Contemporary Art from Cyprus

Elena Stylianou is Associate Professor in Art & Art History at European University Cyprus and President of the International Association of Photography and Theory (IAPT). She has published widely on contemporary art and photography, as well as on museums with particular emphasis on the uses of technologies and curatorial practices. She is co-editor of Museums and Photography: The Display of Death (2018) and Ar(t)chaeology: Intersections of Photography and Archaeology (2019). She is recipient of numerous awards and grants. She has curated a number of international exhibitions of contemporary art in Cyprus and is the lead researcher of many funded projects.Evanthia Tselika is Assistant Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus, specializing in art history & theory. Her research concentrates on the social practices of art, with a particular focus on the commons and conflict transformation, as well as visual cultural histories of the 20th century. She collaborates with art centers and museums locally and internationally, and is involved in coordinating and curating European level funded programs, such as the Interreg Balkan Med project Phygital (2017-2020). Her articles are published in journals such as Visual Studies and Public Art Dialogueand commissioned by organizations such as Peace Research Institute Oslo. http://evanthiatselika.com.Gabriel Koureas is Research Fellow at the Department of History of Art, Birkbeck, University of London, UK. His research concentrates on the memory and representation of conflict in the 20th and 21st centuries in museums and visual culture. His publications include works on the commemoration of the First World War, art and the senses, the gendered representation of the terrorist, the visual culture of colonial wars of independence, and transcultural memories in the contemporary art of the Middle East and the Mediterranean. His most recent publications include a special issue of the Journal of Memory Studies (2019) on Ottoman transcultural memories.

In this impressive collection of essays by artists, curators and academics, there is a bold effort to address the contested spaces and disputed histories of an island that is at the edge of Europe and the Middle East. It provides a haunting testament to local perspectives and a unique contribution to the cosmopolitan approaches in contemporary art.

• List of FiguresList of ContributorsIntroduction, Contemporary Art from Cyprus: Politics, Identities, and Cultures across Borders, Elena Stylianou (European University, Cyprus), Evanthia Tselika (University of Nicosia, Cyprus), and Gabriel Koureas (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)Part I: Shaping an Art Scene1. Art History as Narration: Ideological Configurations of Greek Cypriot Modernity in Art, Louli Michaelidou (Royal College of Art, UK)2. From Narration to Dialogue: Thinking about the Way We Talk about Contemporary Visual Art in the Turkish Cypriot Community, Esra Plumer Bardak (Girne American University, Cyprus)3. Becoming and Being a Visual Artist in the Republic Of Cyprus: the Prominence of the Artist-Identity, Niki Zanti-Philiastides (Cultural Practitioner)4. Peripheral Visions: The “Peripheral” Position as Productive of Artistic Process, Marina Kassianidou (Visual Artist)Part II: Challenging Identities5. A Forgotten Anglo-Cypriot Partnership: Glyn Hughes, Christoforos Savva and the Apophasis Gallery in the Early 1960s, Yiannis Toumazis (Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation, Cyprus)6. Who are we, Where do we come from, Where are we Going to? Writing Greek Cypriot Women’s Art Histories in Contemporary Cyprus, Maria Photiou (University of Derby, UK) 7. Nicosia’s Queer Art Subculture: Outside and Inside Formal Institutions, Marilena Zackheos (University of Nicosia, Cyprus) and Nicos Philippou (University of Nicosia, Cyprus)Part III: Excavating Place8. Tracing the Local: Sense of Place and Identity in the Cypriot Landscape, Elena Parpa (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)9. The Ground Beneath Our Feet: A Discussion on Contemporary Art and Archaeology in Cyprus, Participating Artists: Alev Adil, Haris Epaminonda, Maria Loizidou, Christodoulos Panayiotou, Organised by Gabriel Koureas (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK), Elena Parpa (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK), and Christina Lambrou (Independent Researcher)10. The Dig, the Fragment, and the Archive: The Archaeological Imaginary in Greek-Cypriot Contemporary Art, Elena Stylianou (European University, Cyprus) and Artemis Eleftheriadou (Frederick University Nicosia, Cyprus)Part IV: Negotiating Politics11. Transcultural Memory (Re)-Mediations in Cypriot Art History and Contemporary Art, Gabriel Koureas (Birkbeck College, University of London, UK)12. Two-Folded Account on the Attempt to Understand the Potential Source of Change in Cyprus, Basak Senova (Visiting Professor, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Austria)13. Conflict Transformation Art in Nicosia: Engaging Social Groups across the Divided City through Artistic Practices, Evanthia Tselika (University of Nicosia, Cyprus)Index