as theoretical discussions, film screenings, talks, literature/poetry readings, and educational programmes. It features a diverse group of Cypriot and international participants, including Emin Cizenel, Lia Haraki, Eleni Kamma, Nurtane Karagil, Gabriel Lester, Literary Agency Cyprus/Whirling Words, Mesarch Lab, Panayiotis Michael, Savvas Papasavva, Christodoulos Panayiotou, pick nick, Alexandros Pissourios, Saramarasamsara, Nicolas Tschopp, Stefanos Tsivopoulos and Sholeh Zahraei/Kamil Saldun. The programme

also includes presentations and interventions led by Adonis Florides, Antonis Hadjikyriacou, Chrystalleni Loizidou, Meropi Moiseos/Nasa Patapiou/Eleni Papadopoulou, Johann Pillai and Evi Tselika/Marina Hadjilouca spread throughout the duration of the exhibition, as well as a one-day series of theoretical discussions. Treasure Island also plan to host a public reading library in collaboration with Moufflon Bookshop, comprising bibliography from the areas of social and cultural studies, postcolonial theory, social anthropology, political science, art theory, history, critical literature and poetry, and beyond.

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Programme of events

26 September 2014: Performance The Record Replay React Show (2014, 30 minutes) by Lia Haraki at NiMAC. (Also presented on 10 October)

4 October 2014: Screening/discussion Life Chances: Four Families in a Greek Cypriot Village (1974, 43 minutes) by Peter Loizos at NiMAC. Antonis Hadjikyriacou in conversation with Olga Demetriou, Zeleia Gregoriou and Adonis Florides.

Copyright: The Royal Anthropological Institute

4 October 2014: Writing workshop Writing

Nicosia – Beyond barriers by Literary Agency Cyprus/Whirling words, with workshop leader Rachel Pettus and guest Lisa Suhair Majaj, for women only. The workshop took place at NiMAC and a variety of other locations within the walls of Old Town Nicosia.

8 October 2014: Screening/discussion Cyprus is an Island by Ralph Keene (1946, 34 minutes) at Rüstem Bookstore in the non-government controlled part of Nicosia. Adonis Florides in conversation with Costas Constantinides and Yiannis Papadakis.

10 October 2014: Writing workshop Writing Nicosia – Beyond barriers by Literary Agency

24 October 2014: Presentation Nonverbal Communication by Gabriel Lester.

Gabriel Lester’s lecture titled Nonverbal Communication refers to a term indicating communication through sending and receiving wordless - often visual - cues between people. In Lester’s reasoning, artworks are vehicles of such forms of communication. In fact, the more popular and simplified term ‘body language’ can easily be understood as the language of shape, form and volume. Lester focuses on his broad spectrum of artworks and inventions relating to the perception of body language, in terms of the many communicative qualities of artworks and the ways these inhabit time and space.

Gabriel Lester, born in Amsterdam in 1972, started his artistic endeavour as a musician, stumbled into literature, studied cinema and finally became a visual artist. Lester’s many interests and skills explain the themes, methods and nature of his present artwork. Most of his films and spatial installations have an implicit narrative layer, strong cinematic influences, sequential constructions and an obvious sense of rhythm.

Cyprus/Whirling words, with workshop leader Rachel Pettus and guest Marios Epaminondas, at NiMAC and various other locations within the walls of Old Town Nicosia. (Also took place on 15 and 22 October 2014, with workshop leader Stephanos Stephanides and guest Aydin Mehmet Ali; on 24 October with workshop leader Aydın Mehmet Ali and guests Münevver Özgür and Agnieszka Rakoczy; on 30 October with workshop leader Nicoletta Demetriou)

10 October 2014: Presentation “Cyprus

Pussy”: Culture jamming/On Cypriot commemoration in the 21st century and its interventions by Chrystalleni Loizidou.

18 October 2014: Presentation/discussion Here Lie the Books, Rizokarpaso 1931-32 (2014). Meropi Moiseos, Nasa Patapiou and Eleni Papadopoulou in conversation with Niyazi Kızılyürek, Bishop Makarios of Kenya and Takis Hadjidemetriou, at NiMAC.

25 October 2014: Educational programme

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Rethinking conflict and urban space - a socially engaged art experiment with Evanthia Tselika and Marina Hadjilouca in collaboration with artist and art educator at the Pancyprium Gymnasium, Antigoni Sofokleous, and graphic designer, Myria Konnari. A student’s exhibition followed with works produced during the educational programme.

1 November 2014: Screening/discussion Cyprus is an Island by Ralph Keene (1946, 34 minutes) at NiMAC. Adonis Florides in conversation with Christodoulos Panayiotou and Stavros Karayiannis.

5 November 2014: Readings from the writing workshops – public opening.

8 November 2014: Discussion The Past as Treasure Hunt at NiMAC. The discussions were divided into two parts under the themes: “Buccaneers and Buried Gold”: Deconstructing memory and fiction with Yiannis Hamilakis, Nicolas Papadimitriou and Stephanos Stephanides; and “The Stockade”: Barriers in Education / Education of Barriers with Mete Hatay, Aydin Mehmet Ali and Yiannis Papadaki.

Curatorial team: Yiannis Toumazis, Louli Michaelidou, Anber Onar, Despo Pasia, Kyriakos Pachoulides, Elena Stylianou.

For more information visit: www.nimac.org.cy

29 October 2014: Visual lecture/presentation Monument to Fragmentation by Johann Pillai.

This presentation told the story of an obsession: the attempt to research, find and reconstruct for the first time the history, events, and physical characteristics of a major work of art that disappeared in 1958 and somehow mysteriously appeared in Cyprus: The 227m2 mosaic wall created by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu for the Turkish Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Fair. The pavilion’s 100 meter-long linking mosaic wall (which many art history and architecture textbooks describe as “lost”) was the first Turkish artistic expression of the concepts of pluralism and multiculturalism; in Cyprus it has acquired numerous other significations. The presentation and accompanying exhibit trace to the present, through historical mishaps and the political mayhem of wars, military coups and chance discoveries, the trials and tribulations of the wall between Belgium, Turkey and Cyprus over half a century. Its overarching question is this: Can archives, exhibitions, artworks and monuments resist absorption into memorial narratives, and instead express fragmentation and forgetting?

Johann Pillai studied aesthetic and literary theory at Yale and the State University of New York at Buffalo. An associate professor of comparative literature, his research interests include critical theory; comparative studies in Romanticism; modernist art, music and literature; irrationalism; historiography; and literature in relation to the visual arts. He is currently an independent scholar and the director of Sidestreets, an independent cultural and educational initiative in Nicosia.

In memory of artist Glyn Hughes

The Ministry of Education and Culture was saddened to learn of the untimely death of

the visual artist Glyn Hughes on 23 October 2014.Glyn Hughes was born in Wales in 1931. He studied at Bretton Hall in Yorkshire and in 1956 came to Cyprus to teach, staying on to become an integral part of the Cypriot art scene which he influenced with his work.With “Apofasi”, the island’s’ first art gallery which he founded with Christoforos Savvas in 1960 as a base, Hughes became one of the pioneers in the introduction to Cyprus of contemporary artistic movements. From 1971 to 1973 he organised a series of artistic happenings at Apophasis under the general title Synergy, which brought together in a single unit, aspects of conceptual and environmental art. This pioneering initiative was cut short by the Turkish invasion of 1974. His creative work was not restricted to painting. Hughes served the theatre as a set and costume designer with equal zeal within the framework

of his fruitful cooperation with the German director Heinz Haus for productions that were staged abroad as well as for the Cyprus Theatre Organisation. Glyn Hughes contributed more widely to the development of Cypriot art through his regular column in “The Cyprus Weekly” newspaper, which stood out for its insightful artistic critique.In appreciation of his long and multi-faceted contribution to the development of contemporary Cypriot culture the Ministry of Education and Culture awarded Glyn Hughes with an Annual Honorary Allowance. The Minister of Education and Culture Minister, Costas Kadis, expressed his heartfelt condolences to the artist’s friends and family. His death leaves an irreplaceable gap in the artistic life of Cyprus.The Ministry of Education and Culture was represented at the funeral by the director of the Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Pavlos Paraskevas.

Glyn Hughes (photo by Cyprus Mail)

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The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and the Historical and Ethnological Society

of Greece opened a photography exhibition entitled Cyprus at the turn of the 20th century on 7 October 2014. The exhibition was inaugurated by the President of the House of Representatives, Yiannakis Omirou.It featured 88 photos of 1890 to 1901 that were presented for the first time at the ‘Cyprus Exhibition’ in Athens in 1901. The volume was published by the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, at the initiative of its secretary general Ioannis Mazarakis-Ainian. The introduction and editing is the work of Petros Papapolyviou.The photography exhibition was initially organised by the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece in July 2014. It was presented in Athens at the National Historical Museum, housed at the Old Parliament Building, to honour Cyprus forty years after the Turkish invasion of the island.The exhibition was hosted in Nicosia by the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, and is scheduled to tour various cities of Cyprus. The photographs were first presented at the grand Cypriot Exhibition, held in Zappeion in 1901. The aim of the exhibition was to tighten the links between Cyprus and Greece. The photographs depict the daily life, costumes, dances, activities, customs and habits of the island’s inhabitants during the first decades of British rule (late 19th century and early 20th century). Also depicted are landscapes, anonymous Cypriots of urban or rural origin, as well as monuments and antiquities from across Cyprus. The photographs come from well-known photographers of the time. Apart from the captions used at the 1901 exhibition which are cited unabridged, new captions offering additional or even corrected information have been added.A publication that includes the photographs of the exhibition along with accompanying texts in Greek is available to purchase.

The Cyprus ExhibitionThe Cyprus Exhibition was organised at the Zappeion in April to June 1901 by the ‘Patriotic Association of Cypriots’ in Athens, at the instigation of Limassol lawyer George S. Frangoudis and was effectively the first attempt to systematically promote Cyprus and by extension the demand for Enosis (union with Greece) in the Greek mainland. The opening was held on April 6, 1901 with 120 Cypriots travelling to the Greek capital. It was the first opportunity for the ‘national centre’ to get to know Cyprus so well. Some 200 exhibitors participated, showcasing the main Cyprus products, clothing, handicrafts, intellectual work and antiquities. In addition, a Cypriot loom was installed and there were traditional Cypriot dances as well tsattista (improvised oral poetry ‘duelling’).One of the richest sections of the exhibition, exclusively created by the zeal shown by G. Frangoudis, was a collection of dozens of photographs from Cyprus that were displayed on five panels. They constituted one of the biggest poles of attraction for visitors to the Zappeion in spring 1901, but also the primary vehicle to promote the island to the Athenian public. The Nicosia exhibition featured the 90 photographs saved in the archives of the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece at the National History Museum, to which they were donated by G. Frangoudis when the ‘Cyprus Exhibition’ ended.

Cyprus at the turn of the 20th century

They feature views and panoramas of the six towns, photographs of the archaeological monuments and the large monasteries of Cyprus, pictures of Lapithos, Karavas, Bellapais, the Karpas, Platres and Kakopetria, portraits of anonymous Cypriots from the towns and the countryside, moments from their daily occupations as well of portrayals of the early British colonial presence in Nicosia and Troodos. Each photograph was accompanied by a text selected by the editor from the main Greek travel and historical works on Cyprus of the same period, mainly from the books of G. Frangoudi, Athanasios Sakellariou and Ieronymos Peristianis. The photographs, most of which were later distributed as postcards were taken by the pioneer photographic artists of Cyprus: Foscolos, Papazian, Toufexis, Soteriou as well as Max Ohnefalsch-Richter and represent a treasure trove for historians which ‘returned’ to Nicosia from Athens 113 years later. In the intervening period everything has changed, with the exhibition offering the opportunity therefore to remember the authentic world of Cyprus.

Omirou: An opportunity to reassert faith in the continuing struggle Both the published volume and the photographic exhibition Cyprus at the turn of the 20th century offered the opportunity to reassert faith and commitment to continuing the struggle to rid Cyprus of the Turkish occupation, non-acceptance of the fait accompli of the invasion and settlers, the enforcement of international law in our country and the conservation of the national sovereignty and international status of the Republic of Cyprus.

This was stated by the President of the House of Representatives, Yiannakis Omirou, in an address at the presentation of the tome and the opening of the exhibition that was organised by the Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus in cooperation with the Ethnological Society of Greece.

As Omirou noted, Cyprus is armed with both the relevant resolutions of the United Nations and the solidarity of EU, of which Cyprus is a full and equal member.Among other comments, the president of the House said that the exhibition and tome of the same name, are composed of copies of 90 photographs from daily life in Cyprus at the beginning of the 20th century.After the ‘Cyprus Exhibition’ in 1901 in Athens, most of the photographs and many of the exhibits were, on completion of the exhibition, donated to the National History Museum and the Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece, which has developed close ties and cooperation with Cyprus from that time.As Omirou said, the aim of the photographic exhibition when it was first presented in 1901 was to bring the national centre into a first, in-depth contact with the Cyprus reality of the time.Omirou said that the support of Greece, its cultural institutions, collective bodies and the millions of ordinary, anonymous Greeks, is of as much paramount importance for Cyprus today as it was for initiators of the exhibition of 1901. This support and solidarity has been continuous, moving and multi-faceted, he concluded.For more information, visit: http://www.boccf.org/

The photographs depict the daily life, costumes,

dances, activities, customs and habits of the island’s inhabitants during the first decades of the late 19th century and early 20th century

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The Cyprus Institute presented the Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus and its

incorporation to Dioptra, the Digital Library of Cypriot Culture of The Cyprus Institute, on 18 September 2014.The event was under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, and was addressed by the Minister of Education and Culture, Dr Costas Kadis. The Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus is one of the most important projects of the Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) at The Cyprus Institute and is sponsored and supported by the A.G. Leventis Foundation (http://www.leventisfoundation.org). Accessed globally, it offers an innovative experience of ancient texts from a total of 64 writers, covering a period of 13 centuries (7th century BC to 6th century AD).Apart from the intelligent search of ancient words and concepts, the project incorporates innovative digital technologies, applications and visual material that enrich the exploration of ancient texts and enhance our understanding of Cyprus’ ancient civilisation. The Dioptra Library follows a modular development plan, with the Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus being its first module, and its aim is to record, research and disseminate the Cultural Heritage of Cyprus. Under the supervision of leading scientists, research groups develop and apply innovative technologies to study and preserve our rich culture.

A digital journey through antiquity “The user, on top of the abilities provided so far by the print version of the project, is now offered a wealth of informational and visual material, which was curated by Professor (archaeologist and former Director of the Department of Antiquities) Vasos Karagiorgis,” said Minister of Education and Culture Costas Kadis at the Corpus’ presentation.

“It also offers important tools, such as the electronic version of the Liddell-Scott-Jones ancient Greek lexicon and the timeline, which correlates the authors with their eras, which altogether place the texts in their historical and archaeological framework, and offer new angles in which to ‘read’ the ancient culture of Cyprus,” said the Minister.According to Minister Kadis, the aim is for the Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus to become a focal tool for researchers and students, plus teachers and pupils in Secondary Education.He added, “A pilot teaching programme was applied at a Lyceum last year with very encouraging results, as it turned out that using a digital database in teaching practice could make a lesson more appealing and interesting.”The minister explained that the work was an advanced, digital form of Ancient Cypriot Corpus, which was issued over the period 1995-2008 by the Leventis Foundation.It includes 64 texts by ancient Cypriot writers (from the 7th to the 6th century AD), covering many literary genres and seamlessly integrates into the whole of ancient Greek literature.The texts were edited by Professors Andreas Voskos, Costas Michaelides and Ioannis Taifakos.“These pages are of monumental value as they authenticate the Cypriot Hellenism’s intellectual and national foundations, which were laid some three and a half thousand years ago with the

Ancient Cypriot Literature Digital Corpus

Hellenization of the island.”“It is no coincidence that in the most widely known epic of ancient Greek literature, Cypria, the Cypriot myth meets the Greek and together they create the history of the Trojan War; and that it has since served as the Greeks’ quintessential teaching work,” he concluded.

About The Cyprus InstituteThe Cyprus Institute operates under the aegis of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation (CREF), which is governed by a Board of Trustees, comprising leading personalities of the international academic, political and business world.The creation of The Cyprus Institute (CyI), a novel, internationally recognised research institution, is the tangible manifestation of the Cyprus Research and Educational Foundation’s vision to help transform Cyprus into a knowledge-based economy, and in doing so to advance the welfare of the island and the region. Today, the Institute is a world-class research and technology institution, carrying out pioneering research programmes involving cutting-edge high throughput technologies, in order to address problems of regional as well as international significance. At the same time, it provides training for future researchers and scholars through its high quality doctoral programmes.

The CyI comprises three specialised multidisciplinary research centres, developed in partnership with leading international institutions in their respective thematic areas:The Energy, Environment and Water Research Center (EEWRC) – partnered with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT),

The Science and Technology in Archaeology Research Center (STARC) – partnered with the Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France (C2RMF), andThe Computation-based Science and Technology Research Center (CaSToRC) – partnered with the University of Illinois.Having launched its first research centre in late 2007, with only a few years in operation, CyI has demonstrated its keen ability to successfully conduct scientific research and to attract scientists of international repute. It is now pursuing a large number of research projects, many of them funded by the European Commission, including an ERC Advanced Grant.A Graduate School acts as the Institute’s Education arm, which trains researchers for senior posts in academia as well as industry and government bodies. It offers high quality doctoral programmes grounded in the research environment of the respective research centres.

“The user, on top of the abilities

provided so far by the print version of the project, is now offered a wealth of informational and visual material”

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Art created by Jewish survivors of the Holocaust during their time in British

detention camps in Cyprus have returned to the island after 65 years and were exhibited at the Pancyprian Gymnasium Museums from 30 October to 12 December 2014.

The works of art, kept in the HaShomer HaTzair Archive up until their recent return to Cyprus, provide a historical depiction of life as a Holocaust survivor in the final leg of their journey to the land of Israel.

The Unknown History: Works of art by Jewish refugees at the British Detention camps in Cyprus exhibition at the Pancyprian Gymnasium Museums’ premises in Nicosia was made possible due to cooperation between the Embassy of Israel in Cyprus and the Pancyprian Gymnasium, as well as thanks to the great generosity of the HaShomer HaTzair – Yad Yaari and Moreshet Centre for Research and Documentation in Israel. Credits should also go to the artist, researcher and archivist Yuval Danieli, who comprehensively organised the care of these exhibits and helped keep memory alive.

On the way to the Land of Israel

After the end of the Second World War, survivors of the Holocaust were evacuated from the Nazi

concentration or forced labour camps. They headed back to Palestine (Eretz-Israel), their homeland. Being under British Mandate rule at the time, Palestine was almost inaccessible to Jewish immigrants. The British navy enforced a full-scale blockade, so between August 1946 and May 1948, 39 immigrants’ ships attempting to run the British blockade were seized.

The Jewish refugees were sent to Cyprus, where twelve Detention Camps were established to accommodate them; five so-called “Summer Camps” in the Karaolos area near the town of Famagusta and seven “Winter Camps” in Dhekelia and Xylotymbou near the Larnaca District. During this period more than 52,000 Jewish refugees passed through the British detention camps in Cyprus, until the last detainees were finally set free in February 1949 and headed to the newly-established State of Israel. The Cypriot people treated the Jewish detainees warmly and provided necessary services, helped them and expressed their solidarity in many ways.

“This affair could have been considered as a sad episode in the history of the new Israel, when survivors from the death camps were forced to be surrounded again by barbed wire fences, guard posts and sentinels,” explained Israeli Ambassador to Cyprus Michael Harari in his

Unknown History

Works of art by Jewish refugees at the British Detention camps in Cyprus

From the print album Begerush Kafrisin

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Greeting in the exhibition’s catalogue. “But it seems that along with the difficulties and pain, Jews who were detained in Cyprus saw their stay there not only as something forced upon them; many testimonies indicate that they saw it as a preparatory and transitory period between Europe of the Holocaust and entering the Land of Israel. While they lived in the British detention camps in Cyprus, they experienced a chapter of Jewish heroism and fraternity, which became a symbol of their determination to build new lives; shortly after the Holocaust, the survivors decided to take responsibility of their fates and chose to stick to life and go on.”

To the Holocaust survivors the period spent in Cyprus was nothing more than one last stage in their long journey to the land of Israel; a stage during which they were forced to spend long months in detention camps, living under difficult conditions. Even so, the detained Jewish people demonstrated great endurance and vitality, adapting to the conditions of their captivity.

They achieved successes through organised actions, such as vocational training, educational and cultural activities. Artists’ workshops, music courses, theatre performances, sports events, a choir and an orchestra were organised. After all, the ability to create art under harsh conditions was one way to overcome difficulties.

The artworks created by the refugees during their stay in Cyprus depicted their experiences and rendered the grind of daily life in the detention camps, or portrayed the surroundings. Still, other works followed a more classical repertoire, characteristic of European traditions in art. Some of the detainees were later to become established artists in Israel – such as Shraga Weil (1918-2009), Schmuel Katz (1926-2010) or Haim (Heniek) Barkani (1923-2001), whose artworks were on display in this exhibition.

The refugees produced a variety of art works; paintings, drawings, engravings and sculptures. There they depicted their experiences and

everyday reality or portrayed the surroundings of the camps: the bridge over the Larnaca - Famagusta road which connected the camps, the double wire fences, the ditches which surrounded the deportation camps and the watch towers. Other works rendered the grind of daily life; the queues for water, the round tin barracks - which supposedly provided better protection against weather conditions, but, in fact, were freezing in winter and sizzling hot during the summer and even leaked when it rained.

Artefacts and handicrafts were made from all sorts of material that was available in the camps: discarded beverage cans, soft limestone, wood panels (once part of dining tables), ceramic tiles etc. These materials were consequently assembled into form with the help of nails, wires and knives. Model tractors, ploughs, miniature house furniture, books or similar artefacts were created, even miniature slippers. They anticipate a great yearning for warmth and what one would call «Home». Additionally, one can find colourful toys for children; weaving and pictures made of threads or material cut from

the tents, decorated wooden or stone boxes, picture albums, chess and domino sets. Shoes, clothing and other artefacts were produced in the same way. Finally, the immigrant ships used to transport Holocaust survivors to Palestine, their homeland and future State of Israel, were depicted with every opportunity - a constant symbol of the longing to finally reach a safe haven.

Back then, the detainees were eager to display their work, so in October 1947, a memorable art exhibition was inaugurated in the Xylotymbou camp. The exhibits were later sent to Tel Aviv and were put on display there in April 1948. Most of the exhibits have been kept in the HaShomer HaTzair Archive, where they remain until today, covered in the dust of history.

Sixty-five years after the last of the Jewish refugees left the shore of Cyprus, pieces of art created back then returned to the island.

Thanks to this initiative, history treasures – works of art hidden for decades in archives – have come back to light. The power of creativity and

Shmuel Katz

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strong will to live a creative life against all odds is manifested in these works. They demonstrate how the human spirit could not be tamed, despite the harsh reality. One beholds the emergence of a new life and witnesses the willpower of men and women to overcome the Terrible and move forward.

The exhibition was accompanied by educational programmes; one for primary and one for secondary school children. Guided tours were available in Greek, Hebrew and English. Admission was free.

A catalogue was also produced to commemorate 65 years from the closure of the British Detention Camps in Cyprus.

The print album Begerush Kafrisin

Naftali Bezem set up a workshop in the winter camps, where he taught painting, linocut and other engraving techniques. This art workshop was autonomous; the teaching was not limited in time, a fact that allowed students to work and create continuously. Bezem taught there for about 6 months. In the beginning, there were 35 students of all ages. Among the most extraordinary collective artworks of this workshop were students’ prints depicting the refugees’ experiences in the Detention Camps. The prints were bound into albums, one of which is included in this collection. It bears the title Begerush Kafrisin (“in the Cyprus Exile”) and was offered as a gift to Yehoshua Leibner.

This album consists of 26 original prints (linocuts) made by 26 different participants of the workshops, although one attests a rather homogenous style, characteristic of modernist approaches to form. While studying these prints at a primary stratum of understanding, reflections from crowded detention camps and the whole cycle of life there emerge – children being born, mothers breast-feeding, daily activities, weddings, gatherings. A closer study, though, reveals concealed fears and nightmares from the not-so-distant past. The situations depicted are casual and even boring, yet the feeling transmitted is one of inability to see beyond the

barbed wire, beyond a situation without escape. The contrast of harsh black and white lines and surfaces, without any hue of the grey, makes this feeling even stronger.

After some years, Bezem understood the magnitude of the influence which his experiences during this period had on his future work. ”There I came face to face with my subject: The immigrants. My encounters with them proved to me, unequivocally, that spiritually I remained one of them.”

The Pancyprian Gymnasium Museums

The Pancyprian Gymnasium is an evolution of the Hellenic School founded in 1812 by the Archbishop of Cyprus, Kyprianos. The composition of the various collections of this historic school is the result of long and intense efforts by the school’s teachers, who strove to provide a diverse education framework to their students. It is also the result of generous donations and pecuniary sponsorships by the school’s graduates, benefactors or other parties who acknowledged the importance of the Gymnasium’s contribution.

The very first effort to establish a museum at the Pancyprian Gymnasium dates back to 1893, when the Consul of Greece to Cyprus, K. Panourgias, donated his personal collection of fossils and made the first steps towards the creation of an educational museum. The museum then started building up its collection either through purchases or via donations, which were classified and maintained by the school’s professors.

During the time Principal Constantine Spyridakis

was in charge of the school, from 1936 to 1960, a systematic effort began to create an archaeological museum at the Gymnasium. In 1943, at the 50th anniversary of the Pancyprian Gymnasium, the school’s graduates collected the amount of four thousand Cyprus pounds for the purpose of improving the school’s museum collections.

After the Second World War, the archaeological, historical, numismatic and folk art collections, as well as the natural history collection, remained exhibited in the basement of the Severeios Library. Thankfully, museum exhibits were not looted during the adversity of the coup d’état and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974.

The Pancyprian Gymnasium’s museum collections, created throughout its hundred-year history, were reorganised and enriched in 1993, on the initiative of Headmaster Georgios Hadjikostis. The collections were put on display in five halls in the school building; the School’s History Museum, Historic-Archaeological Museum and Natural History Museum.

At present, the museums host the Archaeological Collection, Numismatic collection, Collection

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of Old Weaponry and Collection of Old Maps. The school also runs the Art Gallery, which showcases artworks by renowned Cypriot painters, former professors and students.

Educational programmes

The Pancyprian Gymnasium pays particular attention to the purpose for which these museums were established: To support and complete the school children’s education. The aim is to promote contact with original objects, of high historical and artistic value, which quantitatively develop culture and offer direct experiences to pupils and students.

These are completed by special guided tours, lectures and educational programmes.

Haim (Heniek) Barkani (1923-2001)

Musician, Caricaturist and Graphic Artist

Haim Barkani was born in the city of Lodz in Poland to Jewish parents, who were both musicians. At the age of six he began taking piano lessons and, at a young age, even began composing music. With the outbreak of World War Two, the family fled to the Soviet Union and ended up in Siberia and then in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, where they stayed until the end of the war. After the war he lived in Italy, and as part of a Jewish youth group, they intended to immigrate to Palestine (Eretz-Israel), but were eventually sent to the detention camps in Cyprus. There, Barkani met and married his wife, Halina. In 1949, after being liberated, he immigrated to Israel with his group. In the 1950s he studied

music education and taught music and piano for many years. He is the composer of 245 famous songs, widely performed by some of the most renowned singers in Israel. In addition to his musical interests, Haim Barkani also worked as a caricaturist, illustrator and graphic artist.

His artistic activity in the Detention Camps

Barkani remained in the camps in Cyprus for two years. His musical background helped with his diverse activities in the camp. He organised a choir, composed songs, played the accordion at camp meetings and events and produced a few puppet shows. Occasionally, his wife would relate some stories about the first days of their life together in the detention camps. She recalls: “A short time after we married, Heniek disappeared for about 2/3 of the night. I was very offended. We had just got married and he was already cheating on me. It seems that he had gone to bring a piano and then I understood that he had a second wife: Music. I could either take it or leave it.”

Barkani related in his memoirs how one of his caricatures on display at an exhibition succeeded

in changing circumstances in the camp. It was common practice to sometimes take the children of the camp to the beach. The outing was accompanied by armoured vehicles with soldiers carrying loaded rifles. This unusual convoy prompted Barkani to draw a caricature, showing a young child going to the beach, accompanied by four armoured British vehicles. At the opening of this exhibition, while looking at the caricature, the guest of honour - the actor Meir Margalit, who came from Israel as part of a delegation of artists - asked the British colonel accompanying him: “Sir, how is it that four armoured vehicles are needed to guard one young child?” Barkani recounts that the very next day the children went to the beach accompanied by only one jeep.

Shmuel (Alexander) Katz (1926-2010)

Artist, Illustrator, Caricaturist

Shmuel Katz was born in Vienna, Austria, to Jewish-Hungarian parents. After the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938, the family moved to Hungary. When Hungary was invaded in 1944, Katz was deported to a

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concentration camp in Yugoslavia. He managed to escape and made his way to Budapest, where he hid in the cellars of the Swiss Legation until the arrival of the Red Army. In 1945 he commenced his studies in Architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. In the next year he attempted to immigrate to Palestine (Eretz-Israel) aboard the “Knesset Israel”. The boat was intercepted by British forces and the refugees were deported to detention camps in Cyprus. There, he had his first exhibition. In 1947 he received permission to immigrate to Israel as part of a group. This group later founded the Gaaton Kibbutz (1948). He remained a Kibbutz member until his death. Shmuel Katz was one of the most important and well-known graphic artists, illustrators and caricaturists in Israel. Throughout his life he worked as an artist and a graphic editor of daily and weekly newspapers and illustrated hundreds of books. He has exhibited his work not only in Israel but also abroad and has been awarded many prizes. In 2013, the Ein Harod Museum of Art in Israel organised a retrospective exhibition of his work titled “Shmuel Katz: Stylus Days”.

His artistic activity in the Detention Camps

Katz was the most prolific chronicler of the “summer camps” in Cyprus, with his paintings in colour, chalk and pencil, depicting the grind of daily life there. Every corner of the tents, every water tank and every piece of garbage could attract his attention and was depicted meticulously and skilfully. Those paintings that depicted the human figure were executed in a humorous and light-hearted way, sometimes bordering on the caricature. Katz generally demonstrates in his work exceptional virtuosity and craftsmanship. A watercolour displaying panoramically a field of monotonous, khaki-coloured tents draws the viewer’s attention. These tents replace in terms the lacking figures, echoing the sorrow among the detainees without directly depicting them. In the background, one notices the inviting blue sea – suggesting this to be a sea of freedom and hope.

Shraga Weil (1918-2009)

Painter, Sculptor, Graphic Artist

Shraga Weil was born in Czechoslovakia in 1918 to Jewish parents. In 1931, the family moved

to Bratislava and in 1937 he began studying art in Prague. He spent World War Two in Budapest, engaging in forging documents for the resistance. He was imprisoned there between the years 1943-44. In 1947 he tried to immigrate to Palestine (Eretz-Israel) aboard the refugee ship «Theodore Herzl», carrying 2,500 Jewish refugees. Just opposite the shores of Haifa the ship was intercepted by the British Navy and many of its passengers were wounded. The refugees were consequently transported in metal cages aboard British battleships to the port of Famagusta and from there on to the “winter camps” in Dhekelia-Xylotymbou. In the Detention Camp, Shraga Weil produced artworks that mainly depicted life in the camps, and also taught the detained youth art. Weil, alongside Grazovski and others, was one of the initiators of the art exhibition which took place first in the Cyprus camps in October 1947, then in Tel Aviv (1948) and now, many years later, back in Cyprus. He later immigrated to Israel and joined the Ha’Ogen Kibbutz. During his life, he engaged in many different art disciplines; illustration, collage, book cover design, silk-screen printing, linocut, oil painting and sculpture. In the 60s and 70s, he also created some architectural designs, such as the main entrance of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament), and the doors at the Israeli President’s residence in Jerusalem. His work has been exhibited both in Israel and abroad, winning a number of prizes. In 2010, an exhibition of his work took place in Tel Aviv.

His artistic activity in the Detention Camps

The work Weil created in Cyprus was influenced largely by Czech art and Central European art in general. This he combined with grotesque and sharp humour, as well as with political awareness. Using black ink and chalk or black and white watercolours on paper, he gave his drawings a most contrasting character. In his works presented at the exhibition, one notices the attempt to assert that life in the camps was a continuation of life in the Nazi concentration camps and that their set-up was meant to inflict even more injustice on the Holocaust survivors. Especially notable is a drawing where two children are planting a seed

in the garden beds around the black, tin barracks. Here, notions of hope for freedom and the continuity of life for the Jewish people - even in captivity - are tangible. In another drawing, a small child is depicted with a sorrowful look and an adult face, short of stature, dressed in a coat many sizes too big for him. He is standing confused next to his backpack within the entanglement of the frightening barbed wire fences that surround him from all sides.

Naftali Bezem (b. 1924)

Artist & the Printmaking workshops organised in the Detention Camps

Bezem was born in the city of Aachen in Germany. As a young boy he immigrated to Palestine (Eretz-Israel) in 1939, without his family, as part of a youth group, just two weeks before the outbreak of World War Two. Both his parents stayed behind and perished in Auschwitz in 1943. His talent for art was manifested early in his life; he completed art studies at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design (est. 1906) in Jerusalem. While there he met his future wife, Hannah. With her he was sent in 1947 to the Detention Camps in Cyprus, as an art teacher there. His achievements in painting and drawing were exceptional, while at the same time the range of subjects that he dealt with shifted easily between the private and the public, between the social and the political and between the diaspora and the land the Israeli. Bezem is an important artist, who made significant contributions imaging the new born Israeli State. He was one of the most prominent artists of his generation. He lives in Tel Aviv and still paints. His art revolves around notions of Family, Holocaust remembrances, settling the land of Israel and social aspects of life in Israel. During his lifetime, he received prestigious prizes. He has exhibited his work both in Israel and abroad. One of his well-known works is the cast aluminium bas relief mural From Holocaust to Rebirth (1974) at the Yad Vashem - Jerusalem. In December 2012, a retrospective exhibition commemorating his work was inaugurated at the Tel-Aviv Museum of Art.

The Summer Camp - Shmuel Katz - 1947 - watercolour on paper

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Armenian artist Arshak Sarkissian presented his art exhibition The Week of Madness

at the Opus 39 Gallery in Nicosia from 29 September to 11 October 2014.The exhibition, which included paintings, drawings and sculptures by the artist, was supported by the Pharos Arts Foundation.

The courage of Arshak the painterBy Vardan JaloyanThe courage of Arshak the painter is featured in a renovated connection of the real and the fantastic, the human and the inhuman, the cultural and the savage. His drawings exhibit a complexity and subtlety that exceed imagination; he is one of the few artists capable of creating vast canvasses with multiple figures and complex structure. As a painter he is, at the same time, an anthropologist of states of mind. The artist often depicts animals along with his characters, a fact that also leaves room for physiognomic confusing interpretations.The characters are diverse and condense the enormous heritage of Western Europe. Arshak is able to create a new harmony between reality and unreality. According to his own testimony, he takes the prototypes of his characters from the subcultures of large cities, recording their anthropological mutations. There is a vital area where the human and the animal become indistinguishable. The inhabitants of this zone are characterised as monsters, a mixture of human and animal.When we say politics today we mean bio-politics, namely, political control over the manifestations of human life, which implies exclusion of the monstrous. The heroes of Arshak perhaps are those who have fled that bio-political control. One of the reasons that figurative plastic art is not possible anymore is that modern life has stopped being plastic.

Arshak seeks and finds that plastic life in subcultures that avoid control, but mostly in his imagination.Arshak has several graphic works and paintings with the title Orchestra Rehearsal. The orchestra, certainly, is the model of society, but of what kind of society? Orchestra musicians have a particular social character, admirably introduced in Theodor Adorno’s article Conductor and Orchestra: Adorno writes that orchestra musicians are prone to sadistic humour and continuous jokes; they like obscene practical jokes. One may recall Federico Fellini’s film, Orchestra Rehearsal. This feature is probably related to the fact that many ways of sublimation are closed to man in musical space. It is particularly reflected in the famous stubbornness of musicians. They are

The Week of Madness

By Arshak Sarkissian

Europa Nostra award for the Home of Cooperation

The Home of Cooperation, a historical building situated in the UN-controlled

buffer zone in Nicosia, has won the Europa Nostra Award for Cultural Heritage.And to commemorate the conservation award, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou, unveiled a plaque at a special ceremony held on 16 September, 2014. The ceremony was also attended by the vice president of Europa Nostra, Irina Subotic, Ambassador for European Economic Area and Norway Grants, Ingrid Schulerud, Nicosia Mayor, Constantinos Yiorkadjis on behalf of the Greek Cypriot community and Mehmet Harmanci as representative of the Turkish Cypriot community. A musical programme followed the presentation of the award.The Jury said the Home for Cooperation was something to be really proud of; “It constitutes a substantial contribution to the revitalisation of Nicosia’s United Nations Dead Zone as well as to the wider peace-making procedure. Furthermore it represents a typical example of the 1950s architecture of Cyprus, which finds few supporters but which we are again starting to see as a brave and distinctive statement of the character of its period.”Erected in the early 1950s, the building is attached to the Nicosia renaissance fortifications. Like most of the architecture in the UN Buffer Zone, it suffered from daily disintegration until it was included in the project implemented by the inter-communal organisation Association of Historical Dialogue and Research. Functioning as an educational centre, the purpose of the Home for Cooperation is the launching of projects involving education and training and the advancement of research and dialogue. It is accessible from both sides of the divide without having to cross checkpoints, providing a shared space that can be used by all.

“It thus symbolises the philosophy of the Cypriot communities working together, in collaboration with the international community – ideals of course shared by Europa Nostra,’’ the European cultural heritage organisation said.

The European Union Prize for Cultural HeritageThe European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards was launched in 2002 by the European Commission and has been organised by Europa Nostra since then. The Prize promotes excellence, inspires through the “power of example” and stimulates the exchange of best practices in the heritage field across Europe. It also aims to communicate to the general public the beauty and the economic and social value of our cultural heritage.The Prize honours every year up to 30 outstanding heritage achievements from all parts of Europe. The awards are given in four categories: conservation, research and digitisation, dedicated service by individuals or organisations and education, training and awareness-raising.

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“It symbolises the philosophy of the Cypriot communities working

together, in collaboration with the international community – ideals of course shared by Europa Nostra’’

constantly disappointed with their position in the orchestra and constantly disillusioned with their chosen profession. Orchestra is a mini model of modern society, where freedom of self-expression entails disappointments.One may assume that, with their social character, all of Arshak’s heroes are “orchestra musicians” and can express themselves by means of instruments. For example, a woman has a fan in one hand and a piece of watermelon in the other. They are free and vibrant, often look negligent, are probably stubborn like Fellini’s heroes, but in that noise a hubbub is continuous and always present, and nothing significant will happen.

It is all about the costumesCostumes have a primary significance in Arshak’s paintings and sculptures. His vivid visual stories are told not only through gestures, mimics and poses, but especially through costumes. The clothes of the characters are often hung like a sack; they look casual, sometimes even miserable. Clothes symbolise social exploitation and sometimes escape from the social, since a person lives and acts inside of clothes.Besides paintings and graphic works, sculpture also has an important place in Arshak’s art. Arshak’s sculptures have “come out” of his paintings and graphic works, and they also need to be looked at in a different way. For example, a unique character emerging from a graphic work may be transferred afterwards to painting and finally may become a sculpture. During these transformations, those characters become more vivid, more alive, because the subject is the secret of life, that life coming out of its own boundaries.Both paintings and sculptures of Arshak have dramatic contents; there, life stages itself and shows its whole power. I would like to call his sculptures “dimensional painting”, but we know that this term has been used by great goldsmith and sculptor Julio Gonzalez for completely different sculptures. In his sculptures, Arshak remains a painter, which brings to mind Degas’ “Dancers”: Degas’ wonderful sculptures were

the outcome of his desire to see his painted images in tangible form.Modern society is trying to find and define what is allowed, while science and bio-technologies are questioning boundaries between humane and inhumane, life and lifeless. More and more frequently we are changing our behaviour, as if something inhuman had invaded our life. I think Revolutionism is typical of Arshak’s paintings, yet it is not a social, but an anthropological revolution.

About the artistArshak Sarkissian was born in Gyumri, Armenia in 1981. Arshak works predominantly in the medium of painting, drawing and sculpture. He completed his education at the National Aesthetic Center of Art in Armenia and later took an art course at Cyprus College of Art (2001-2002). The artist had solo shows in different galleries abroad, among them the Albemarle Gallery in London, Gavriel Gallery in Bremen, Opus 39, Nicosia and many more. In 2005 he attained a RA President’s Award for Fine Arts. Among his works is the interior design of the passenger terminals at Zvartnots Armenia International Airport. He has participated in numerous art projects, among them are Art Omi International Artist residency in New York and Stand Up For Your Rights Design and Illustration Team Residence program in Buntingford, UK, and the Andirran National Commission for UNESCO international art camp 2014. He works and lives in Yerevan, Armenia. This is his 4th solo exhibition at Opus 39 Gallery.

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The visitor walks into a dark room with six chairs in front of six screens where each of the six women’s faces – or the back of their heads – is shown to symbolise the hidden nature of the illness. The artists then use sound and vision to create the experience.“A lot of people have found it quite powerful. It feels very personal and direct, we use special speaker technology that when you are sitting watching the video it’s almost like the voice is in your head and the video material that we use… we made a decision to film the women not talking… it’s like listening to someone’s thoughts and they are just looking at you,” John

Wynne said.He added that different people connected with different stories and that some people were almost always affected.The women are encouraged to talk about whatever they want to. “They tell us about the things that matter to them in every intimate way; we have no agenda so we let them say what they want to say about the situations they find themselves in. We don’t interfere,” Tim Wainwright said.“We tried to create a context in which they can think about and talk about the things that

Cast aside, ignored and overlooked, is how many women with Advanced Breast

Cancer (ABC) feel, and in wanting people to understand that they are ‘not their cancer’, a new installation opened on 7 November 2014 with real-life stories of how the disease has impacted on them and their families.The I am not the cancer installation was organised by Novartis Pharma Services Inc Oncology in cooperation with Europa Donna Cyprus and was part of the European wide Here&Now campaign.The campaign was launched in Brussels in June 2013 where the breast cancer community gathered to discuss and debate how support and care for women living with advanced breast cancer could be improved. It coincided with the new findings from a European survey commissioned by Novartis Oncology. The survey, conducted in nine European countries,

aimed to draw a wider picture of the disease and revealed amongst others aspects, poor public understanding of advanced breast cancer.The audiovisual installation is the work of two acclaimed artists; photographer Tim Wainwright and sound artist John Wynne, who bring forth the women’s stories and introduce the rest of the world to the psycho-social and economic impact of the disease on the women and their families.It was first set up in Belgium and travelled to six other European countries before arriving in Cyprus.In each country, the women whom the artists work with are found through cancer patients’ associations and in fact there was great interest from Cypriot women in telling their stories.In Cyprus the artists worked with three local women and also used stories of women from other European counties.

I am not the cancer

By Evie Andreou

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are most important to them; and of course with each woman most things are going to be different, every time we do the project, we get a very different perspective on things,” Wynne said.He also said that each of the Cypriot women’s stories was different and also quite different from anything else they had seen so far.“There are different issues in each country and different issues according to whether they are in an urban or rural environment. In fact one of the Cypriot women we worked with is from a very small village in Paphos, and she talked about how nobody in her village had heard of anyone surviving cancer before and nobody talked about it… families who have had someone with cancer it was like a secret… kept in the family,

so that was interesting having that perspective. We’ve never heard of that kind of situation before,” Wynne said.He added that one of the English women that they worked with was all about the impact of the breast cancer on her career and her work, while other women have talked almost exclusively about their family and its effects on them.“I have cancer but I am not the cancer,” said Tootje, one of the women from the Netherlands who had participated in the project. She had said that she was not afraid of dying but that she was worried about all the people she would leave behind, her children and her husband.In her story she had said how her illness had affected her children and how her son had said in a school presentation that she would die in a year,

because that’s what the doctor had told the family when the metastasis appeared six years ago.Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, and ABC largely affects women over 50, while 30 per cent of women with early breast cancer go on to develop advanced disease. ABC is not curable but medical treatment minimises the symptoms, prolongs life and improves the quality of the patient’s life. The expected life expectancy of ABC patients ranges from two to four years.Last year, 590 new breast cancer cases were diagnosed in Cyprus, among them four men, while 90 women with ABC died.According to the research, women with ABC often feel invisible as they feel no one understands them. They feel isolated from others who don’t have ABC. They do not receive enough support, and when they do, that support eventually wanes.Fifty one percent of ABC patients said they believed they are perceived negatively by society, while research showed that 32.1 percent of people asked did not know or could not give a definition of what ABC is while 77.1 percent did not know that ABC is incurable.The findings of the survey showed that only

less than one third of the women patients said they feel ‘strong’ or are ‘looking forward’ since they were diagnosed with ABC, and 56 percent said their household incomes had fallen as a result of the disease, while 87 percent said their expenditures increased to cover treatment and further medication.The campaign calls everyone from health care practitioners, to decision makers to the public to all do their bit so that women with ABC receive the proper care and support they deserve.Europa Donna Cyprus launched a campaign last month to gather signatures for the creation of a specialised breast centre in Cyprus, which would lead to a 30 percent reduction in deaths, and they called on Minister of Health Philippos Patsalis to keep his promise to create it. So far more than 20,000 people have signed the petition http://kentromastou.com.cy/The art installation, which was under the auspices of the Minister of Health, was inaugurated at the Famagusta Gate in Nicosia by First Lady Andri Anastasiades on 7 November 2014 and remained open to the public, free of entry, for two days. (Article published in the Cyprus Mail newspaper)

Photographer Tim Wainwright (left) and sound artist John Wynne mingle with guests after the exhibition

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This is Italy…

The Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in

Cyprus and as part of initiatives under the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, presented the concert series This is Italy… (F. Mendelssohn) in three concerts on 30 and 31 October 2014, and 1 November 2014.The concerts took place under the artistic direction of Italian conductor Sesto Quatrini, winner of the International Contest Solon Michaelides, which was announced the CySO Foundation in 2012. The audience was presented with the works: Overture to the opera Tancredi by Gioacchino Rossini; Ludwig van Beethoven’s Violin concerto in D major, op. 61 (with soloist Sorin Alexandrou Horlea, member of the CySO); and Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Symphony no. 4 in A major, op. 90 (Italian).

Mendelssohn’s Italian symphony, composed during his tour of Italy, not only reflects the colours and temperament of the country and its people, but also incorporates the characteristic dance rhythms of the saltarello and tarantella. This splendid symphony was preceded by the majestic Overture to Tancredi by Rossini and Beethoven’s masterful Violin concerto, whose revival in 1844 was conducted by Mendelssohn himself and interpreted by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim. A pre-concert talk was also held with a short presentation of the works, by clarinetist and musicologist Angelos Angelides.The concerts were presented at Rialto Theatre in Limassol, Pallas Theatre in Nicosia and Markideion Theatre in Paphos, and supported by Rialto Theatre and Paphos municipality in collaboration with the organisation “European Capital of Culture – Paphos 2017”.

The Pharos Arts Foundation presented a recital with the young Armenian soprano Tereza

Gevorgyan, who despite her young age has been distinguished throughout the world for the beauty of her vocal colour and her eloquent performances. Winner of the Rosenblatt Recital Prize and The Edith Mary Clarke Cup for best female singer (April 2014), as well as the Pavarotti Prize (October 2013), Tereza performed a programme that included songs and operatic arias by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninov, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Armen Tigranian, Herbert Hughes, Giacomo Puccini and Gaetano Donizetti. The concert was jointly presented with PSBANK and kindly supported by the Embassy of Russia. The young Armenian soprano Tereza Gevorgyan has studied in the Yerevan State Conservatoire with Rafael Akopyants, and with Diane Forlano at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where she has recently obtained a DipRAM. She is currently part of the Opera Course of the RAM, under the guidance of Lillian Watson and Jonathan Papp. Notwithstanding her young age, Tereza has been distinguished throughout the world for the beauty of her vocal colour and her eloquent performances. She was one of 12 young singers selected for the 2011 season Georg Solti Academy in Tuscany, receiving intensive training from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Sir Thomas Allen, and giving a number of concerts in Tuscany and Florence, as well as participating in a CD recording for the 100th anniversary of Sir Georg Solti’s birth, produced by Richard Bonynge,.Her recent highlights include concerts at the Palace of Caserta in Naples, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Chicago Symphony Hall celebrating Georg Solti’s 100th birthday with The World Orchestra for Peace conducted by Valery Gergiev, Mozart’s Requiem in Bucharest Romania with the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, and Brahms’ Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in

London with the Stanmore Choral Society.Her operatic performances include the roles of Bat/Animal in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilege at the Barbican Centre, Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stéphane Denève, and Musetta in Puccini’s La Boheme with the Nevill Holt Opera. Her repertoire includes roles such as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Dalinda in Handel’s Ariodante and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Tereza has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Richard Bonynge, Valery Gergiev, Anthony Legge, Lionel Friend, Jane Glover and Paolo Speca.Tereza Gevorgyan is the winner of the Rosenblatt Recital Prize and The Edith Mary Clarke Cup for best female singer (April 2014), the Pavarotti Prize (October 2013), supported by Karaviotis, the Les Azuriales Karaviotis Prize (August 2013), the Thelma Kings Singers’ Award (March 2013), the Ludmilla Andrew Russian Song Prize (June 2011), and the Douglas Samuel & Birdie Matthews Award at the Royal Academy of Music. Tereza is grateful for the generous support of the Raffy Manoukian Scholarship.

Soprano Tereza Gevorgyan

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Short film lovers got the chance to enjoy the year’s awarded European short films at the

annual Short Matters festival in September and October. Organised by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the European Film Academy and ARTos Foundation with the support of the Cyprus University of Technology, the Festival presented the best European short films of the European Film Academy for the eighth year running. The screenings took place at ARTos Foundation in Nicosia from 24 to 26 September 2014 and at the Pefkios Georgiades Amphitheatre (CUT) in Limassol from 8 to 10 October 2014.Short Matters is the European Film Academy’s short film tour which brings the short films nominated for the European Film Awards to a series of film festivals and institutions across Europe and beyond. Coming from various regions of Europe – Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, Spain, The Netherlands, UK and Ukraine – the 2014 Short

Matters programme featuring the short films nominated for the European Film Awards 2013 was a manifold panorama of young contemporary European filmmaking.The 2,900 members of the European Film Academy selected Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow) by Belgian filmmaker Tom Van Avermaet as the overall winner, which was presented at the 26th European Film Awards Ceremony in Berlin on the first weekend of December 2013.

Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow) Valladolid Short Film Nominee – European Short Film 2013Belgium/France, 20’, fictionDirected by: Tom Van AvermaetScreenplay: Ines Van ImpeDirector of Production: Ellen De WaeleEditor: Dieter DiependaeleSound: Christian MonheimCast: Matthias Schoenaerts, Laura Verlinden,

Short Matters

Peter Van Den Eede, Benjamin Ramon, Amandine Zurbuchen, Brian Piezel, Denis Duron, Gregory Rabat, Emile Boudaille, Bruno Clément, Frank Maréco, Laurent Marchetti, Guillaume Sentier, Clément Bruneau, Guillaume Leguichon, Jean-Baptiste Wagnon, Daniel Rechul, Simon Robas, Jérome WagnonSynopsis: Soldier Nathan Rijckx died during World War I. A strange collector imprisoned his shadow and gave him a new chance; a second life against 10,000 captured shadows. It is love that guides him, as his purpose is to meet Sarah again, the woman he fell in love with before he died. But when he discovers that she’s already in love with someone else, jealousy clouds his mind and pushes him towards a bitter decision, a decision not without consequences…

As Ondas (The Waves) Ghent Short Film Nominee 2012Portugal, 22’, fictionDirected by: Miguel FonsecaScreenplay: Miguel FonsecaDirector of Photography: Mário CastanheiraEditor: Sandro AguilarSound: António FigueiredoCast: Andreia Contreiras, Alice ContreirasSynopsis: Beautiful, truly Portuguese seascapes swept before my eyes. Tied up in these images was my youth, my paradise lost. The vast sea, the beach, the people, all waiting, all dying gently, sadly, beautifully… Life and death were being recorded here as a whole: Death as a part of life, a cosmic change, a transformation.

Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow)

Morning Though I know the River is Dry

The short film initiative is organised by the European Film Academy in co-operation with a series of film festivals throughout the continent. At each of these festivals an independent jury presents one of the European short films in competition with a nomination in the short film category of the European Film Awards. In order to be considered for the short film initiative, short films have to be selected for the competition section in any of these partner festivals:

Berlin International Film Festival/GermanyCork Film Festival/IrelandCurtas Vila do Conde - International Film Festival/PortugalEncounters Short Film and Animation Film

Festival BristolFestival del film Locarno/SwitzerlandFilm Festival Ghent/BelgiumInternational Film Festival Rotterdam/the NetherlandsInternational Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand/FranceInternational Short Film Festival in Drama/GreeceKrakow Film Festival/PolandNorwegian Short Film Festival Grimstad/Norway Sarajevo Film Festival/Bosnia & HerzegovinaTampere Film Festival/FinlandValladolid International Film Festival/SpainVenice Film Festival/Italy

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MorningCork Short Film NomineeIreland/UK, 20’, fictionDirected by: Cathy BradyScreenplay: Sarah Woolner, Cathy Brady Director of Production: Isona RigauEditor: Matteo BiniSound: Tom GriffithsCast: Eileen Walsh, Johnny HarrisSynopsis: A distraught woman doesn’t want to be disturbed, but the front doorbell keeps ringing and the caller won’t leave until she answers.

Though I know the River is DryRotterdam Short Film Nominee 2013 Egypt/Palestine/UK/Qatar, 19‘, fictionDirected by: Omar Robert Hamilton

Screenplay: Omar Robert HamiltonDirector of Production: Louis LewarneEditor: Omar Robert HamiltonSound: Basel AbbasCast: Kais NashifSynopsis: He has returned to Palestine. On the fraught road through the country he relives the choice that sent him to America and the forces of history now driving him home. Skok (Jump)Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Nominee 2012Bulgaria, 30’, fictionDirected by: Petar Valchanov & Kristina GrozevaScreenplay: Kristina Grozeva, Petar ValchanovDirector of Production: Kristina Grozeva, Petar Valchanov

Editor: Petar ValchanovSound: Ivan AndreevCast: Stephan Denoliubov, Ani ValchanovaSynopsis: The old bachelor Gosho receives an offer from his rich cousin Joro to take care of Joro’s luxurious penthouse while the latter is abroad. For the poor relative, still living with his mother and grand-father, this is the perfect opportunity to have some peace and quiet in luxury and richness. But as early as his second day in the apartment, the water meter reader arrives, performing her monthly inspection. Her visit turns out to be much more than just a simple water meter reading, but the most deceitful, most passionate, the funniest and the saddest love in the world. Misterio (Mystery) Berlin Short Film Nominee 2013Spain, 12’, fictionDirected by: Chema García IbarraScreenplay: Chema García IbarraDirector of Production: José Antonio FernándezEditor: Chema García IbarraSound: José Marsilla, David Rodríguez.Cast: Angelita López, Asun Quinto, Josefa Sempere, Antonio Blas Molina, José Manuel Ibarra, Luismi Bienvenido, Susi Martínez, Josette Mora.Synopsis: They say that if you put your ear to the back of his neck, you can hear the Virgin talk.Sonntag 3 (Sunday 3) Tampere Short Film Nominee 2012Germany, 14 min, animationDirected by: Jochen KuhnScreenplay: Jochen KuhnDirector of Production: Jochen KuhnEditor: Olaf MeltzerSound: Jochen KuhnSynopsis: The third part in a series about Sunday

outings. In SONNTAG 3, the protagonist has a blind date with the Chancellor.

Yaderni Wydhody (Nuclear Waste) Grimstad Short Film Nominee 2012 Ukraine, 25’, fiction, no dialogueDirected by: Myroslav SlaboshpytskiyScreenplay: Myroslav SlaboshpytskiyDirector of Production: Volodymyr Tykhyy, Denys IvanovEditor: Kristof HoornaertSound: Sergiy StepanskiyCast: Sergiy Gavryluk, Svenlana ShtankoSynopsis: Sergiy and Sveta live in Chernobyl. Sergiy is a truck-driver at a radioactive wastes utilization plant. Sveta works at a radioactive decontamination laundry. Their work and their lives are dictated by one unchangeable rhythm with clockwork precision. But what sets this mechanism in motion - day by day?

Zima Locarno Short Film Nominee 2013Russia, 13’, documentary/experimentalDirected by: Cristina Picchi Screenplay: Cristina PicchiDirector of Production: Ekaterina OkhonkoEditor: Cristina PicchiSound: Henri d’ ArmancourtCast: Ay Ogunlana, Vladimir Kopilov, Alexander (Murmansk’s sailor), Alexey Beznosov, Sergey Krutikov, Alexander (Baikal’s fisherman), Alexey LaptevSynopsis: A journey through North Russia and Siberia where people have to cope with one of the world’s harshest climates, Zima portrays a reality where the boundary between life and death is so thin that it is sometimes almost non-existent. In these remote places, civilisation constantly fights

Skok (Jump)

Zima

Sonntag 3 (Sunday 3) Yaderni Wydhody (Nuclear Waste)

A Story for the Modlins

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and embraces nature and its timeless rules and rites. People, animals and nature become elements of a millennial existence cycle where physical and mental endurance are as important as chance and where life and death constantly meet each other.

A Story for the Modlins Sarajevo Short Film Nominee 2012 Spain, 26’, documentaryDirected by: Sergio OksmanScreenplay: Carlos Muguiro, Emilio Tomé, Sergio OksmanDirector of Production: Sergio OksmanEditor: Fernando Franco, Sergio OksmanSound: Iñaki SánchezCast: Elmer ModlingSynopsis: After appearing in the film Rosemary’s Baby, by Roman Polanski, Elmer Modlin ran away with his family to a distant land, where they shut themselves inside a dark apartment for thirty years.

Houses with Small Windows Venice Short Film Nominee 2013Belgium, 15’, fictionDirected by: Bülent ÖztürkScreenplay: Bülent Öztürk and Mizgin Müjde ArslanDirector of Production: Clind’oeil films & The fridge.tvEditor: Bert Jacobs, Pieter Smet & Jan HameeuwSound: Thierry De Vries Cast: Mizgin Müjde Arslan, Seyithan Altiparmak, Emine KorkmazSynopsis: Houses with small windows is a powerful and yet muted portrait of an honour killing in the rural Kurdish Southeast of Turkey. 22-year old Dilan pays for her forbidden love for a

young man in a neighbouring village with her life. She has shamed the family and therefore must die at the hands of her own brothers. And as tradition will have it, the killing must be compensated. Butter LampDrama Short Film Nominee 2013France/China, 15’, fictionDirected by: Hu WeiScreenplay: Hu WeiDirector of Production: AMA Productions – Goya EntertainmentEditor: Hu WeiSound: Hervé GuyadèreCast: Genden PunstokSynopsis: A young photographer and his assistant suggest to Tibetan nomads to photograph them. On diverse and more or less exotic backgrounds, families appear to the photographer. Through these shots, the photographer will weave unique links with each of the various villagers.

Orbit Ever After Bristol Short Film Nominee 2013UK, 20’, fictionDirected by: Jamie StoneScreenplay: Jamie StoneDirector of Production: Chee-Lan Chan, Len RowlesEditor: James TaylorSound: Jens Rosenlund PetersenCast: Thomas Brodie-Sangster, MacKenzie Crook, Bronaugh Gallagher, Bob GoodySynopsis: Earth’s orbit; the distant future. Two star-crossed lovers overcome all probabilities and sacrifice everything they have in order to spend one perfect moment together.

Houses with Small Windows Butter Lamp