art lab (lego art for identity representation)

http://www.artlab.org.uk/lego.htm

the nerve centre (Derry)

http://www.nerve-centre.org.uk/

Maja Bajevic Double Bubble (2001) Video installation Courtesy of the artist


Maja Bajevic's work directly comments on prominent issues in recent history such as collective identity, tragedy, destiny, the construction and deconstruction of history, ideology, and sociology. Acting as a catalyst, her work creates narratives that reference memory and identity, reflecting on the past and present of local socio-political events that possess global implications and referencing a collective destiny and the fragments of a shattered history. Soliciting the observer's attention in order to understand her subtle language, Bajevic's works range from video, to light and sound installations, to performance.

P.S.1 will present the video Double bubble, in which Bajevic addresses contemporary misuse of religion by displaying two new forms of religion. The first of these, TECHNO, is a religion developed to fulfill the personal needs of the individual. To exemplify this, Bajevic claims things such as: "I don't eat pork," or "I do not drink during Ramadan but I take ecstasy." An example of TURBO religion (a religion expressed through nationalistic, hate-based activities) would be the statement, "I did all that in the name of God." With this video, Bajevic attempts to demonstrate the displacement one can feel in a world of hidden lies and violence.

The main work on view is the large sound installation Avanti Popolo, which displays nationalistic songs from 30 different countries from all parts of the world, sung by representatives of many different cultures and nationalities. While Bajevic illuminates the aggressive nature of each piece, she also highlights the absurd nature of these songs by combining them. The songs play as viewers walk around the installation and approach each of the thirty stereos.

Maja Bajevic has participated in numerous exhibitions, including the 50th Venice Biennale (Bosnia-Herzegovina Pavilion), Venice, Italy; Blood & Honey: Future is in the Balkans, Sammlung Essl, Klausterneuberg, Austria (2003); Biennial de Valencia, Spain; the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey (2001); and Manifesta 3, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

This exhibition is curated by P.S.1 Curator Jimena Blazquez Abascal.

from http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/72

Cypriot Puzzle Exhibition Catalogue Published

The Embassy at Work
Art Inspires Communication:
Cypriot Puzzle Exhibition Catalogue Published
May 2009


In May 2009, the catalogue of the Cypriot Puzzle art exhibition was published to document this historic series of activities and, more importantly, their legacy of creativity and cooperation
In conflict zones all over the world, art has been successful in bringing communities together. With support from USAID, this is the case in Cyprus as well. The first island wide art competition resulted in a travelling exhibition that brightened the Cypriot landscape—physically and metaphorically—while using art to build bridges between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. In May 2009, the catalogue of the Cypriot Puzzle art exhibition was published to document this historic series of activities and, more importantly, their legacy of creativity and cooperation. The competition, the exhibition and the catalogue were all made possible through the cooperation of the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts (EKATE) and the European Mediterranean Arts Association (EMAA) and with support from the USAID-funded UNDP Action for Cooperation and Trust (ACT) program.

The Cypriot Puzzle exhibition’s title was inspired by one of the winning works of art, entitled the “Human Puzzle”, created by 7 year-old Kyriakos Zakos. The work shows how all people are different and separate, but equal and related. Pieced together, different individual parts create a bright, new picture. Each piece is important on its own as well as because it is part of a larger whole. This metaphor can be applied to the exhibition as well as to Cyprus more generally.

The Cypriot Puzzle exhibition travelled around the island throughout 2008. Its aim was to focus attention and spark reflection on issues of concern to Cypriots. Its message was and remains that the Cyprus’ rich cultural diversity should be cultivated and shared, including through the visual arts.

See part of the Cypriot Puzzle Catalogue



http://nicosia.usembassy.gov/EmbatWork/USAIDcyPuzzleMay09.htm

Seascape with palm trees and warship in the Kyrenia waterfront, Cyprus (2008)

Τοπίο με φοινικόδεντρα και πολεμικό πλοίο στο λιμάνι της Κερύνειας, Κύπρος (2008)

pdf press release

http://www.cyprusinvenice.org/

The Project

The Cyprus pavilion for this year’s Venice Biennale, curated by Sophie Duplaix, presents Socratis Socratous. The artist will stage a series of installations, performances and happenings at the Cyprus Pavilion and in other city locations.

The artist writes about his project:
“As is often the case, seemingly ‘trivial’ incidents lead to an unexpected outcome. Frequently, people are unable to predict their impact as they are caught unprepared. Yet an almost ‘magical’, poetic, or even eerie feeling may surround these incidents. This can form the starting point for rumours to erupt.

In the recent past, a large number of palm trees were imported to the north of Cyprus, as part of an attempt to create a more exotic, eastern feeling to the local environment. Almost as soon as planting began along the northern coast, stories started to spread. Rumour had it that, amongst the roots of these trees, hid the eggs of cobras; what’s more, these eggs had started to hatch. As snakes are not bound by political frontiers, the fear grew.

The two ethnic communities of Cyprus, Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot, remain to this day separated by outside forces against their will, seemingly unable to find a way to coexist. Their political leaders are caught up in a perpetual cycle of negotiations, with no obvious end in sight.

The enduring separation and dual existence of these communities, paired with a common tendency to highlight and manipulate events occurring on ‘the other side’, has systematically resulted, over the years, in an extensive set of stereotypes emerging about one another. A classic example is the characteristic perception of East versus West (the wilder, more exotic "Turkish-Cypriot north" compared with the ‘European’ "Greek-Cypriot south"), with reference both to lifestyle and the natural landscape.

The palm tree, like the cobra which it is about to ‘bear’, carries along with it a number of religious and mythological symbolisms dating far back in the history of civilisation and which continue to penetrate the collective unconscious. Modern literature is not short of examples either; following a trip to Cyprus in 1969, the Greek Nobel-prize winner Georgios Seferis, produced a collection of poems, one of which carries political connotations, using the metaphor of the snake as the evil conqueror.

In this year´s Venice Biennial, a palm tree wanders the city on a boat, protruding menacingly like the barrel of a cannon. The sight of this majestic plant, uprooted and placed awkwardly in an unfamiliar setting, puzzles the onlooker, creating a desire for it to be replanted again, somewhere suitable.

Snake-charmers roam the city, having travelled from India - a country whose colonial history uncannily resembles that of Cyprus. Allegedly, the snake-charmers alone have the power to lure the serpents from their hiding place.

And so the rumours start; there are snakes in the city”.

(from the website http://www.cyprusinvenice.org/)

please look at article below of the cyprus mail)


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