Description
What makes an exhibition is not merely the mise-en-scene of the finished endeavor, but also the conversations that inform it and that emerge from its existence in the world. Rather than a conventional catalogue, it was decided that a compilation would better serve not only to document the research process for this year’s Cyprus Pavilion, but to also breed new life into extant debates around art and its divisive relationship with time.
In this compendium, anthropologists, archaeologists, and cultural historians untangle the fabric of our temporary, semi-autonomous structure for the exhibition. At the heart of these inquiries is the question: What does it mean to choreograph a history? Through this cartography, the authors attempt to reimagine a history that is constantly in flux, subject to unremitting renegotiation and remediation. Composed as a didascalia of sorts, the play that unfolds before you is divided into a number of acts punctuated by the letters of Christodoulos Panayiotou, the artist representing Cyprus at the 56th Venice Biennale with his solo presentation “Two Days After Forever”.
– Omar Kholeif
OVERTURE, Omar Kholeif
LETTER FROM LIMASSOL, Christodoulos Panayiotou
CYPRUS DELIGHTS, Yiannis Papadakis
EUROPE’S IMAGINARY OF ANCIENT AND MODERN RUINS: HELLENISM AND PHILHELLENISM, Konstantina Zanou
IS “CLOSER AND CLOSER” EVER CLOSE ENOUGH? DEREIFICATION, DIACRITICAL POWER, AND THE SPECTER OF EVOLUTIONISM, Vassos Argyrou
ELEMENTS OF A BIOGRAPHY FOR MARIA OF PATRAS, OR, IMAGES FROM THE LIFE OF MARIETTA (A. K. A. KOMMOMOUTAINA) (1423?-1503), Nasa Patapiou
LETTER FROM LI GALLI, Christodoulos Panayiotou
FOR THE LOVE OF NOTHING, Didier Maleuvre
DONIA WALKS ON TO THE STAGE, Malak Helmy
REAL AND IMAGINED REMNANTS OF BEING TOGETHER, Alkis Hadjiandreou
CHOREOGRAPHIC REANIMATIONS: DANCE, DEATH, AND ARCHAEOLOGY, Eike Wittrock
LETTER FROM HIROSHIMA, Christodoulos Panayiotou
RECYCLING ANTIQUITY: A REUSABLE ITINERARY TO SOME “GATEWAYS” OF THE MIDDLE EAST, Mirjam Brusius
DECOLONIZING ARCHAEOLOGY: ON THE GLOBAL HERITAGE OF EPISTEMIC LAZINESS, Uzma Z. Rizvi
LETTER FROM ISTANBUL, Christodoulos Panayiotou
DECOLONIAL REFLECTIONS: UNDOING AND RE-IMAGINING, ART, AND ARCHAEOLOGY, Walter Mignolo
BODY/THING/NATION: NOSTALGIA FOR THE WHOLE, Yannis Hamilakis
LETTER FROM VENICE, Christodoulos Panayiotou
