Cyprus Today April -June 2005.pdf
Cyprus Today April -June 2005.pdf
Cyprus Today April -June 2005.pdf
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Editorial<br />
Luckily the blood does not get orders from the brain,<br />
Luckily it has to deal only with the heart,<br />
It is the heart that drives it,<br />
because who knows how stingy it would be<br />
what calculations at the crucial moment<br />
when we should in any case have dyed the asphalt red,<br />
when we should in any case have spattered the walls red.<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> Revolt<br />
From the volume "Moments" by Costas Montis<br />
In <strong>April</strong> 1955 the Greek Cypriot community rose up against British colonial rule,<br />
their souls galvanized by the flame of freedom. They were aware that life was dear<br />
and calm was sweet but these couldn’t be purchased at the price of colonial slavery.<br />
Armed with the holy cause of liberty, they chose to go down fighting a formidable<br />
adversary against overwhelming odds.<br />
The liberation struggle, led by the EOKA organization, rocked the island for over<br />
four years. The 1955-1959 period is replete with great moments of heroism not<br />
only of individual freedom fighters but of the people as a whole: the old, the<br />
young, the strong, the weak and the active were all involved in some way.<br />
Costas Montis, the leading Cypriot poet, lived through this turbulent period of<br />
the revolt. In his book Closed Doors, which was first published in Greek in 1964<br />
by the National Committee of Youth of <strong>Cyprus</strong>, Montis unfolds his narrative of<br />
the struggle that led to the independence of <strong>Cyprus</strong>, with masterly artistry, introducing<br />
the reader into the atmosphere, the spirit and emotions of those days.<br />
Paying homage to the 50th anniversary of the liberation struggle, we present some<br />
excerpts from Closed Doors, the first English translation of Montis’ work, published<br />
by NOSTOS BOOKS of Minneapolis in the USA in 2004. We also reproduce<br />
part of the introduction by David Roessel, one of the translators, which sheds<br />
some light on the period and elucidates the way in which Closed Doors was intended<br />
as some kind of an answer to Bitter Lemons by Lawrence Durrell, who was a<br />
British colonial official in <strong>Cyprus</strong> in the 1950s. We would like to thank NOSTOS<br />
publishers for their kind permission to reprint the excerpts here.<br />
Among the other topics covered by the review, special attention is given to the use<br />
of ornamental elements in traditional architecture. In the article "Carved Wood,<br />
Carved Stone and Painted Decoration in Traditional Architecture", Euphrosyne<br />
Egoumenidou from the University of <strong>Cyprus</strong> analyses the art of stone and wood carving<br />
and other architectural features used to embellish traditional houses. The inner<br />
desire of the owners to adorn the place they lived in reveals a spiritual wealth in combining<br />
the practical with beauty, life with art.<br />
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EOKA ANNIVERSARY<br />
A masterly translation of Costas Montis’<br />
book Closed Doors, a story about the<br />
Cypriot struggle for liberation against<br />
British colonial rule, (1955-1959),<br />
coincides with the 50 years anniversary<br />
of the event.<br />
The book is the 23rd volume in a series<br />
of publications dealing with modern Greek<br />
history and culture under the auspices of<br />
Nostos, the Society for the Study of Greek<br />
Life and Thought, Minneapolis, Minnesota,<br />
U.S.A.<br />
Theofanis G. Stavrou of the University<br />
of Minnesota, known for his commitment<br />
to the promotion of modern Cypriot<br />
writers, is the general editor of Nostos<br />
Press. The excellent translation, a collaboration<br />
between David Roessel and<br />
Soterios G. Stavrou, finally allows<br />
Montis’ voice to be heard by English<br />
readers.<br />
This intriguing book, intended by the<br />
author to be an answer to Bitter Lemons<br />
by Lawrence Durrell, is an attempt to<br />
depict the struggle for freedom through<br />
the eyes of a Cypriot whose life was intricately<br />
entangled with the dramatic events<br />
of that period.
A DIALOGUE<br />
BETWEEN<br />
TWO BOOKS<br />
from the introduction to Costas Montis’ s Closed Doors by David Roessel<br />
3
4<br />
"AN ANSWER to Bitter Lemons of Lawrence<br />
Durrell." These words on the title page of<br />
Costas Montis’s Closed Doors provide the inspiration<br />
and the context for the novel. For, while<br />
the book can certainly be read on a number<br />
of different levels, it is fundamentally a dialogue<br />
in which the other side has already spoken.<br />
And an answer, even such an indirect<br />
answer as this, does not claim to be neutral or<br />
unbiased. American readers will find in Closed<br />
Doors a relentless, sometimes strident, Cypriot<br />
point of view.<br />
This is a clear case of the "empire writing back",<br />
a colonised native answering a former servant<br />
in the colonial government. In fact, the two<br />
books share a geography of adjoining offices.<br />
Lawrence Durrell began Bitter Lemons near<br />
the end of his stint from 1954 to 1956 as<br />
the director of the Public Information<br />
Office (PIO) for the British colonial Government<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong>; Costas Montis wrote<br />
Loukia Nicolaidou, Enosis - A Dream for <strong>Cyprus</strong>,<br />
oil, 1950. State Collection of Contemporary Art<br />
Closed Doors while the director of tourism for<br />
the Republic of <strong>Cyprus</strong>, a bureau which was<br />
formerly under Durrell’ s control. Yet, while<br />
Bitter Lemons (1957) has sold over two million<br />
copies, Closed Doors has never appeared<br />
in English translation and readers of Durrell<br />
are unaware of its existence. This translation<br />
finally allows Montis’s voice to be heard by<br />
those who cannot read Greek.<br />
The dialogue between Bitter Lemons and Closed<br />
Doors has interest beyond scholars involved<br />
in Durrell research or postcolonial studies, for<br />
it is also a debate between two powerful artists<br />
who produced political books to influence the<br />
depiction of the narrative of the struggle for<br />
Cypriot independence. For Montis, Closed<br />
Doors was an attempt to reappropriate that<br />
narrative from Durrell, to present a picture of<br />
the struggle for freedom by a Cypriot who, as<br />
he says in his brief explanation, had lived<br />
through the entire four years of the revolt.<br />
In a discussion of Bitter Lemons in a suppressed<br />
section of his novel The Age of Bronze (1960),<br />
the Greek author Rodis Roufos wrote that<br />
"(a)nother book was needed to fill in the gaps,<br />
to give the Greek view", because Durrell<br />
"observes a prudish silence over some<br />
aspects of the repression" (this section was<br />
published for the first time as "Sour Grapes",<br />
in Deus Loci: The Lawrence Durrell Journal,<br />
no. 3 [1994]: 134-38). Durrell may seem<br />
enjoyable and plausible to American readers<br />
because, as part of the English-speaking community,<br />
he knows how to frame the story to<br />
impress and influence them. Montis, writing<br />
in Greek for a Cypriot audience, employs<br />
a different style and strategy. Where Durrell<br />
wants ambiguity, Montis appears polemical –<br />
his self-perceived function is to stress the<br />
torture chambers, curfews, communal fines,<br />
and black-hooded informers that were part of<br />
daily Cypriot life during the struggle. While
Takis Frangoudis, Student demonstration during the Liberation Struggle 55-59, oil. Limassol Municipal<br />
Gallery<br />
Closed Doors is a novel, it has more similarities<br />
to Zola’s J’ accuse than to the usual qualities<br />
of fiction. Further, it is important to keep<br />
in mind that Montis, like Rodis Roufos,<br />
perceived a deviousness in Durrell’ s supposed<br />
ambiguity. It was, in their eyes, the cloak that<br />
the colonial spin doctor used to mislead his<br />
readers. In fact, both Montis and Roufos chose<br />
to write their responses to Bitter Lemons in the<br />
form of fiction in part to indicate that Bitter<br />
Lemons was itself highly fictional.<br />
What was at stake for Montis, as I mentioned<br />
earlier, was the narrative of the struggle for<br />
Cypriot freedom. <strong>Cyprus</strong>, which came under<br />
British control in 1878, acquired the status of<br />
a crown colony in 1926. The overwhelming<br />
desire of the Greek Cypriots, over 80 per-<br />
cent of the population, was Enosis (union)<br />
with Greece. But a new conception of the<br />
empire had emerged after World War II,<br />
one in which British influence and control<br />
were ensured by a skeleton of strong points<br />
such as Gibraltar, Malta, Singapore, and Hong<br />
Kong. <strong>Cyprus</strong> was to be the British base in<br />
the eastern Mediterranean, and in Parliament<br />
the foreign minister informed the members<br />
that <strong>Cyprus</strong> would "never" be let go. In addition,<br />
the Turkish Cypriots, about a fifth of the<br />
population, strenuously opposed union<br />
with Greece, as did Turkey itself. The Turks<br />
held that if the British were to leave <strong>Cyprus</strong>,<br />
the island should revert back to Turkey,<br />
from whom the British had taken it. Whether<br />
or not some solution to the ethnic disagreement<br />
could be found, it became the policy of<br />
5
6<br />
Britain to inflame Turkish feeling in order to<br />
counter the claims of the Greek Cypriots for<br />
enosis.<br />
After the failure of nonviolent attempts to gain<br />
self-determination, the Cypriots began an<br />
armed rebellion on 1 <strong>April</strong> 1955 similar in<br />
kind to that which had proved effective in<br />
Palestine in 1948. It lasted, with several breaks<br />
and ceasefires, until 1959. British officials bear<br />
some responsibility for this development as<br />
they thoughtlessly offered the opinion that "if<br />
the Cypriot people want Enosis, they would<br />
fight for it" (Charles Foley, Island in Revolt<br />
[1962], 27). The aim of the armed struggle<br />
was not to push the British off the island by<br />
force, but rather to make it too difficult and<br />
dangerous for them to stay. In the end, the<br />
strategy worked. The British offered the island<br />
independence rather than Enosis in 1959, and<br />
Archbishop Makarios, the leader of the Greek<br />
Cypriots, accepted. For all Durrell’ s lamentation<br />
about the "terrorists" of EOKA, the<br />
National Organization of Cypriot Fighters,<br />
the truth remains that only the armed struggle<br />
forced the British to grant the Cypriots<br />
some measure of self-determination.<br />
In Bitter Lemons, the armed rebellion is presented<br />
in consistently negative terms, as the<br />
work of "terrorists" who compel the populace,<br />
generally pro-British, to assist the<br />
revolt through threats of assassination. For<br />
example, Durrell said that "to the nauseating<br />
foulness of the street murder of soldiers<br />
and policemen was added the disgusting, typically<br />
Balkan, murder of civilians suspected of<br />
being traitors. Apart from this of course there<br />
was many an old score to settle in the name<br />
of Enosis. The black mask was protection<br />
A comic aspect of the rebellion: "My Marshal, I surrender". The little donkey bearing the sign with the response to<br />
the ludicrous proposal of the governor that all "terrorists" should turn themselves in.<br />
Arrest and concentration of Greek Cypriots in fenced-off areas – a daily phenomenon. (Photo: George Vatyliotis)
enough" (217). Durrell concedes that the<br />
announcement that <strong>Cyprus</strong> would never be<br />
permitted self-determination was a mistake,<br />
and that the British made other errors of policy,<br />
but contends that they were generally<br />
humane.<br />
The truth was that the majority of Greek<br />
Cypriots did solidly support the armed struggle<br />
– if not, why were the British so quick to<br />
impose communal penalties such as curfews<br />
and fines? And civilians had just as much to<br />
fear from the hooded informers working for<br />
the British, local "supergrasses" who could<br />
consign someone to prison and torture by<br />
simply pointing at them, as from the masked<br />
gunmen of EOKA. Both sides engaged in terror<br />
on <strong>Cyprus</strong>. Some British writers, such as<br />
Durrell’ s contemporary Charles Foley (in<br />
Island in Revolt), acknowledged this fact.<br />
Despite Durrell’ s position as the chief "spin<br />
doctor" for the British on <strong>Cyprus</strong> and the<br />
publication of Bitter Lemons in the midst of<br />
the Cypriot struggle for independence, his<br />
book has a reputation for fairness and impartiality<br />
among English-speaking readers. Critics<br />
have been willing to believe that Durrell,<br />
despite his work in the PIO, was quite capable<br />
of writing a book, without bias. For decades,<br />
amazingly, they have taken the first sentence<br />
of Bitter Lemons at face value: "This is not<br />
a political book, but simply a somewhat<br />
impressionistic study of the moods and atmospheres<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong> during the troubled years<br />
1953-1956". We quickly discover in Bitter<br />
Lemons that what made the years 1953 to<br />
1956 troubled was the political situation.<br />
Durrell’ s book remains the most widely<br />
known volume in English about <strong>Cyprus</strong> and,<br />
in the eyes of many Cypriots, has given readers<br />
a slanted view of the island’s struggle to<br />
free itself from British rule.<br />
A number of Cypriots responded in reviews<br />
Fellow fighters of Grigoris Afxentiou leaving the<br />
Makhairas hide out after being arrested by the<br />
British. (Photo: Felix Yiaxis)<br />
George Pol. Georghiou, Harding’s Nightmare, oil on<br />
wood, 1957<br />
7
8<br />
British policemen searching a priest for the discovery<br />
of weapons. (Photo: Andreas Nicolaides)<br />
Adamantios Diamantis, Agony III , Kypros and Eleni Chrysostomides collection<br />
to Durrell’ s depiction of <strong>Cyprus</strong>, but<br />
almost everyone with any knowledge of Cypriot<br />
literature would agree that Costas Montis<br />
is the writer whom <strong>Cyprus</strong> would want as their<br />
voice in that dialogue. He is widely recognized<br />
as <strong>Cyprus</strong>’s greatest poet and has been called<br />
the "voice of the island". It struck me as rather<br />
shameful that, given the status of Montis,<br />
Closed Doors had not appeared in English<br />
earlier.<br />
Costas Montis was a leading member in what<br />
might be called "the Cypriot Renaissance" the<br />
generation which matured in the forties and<br />
fifties and laid the firm foundation for modern<br />
Cypriot literature. Montis was born in<br />
Famagusta in 1914 and died in Nicosia in<br />
2004. He studied law at the University of<br />
Athens, but upon his return to <strong>Cyprus</strong> he never<br />
practiced as a lawyer. After a varied career
George Pol. Georghiou, Cypria Saga, oil on wood, 1956<br />
as a school teacher, journalist, and editor, he<br />
served as the director of tourism from 1960<br />
until his retirement in 1976. He helped to<br />
found the first professional theatre in <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
in 1942 and wrote several works in the Cypriot<br />
dialect, including a number of adaptations<br />
of the plays of Aristophanes. Montis gained<br />
renown as a poet with the appearance in 1958<br />
Arrests of demonstrators by the security forces of the<br />
British colonial regime. (Photo: Felix Yiaxis)<br />
of Moments, which was followed in the next<br />
decade by his masterpiece, the long poetic<br />
sequence Letters to Mother. The poetry of Montis<br />
resonates with the travails of his island,<br />
from the struggle for union with Greece, the<br />
acceptance of independence, the intercommunal<br />
violence in the 1960s, the invasion<br />
of the island by Turkey in 1974, and the subsequent<br />
division of the small island into two<br />
distinct units. Closed Doors is one of only two<br />
novels by Montis and is not one of his bestknown<br />
works. But for English and Americans<br />
it has a special interest because of its relationship<br />
to Lawrence Durrell.<br />
Closed Doors is not, as Montis repeatedly stated,<br />
a direct answer to Bitter Lemons. He simply<br />
presents a version of the struggle by a Cypriot<br />
who lived through it. Montis’ s choice of<br />
a narrator may have been influenced by Durrell.<br />
One of the interesting things about Bitter<br />
Lemons is the way that Durrell attempts to<br />
present himself as an innocent, even naïve narrator,<br />
who is constantly surprised by events<br />
9
10<br />
– even his own appointment as PIO director.<br />
This is, in part, a strategy to make the reader<br />
trust Durrell’ s narrative, although at times<br />
it stretches credulity. For example, Durrell suggests<br />
that it was only when he took the job<br />
as PIO director that he realized the importance<br />
that Turkey would have for the island’s<br />
future. Surely that would have been apparent<br />
to any intelligent adult with a background<br />
in the foreign service? Why, we should wonder,<br />
would the British want someone as PIO<br />
director who could not see this? Against the<br />
George Pol. Georghiou, The Imprisoned Graves,<br />
oil on wood, 1958<br />
innocent, childlike Durrell of Bitter Lemons,<br />
Montis offers a child who is just a freshman<br />
in high school at the start of his book. One of<br />
the virtues of Closed Doors is how it can<br />
present the unfolding movement though a set<br />
of wide and impressionable eyes. And his choice<br />
of narrator underscores one of his main themes,<br />
how a generation of Cypriot youngsters lost<br />
their childhood because the British saw <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
as a strategic base. Durrell would like us to<br />
think that he is a normal English civilian<br />
put at risk by the terror of EOKA; Montis, on<br />
the other hand, centers our attention on an<br />
entire generation sacrificed for British policy.<br />
Despite his announcement that his "was<br />
not a political book", Durrell talks a great<br />
deal about politics and policies. Montis, with<br />
his young narrator, dispenses with high politics<br />
and focuses on the impact of events on<br />
everyday life.<br />
In structure, Closed Doors is very much a poet’s<br />
book, a series of vignettes that resemble prose<br />
poems that center on one particular family<br />
but range widely.<br />
Closed Doors is also a careful record of Nicosia<br />
during the emergency measures under the British<br />
in the 1950s. In the Leventis Museum<br />
in Nicosia, I saw a video called "School Memories",<br />
which contained footage of students confronting<br />
riot police in the city in the fifties. I<br />
stood mesmerized, for it was as though I was<br />
watching an adaptation of a section of<br />
Closed Doors - that was how accurately Montis<br />
has depicted the collision between students<br />
and police. The scenes when the British closed<br />
the walls of the old cities, the flying of kites<br />
from rooftops during the long curfews, the<br />
"language war" in which English signs were<br />
painted over, all of these are accurate depictions<br />
of what life had been like and bring nods<br />
of agreement from older residents of the city.
Welcoming the return of Archbishop Makarios from exile in March, 1959. (Photo: Fanis Parpairis)<br />
The metaphor of closed doors forms a crucial<br />
part of the mental territory of Montis’ s universe,<br />
and we can begin to see the key place<br />
of the image in Montis’ s thought only after<br />
reading this novel. And since the poet is a<br />
spokesman for his society and for <strong>Cyprus</strong>, we<br />
can understand how closed doors function as<br />
a metaphor for the Cypriot experience. The<br />
doors in the title refer on one level to the doors<br />
of the prisons and camps which were opened<br />
in 1959 – an incident captured in the monument<br />
of liberty near the Famagusta Gate in<br />
Nicosia – as well as the many sorts of doors<br />
which were never opened upon independence.<br />
It also refers to the lack of communication –<br />
between Durrell’ s book and the Cypriots in<br />
particular and between people more generally.<br />
Montis returns to the image of closed<br />
doors over and over again in his poetry.<br />
We as readers must keep one essential fact in<br />
mind. For Durrell, the lemons of <strong>Cyprus</strong> were<br />
bitter for a few years; for Montis, some of<br />
the doors closed by colonialism are still closed.<br />
Durrell and the British could walk away from<br />
the intractable problem that they helped to<br />
create on <strong>Cyprus</strong>; in fact, Durrell never visited<br />
the island again. For Montis, the bitter<br />
lemons and closed doors remain part of daily<br />
life on the divided island. If Montis’ s book<br />
seems too angry and polemical, it is because<br />
both he and his island are still living with<br />
the legacy of the colonial government that<br />
Durrell served. It may be that we in the<br />
West will have to learn how to read "answers"<br />
that re-appropriate a colonial narrative before<br />
we can truly appreciate them. Closed Doors is,<br />
and Montis admits, an annoying and frustrating<br />
book, but it is also intriguing and eyeopening.<br />
It deserves a place on the shelf.<br />
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12<br />
COSTAS MONTIS<br />
Closed Doors<br />
...FROM THAT NIGHT, we regularly heard<br />
the bombs and dynamite. As soon as darkness<br />
fell, the noise began. We all waited impatiently<br />
to hear the explosions, and we grew anxious<br />
if they were delayed. We children were not<br />
simply nervous, we were in agony. A curious<br />
kind of agony, even greater than when we were<br />
quite small and would wait for the overdue<br />
knock of our mother upon the door after<br />
she had promised us that she would return<br />
early and we were alone in the house as the<br />
sun began to set. Occasionally the bombs were<br />
so late we would no longer be able to fight off<br />
the sweet insistence of sleep (as long as we<br />
could resist, just another moment more), no<br />
matter how hard we resisted. We nodded off<br />
only to awaken in an instant at the sound of<br />
the blasts, into that same half-sleeping state<br />
we used to have in our early childhood on<br />
Christmas Eve when we waited to hear the<br />
bells ring, so that we could wake our mother<br />
before she came for us. (No, we did not wake<br />
our mother. Later she told us that many times<br />
she had in fact woken before us, but pretended<br />
to sleep to give us the joy of coming to her.<br />
And when we did not appear, and it seemed<br />
as if we would sleep through the bells, she tried<br />
with noises, slight nudges, and a thousand<br />
tricks to rouse us so that we, in turn, could<br />
wake her up.)<br />
When finally the long anticipated explosions<br />
shook the air we would scream with relief<br />
and jump up in our beds; it wasn’t a gentle<br />
rousing, you can add to our relief that our<br />
agony did not let us rest quietly. We held onto<br />
it tightly so sleep could not take us; we held<br />
on to it, unlike other anxieties that put their<br />
grip on us. We held it as we used to grasp a<br />
New Year’s toy in bed with us and if anyone<br />
so much as touched it we awakened immediately.<br />
(How did we manage to guard it so<br />
vigilantly?)<br />
"Mother! Father! Did you hear that?"<br />
Of course they heard it.<br />
"Yes." (A long drawn out "yes" like a trickle<br />
of water on a field, whispered, without vowels,<br />
after midnight, deep from within, a "yes"<br />
that says everything, a "yes" that echoes like<br />
the sudden opening of a tightly closed spigot.)<br />
After the yes, a complete silence in the<br />
house. Concentrated listening. The rooms<br />
were tip-toeing.<br />
"Another one!"<br />
"Yes" (the same "yes").<br />
I said the explosions shook the air, but it<br />
was not exactly like that. It was something different.<br />
You had the sense that these ephemeral<br />
<strong>April</strong> nights, the satin sky, and the blossoming<br />
almond trees; I don’t know how to say<br />
it, but you had the sense that they opened up<br />
their arms to the bombs to provide them a<br />
place in which to hide, and then closed around<br />
the explosions so that no harm might come<br />
to Spring.<br />
...MEANWHILE, we had our first casualty.<br />
This first one, I admit, made us question<br />
our commitment.<br />
"The poor fellow. How did it happen?"<br />
Despite our enthusiasm for the cause, we were<br />
unprepared for casualties. Deaths are difficult<br />
to accept when you have not had them for<br />
centuries.<br />
You stop suddenly to take another look, to
Costas Montis (1914 – 2004)<br />
reassess the situation. Perhaps tomorrow it<br />
might be your brother, or even you yourself?<br />
Yes, perhaps. The war stories you had read<br />
as a boy seized this moment to parade<br />
before you; dismembered bodies with severed<br />
legs, eyes glazed over, bullet holes in the<br />
foreheads of handsome blonde youths.(Such<br />
things as that here on the island? Yes, those<br />
very things. What do you think of all this now?<br />
The eyebrows of Kolokotronis darkened a bit,<br />
the sword of Dhiakos and the Inn of Gravia<br />
dimmed.)<br />
Nevertheless we passed through that stage<br />
quickly (surprisingly quickly). It had to happen<br />
quickly, actually, for we had no time to<br />
wait for the usual progression, the protracted<br />
stages, the complicated process of normal<br />
changes. Just put all that aside. Even the stories<br />
and pictures of war no longer found fer-<br />
tile ground in our minds, they managed to<br />
disturb us just once or twice. We soon became<br />
less queasy about spilled blood, that holy<br />
fluid that matters when nothing else matters,<br />
and controls (who knows for how long?) the<br />
harsh fate of humans. Who knew how long<br />
it would be before he might pay the ultimate<br />
penalty at great moments, to close<br />
with red finality the open questions, to cut<br />
away the small pretexts? ("Very well, I’ll pay.")<br />
I can’t say that such phrases as "the poor fellow"<br />
or "how did it happen" vanished from<br />
conversation, but they definitely took second<br />
place. They remained inside of us; they<br />
withdrew into a subconscious space, into<br />
the region of our private logic and private<br />
worlds (again to pierce the ceiling with the<br />
wide-open eyes and to hear the kri-kri of the<br />
cricket in the corner – that’s a completely<br />
different matter), and they left the struggle<br />
undisturbed.<br />
...IN AUGUST, the English hanged three other<br />
boys, and in September another three. Each<br />
time, Nicosia was unable to sleep the night<br />
before. The houses, walls, and people tossed<br />
and turned with restlessness, the military vehicles<br />
traversed the city (like ants released<br />
from a box), a crowd knelt in the area outside<br />
the prisons, and the voices from the cells sang<br />
the Greek anthem. Then came the hopelessness,<br />
the silence, finally broken by the cry<br />
("Long Live Greece!").<br />
(Iacovos did not sing the Greek Anthem on<br />
the way to the gallows, but a religious hymn.<br />
He had a calm, high, sweet voice, one of<br />
the sweetest voices that had ever praised God).<br />
Then came the retaliatory attacks by the<br />
Organization, and the desperate attempts of<br />
the English to benefit from the terror of<br />
the gallows.<br />
13
14<br />
It was after these hangings that the English<br />
instituted punitive curfews. (I use the English<br />
word because it is weighed down with such<br />
pain, blood and hurt, that it’s not possible<br />
to find an equivalent to the cursed thing in<br />
Greek.) As soon as an "incident" occurred<br />
(they always referred to them as "incidents"),<br />
they imposed a curfew (I’m only speaking<br />
about Nicosia of course). A daring<br />
attack in Ledra Street in Nicosia – called "murder<br />
mile" by the English – was an "incident",<br />
an ambush in Royiatiko was an incident, as<br />
was an unexpected skirmish where the gun<br />
had been concealed under a rain coat, or a<br />
bomb thrown through the door of a restaurant<br />
or dropped from a roof onto a passing<br />
jeep or truck. The curfew could last several<br />
days and for poor families who had little in<br />
their cupboards and no income except the daily<br />
wages of a father or brother it was a real<br />
hardship. When the curfews became regular<br />
events, the English would let the women go<br />
out for one or two hours to shop for food, but<br />
there were often so few provisions in the stores<br />
and so great a crowd of customers that some<br />
people found nothing to buy. Those who had<br />
no money had to run (if you could have<br />
seen with what anxiety they ran) to beg a loan<br />
from a relative or friend ("Just a few pounds<br />
for the children’s sake") and then run again to<br />
purchase whatever they could find before the<br />
two hours was up.<br />
After a while, shipments of food had to be<br />
sent from all over the island. And it was not<br />
only hunger that the lower classes had to endure,<br />
but thirst as well. Many homes in Nicosia got<br />
their water from public taps, and how could<br />
they all manage to draw what they needed<br />
in the space of two hours?<br />
And the strain of the curfew did not end with<br />
hunger and thirst. There was a nagging<br />
nervousness that affected everyone equally. It<br />
was a strain on the nerves similar at times to<br />
a breakdown. What, people would ask themselves,<br />
will I do if my child suddenly becomes<br />
sick during a curfew and I can’t get a doctor<br />
or medicine? What if my pregnant wife needs<br />
attention? A thousand such cares ate at the<br />
mind.<br />
The strain was greatest in downtown Nicosia<br />
inside the walled part of the city (look how<br />
quickly it accumulates, see what happens when<br />
it builds up). There the streets were narrow,<br />
and the houses were glued to each other,<br />
and neighbours made irritable by confinement<br />
would needlessly argue. In suburbs<br />
like ours, where the houses were set apart and<br />
each had its own garden, the pressure was a<br />
bit less. And the curfew in the suburbs was
Costas Montis, sketch by Telemachos Kanthos<br />
also less severe because their size and expanse<br />
made it difficult o patrol them as rigorously.<br />
It was in the suburbs that the kites first appeared.<br />
During the curfews, you could see hundreds<br />
of kites in the air, flown not only by children<br />
but also by grown men and women. I<br />
don’t know how it started, or if there was a<br />
reason behind it. Were they meant to be some<br />
comic relief in a period of stress, or did they<br />
have a deeper significance? Did a childish<br />
prank first send them into the air (to confuse<br />
us even more, and to make it impossible<br />
to discover when childhood begins and<br />
ends?), or some subconscious desire? (I don’t<br />
know if there is not a common subconscious<br />
for adults and children, if the subconscious<br />
ages like a person – why should it? Why<br />
couldn’t it age in reverse, and get younger as<br />
the body gets older?) Were the kites, as some<br />
foreign journalists suggested, a desperate attempt<br />
to escape from the curfew, so desperate as to<br />
be almost laughable? Or was it just playing?<br />
You could see adults, even old women in black,<br />
enjoying their kites dancing in the sky and<br />
you feared that all of Nicosia had gone mad.<br />
Whatever the cause, the kites from the suburbs<br />
arrived over the houses within the walls<br />
of Nicosia and brought support and encouragement.<br />
The kites maintained contact between<br />
people separated by the curfew (it seems a bit<br />
romantic and at the same time contrived, no?).<br />
Who knows for whom the old woman’s kite<br />
was sent up? The kites were mostly blue and<br />
white. They would make their daily walk over<br />
the prison walls and offer greetings; they<br />
carried our souls above the gallows. (No, now<br />
that I think about it, it was surely not a childish<br />
prank at all. I ought never to have suggested<br />
such a thing.)<br />
The kites of the English, for they joined in,<br />
were simply child’s play. The English had to<br />
participate, to join that sky filled with<br />
Cypriot kites, when their children became<br />
jealous, when their children cried and stamped<br />
their feet. "Daddy, I want a kite, too." Was<br />
this the reason that the English never dared<br />
forbid the kites, they were afraid to face the<br />
wrath of their own children? These brave servants<br />
of the Queen were not only forced to<br />
make kites for their children, but, many times,<br />
were forced to fly them as well. ("Daddy, I<br />
can’t. I can’t make it stay up.") Adding to the<br />
ridiculousness, during the worst of the<br />
emergency measures, they flew their children’s<br />
kites while armed, a kite string in one hand<br />
and a sten gun or pistol ready in the other!<br />
(The kites of the English, I must tell you, were<br />
not like ours, but similar to the ones they had<br />
known as back in Brighton or Bodmin. In the<br />
Cypriot sky, among our blue and white kites,<br />
those foreign kites seemed like some strange<br />
migratory birds.)<br />
15
16<br />
Wood Carved, Stone Carved<br />
and Painted Decoration<br />
in the Traditional Architecture<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong> (19th – 20th Century)<br />
Euphrosyne Rizopoulou Egoumenidou<br />
Associate Professor, Department of History and Archaeology, University of <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
(fig.1)<br />
With these words in his poem "Details in<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong>", George Seferis draws our attention<br />
to two elements, the one wood, the other<br />
stone, with which folk art decorated and<br />
emphasised key points in the traditional architecture<br />
(Kasdaglis (ed.) 1990, 16 and<br />
fig.39 and 40).<br />
It is not fortuitous that both decorated ecclesiastical<br />
buildings; the owl, now in the <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
Museum of Folk Art (AM 2337) on the door<br />
of Ayios Mamas, Dhali (19th century) (fig.1)<br />
The little owl was always there<br />
perched on the key of Ayios Mamas,<br />
blindly surrendering itself to the honey of the sun<br />
here or there, now, in the past: it danced<br />
with such a rhythm in the autumn.<br />
Angels unfolded the sky<br />
and a stone face with arched eyebrows gaped<br />
in a corner of the roof …<br />
and the carved "face with arched eyebrows"<br />
a gargoyle on the church of Ayia Marina<br />
at Pera Chorio. Both wood carving and<br />
stone carving developed as arts that served<br />
mainly ecclesiastical architecture and for its<br />
ornamentation a very rich repertoire of motifs<br />
was created, based on centuries long tradition<br />
and usually charged with symbolic content.<br />
Ecclesiastical decoration was a source<br />
of inspiration for the embellishment of secular<br />
architecture, urban and rural, to which
Decorated doorway<br />
at the monastery<br />
of Omodhos with<br />
wood carved door<br />
and ceiling.<br />
Photo: Voula Kokkinou<br />
17
18<br />
Wood door lintel metopidi with carved decoration from an old house in Kathydata (fig.3)<br />
the same craftsmen brought similar designs<br />
in simplified form and in diverse variations.<br />
Wood carved decoration is often accompanied<br />
by painting on icon screens, the place set<br />
aside for women and on other examples of<br />
the ecclesiastical post-Byzantine tradition, but<br />
also on souvantzes (shelves on the wall) or wall<br />
cupboards (fig.2) in the traditional house. On<br />
the other hand, the wood carved and painted<br />
decoration of urban mansions echoes other<br />
influences, as we shall see below, while folk<br />
wall-paintings also followed different paths.<br />
Wood carved and plaster decoration<br />
The wood carved decorative elements of the<br />
traditional house, when they exist, enrich the<br />
basic wood work, especially on the façade. We<br />
usually come across them on the lintel and on<br />
the doorposts of the outer door, and also on<br />
the door panels or on the metopidi (wooden<br />
plank) over the door.<br />
The most common themes on the decorated<br />
door posts are scaly carvings in successive<br />
rows, wavy or crooked lines (zig-zag), rosettes<br />
in combination with triangles, and other sim-<br />
ple linear designs. In the middle of the lintel<br />
there is sometimes a cross in relief, framed by<br />
rosettes, birds, lions facing each other, or other<br />
designs (e.g. the house of Makris, Kakopetria,<br />
a house in Katydata, fig.3). On panelled<br />
doors, the katevatis is decorated as a rule.<br />
This is a strip of wood which is fixed to the<br />
edge of the left door and covers the whole<br />
length of the point of contact of the two door<br />
panels. The door panels usually have simple<br />
carved decoration of parallel, vertical grooves<br />
or continuous lozenges, which cover the whole<br />
surface, in contrast to the exceptionally fine<br />
decoration of closely placed designs with variations<br />
of rosettes framed by a curved line, or<br />
triangles arranged in six-point stars, which<br />
decorate the doors of churches (doors on<br />
the Church of Archangelos and at the Monastery<br />
of Ayios Ioannis Lampadistis: Kasdaglis (ed.)<br />
1990, fig. 71,72, or at the Monastery of the<br />
Holy Cross at Omodhos: Papademetriou 2003,<br />
130:11). More complex decoration is characteristic<br />
of the panelled doors, both of ecclesiastical<br />
buildings and of traditional houses<br />
(see for example the outer door of the Monastery<br />
of Ayios Ioannis Chrystomos at Koutsoven-
Wood carved painted wall cupboard, Kyrenia<br />
Folk Museum (fig.2)<br />
19
20<br />
tis (Kyrenia): Papademetriou 2003, 41, fig.56,<br />
and the door of a derelict house in Lapithos:<br />
Sinos 1976, 105, fig.106). Exceptionally, solitary<br />
motifs appear carved on the outer door,<br />
such as a cypress tree on a house in the Karpass,<br />
or more designs, such as crosses, hexagrams,<br />
rosettes, human figures etc. in free combination<br />
on a 19 th century house at Athienou (Ohnefalsch-Richter<br />
1895, 72b).<br />
Wood carved decoration of linear designs,<br />
rosettes and a cross is also met on the cover of<br />
the peculiar lock mechanism which opened<br />
with a toothed wooden key (fig.4) (Papacharambous<br />
1968, 18. Magda Ohnefalsch-Richter<br />
(1913) 1994, fig.8, 15-16, drawing 3, illustrates<br />
and explains the mechanism of a similar<br />
lock in the village of Politiko. See also<br />
Papdemetriou 2003, 91, fig.138-139, and 94,<br />
fig.143. An elaborately decorated lock on a<br />
door from Gourri is exhibited in the Rural<br />
Museum of Fikardou village).<br />
The variety of wooden railings at windows<br />
is particularly interesting. These either reach<br />
up to the middle of the opening or carry on<br />
above the horizontal divider and cover the<br />
whole opening. These railings, known as parmatzia<br />
(from the Turkish word parmak = finger)<br />
appear in various types of vertical dividers<br />
(parmatzia xeyirista) or latticing and with a<br />
variety of outline shape (e.g. on houses in the<br />
villages of Katydata, Vasileia, Kakopetria, Karavas,<br />
also latticing at Lapithos: Sinos 1976,<br />
109, ill. 110 and Papdemetriou 2003, 130:3).<br />
The parmatzia are combined with shutters of<br />
wooden planks, which open and close inwards.<br />
There were no window panes. By breaking<br />
the uniformity of the masonry, the parmatzia<br />
add a special local colour to the traditional<br />
architecture and were widespread in all regions<br />
of the island. In contrast, the latticed windows<br />
of the urban houses show Ottoman influence.<br />
Smaller openings, high in the walls, a little<br />
lower than the edge of the roof, served to give<br />
light and to ventilate the house but, over<br />
and above their practical importance, they<br />
offered an opportunity for creating an exceptional<br />
decorative element of the traditional<br />
house. These are the arseres or foullides or<br />
anafoti(d)es (fig.5), openings that are usually<br />
rectangular in shape and covered with a perforated<br />
plaster slab, which break the monotony<br />
of the white surface of the walls and allow<br />
the light to enter through their lacy designs.<br />
Rosettes, stars, crosses, lozenges, two-headed<br />
eagles, flowers, cypress trees etc. comprise<br />
the repertoire of the anafotides, expressing<br />
the inexhaustible inspiration of the folk craftsmen<br />
and their tendency to combine practical<br />
use with beauty, life with art. A rare example<br />
of an arsera was in the pottery workshop of<br />
Aristophanis in Lapithos. There, in the place<br />
of the plaster slab there was a wooden frame<br />
with parmatzia arranged like rays, in a wooden<br />
frame (Papdemetriou 2003, 40 fig. 55).<br />
There are sometimes arseres also in the wall<br />
above the row of arches in the portico at the<br />
front of the house. In rare cases the date of the<br />
house is also shown on the perforated slab,<br />
as on a house in Acheritou, in the Famagusta<br />
District (Archive of Vanna Hadjimichali,<br />
Department of Antiquities). Another rare phenomenon<br />
is the appearance of plaster decoration<br />
in the fan-shaped opening over the door.<br />
Such a case is the decoration on the outer door<br />
of a house in Athienou, which has been demolished.<br />
The perforated slab was without doubt<br />
modelled on the decoration of the Gothic<br />
monuments on the island, like Bellapais.<br />
In the interior spaces, wood carved decoration<br />
is usually met on fitted corner cupboards
Wooden carved lock, Kyrenia Folk Art Museum (detail) (fig.4)<br />
and souvantzes, shelves on the wall for various<br />
utensils. Apart from the carved and painted<br />
souvantzes, known as the Akanthou type from<br />
the village of the same name east of Kyrenia,<br />
various shelves embedded in the walls were<br />
made of plaster. The souvantza stretched along<br />
the length of one or two walls, while on the<br />
same wall there could also be a second souvantza<br />
at a lower height. In some areas (e.g.<br />
the villages of Tochni, Maroni, Vikla etc.) there<br />
are sometimes souvantzes which form an elevated<br />
rectangular frame in the middle of the<br />
wall, perhaps for a picture, (fig.6) or small corner<br />
cupboards with perforated decoration.<br />
The visible surface of these shelves offered<br />
itself for decoration, which is directly connected<br />
with woodcarving since it was made<br />
with a carved mould made of wood, about<br />
one metre long. The same imprint is repeat-<br />
ed along the length of the wall and the length<br />
of the mould used is clearly visible. In the same<br />
space there may be souvantzes made from different<br />
moulds. The carved wooden moulds<br />
were works of art, were passed on from father<br />
to son when he continued the trade, and even<br />
went round with the craftsmen from village<br />
to village. <strong>Today</strong>, a few examples survive in<br />
museums and private collections.<br />
The themes which adorn the plaster souvantzes<br />
cover a wide range. The main ones are angels,<br />
crosses, vine with leaves, grapes and birds, lions<br />
facing each other and framing a tree, dragons,<br />
double-headed eagles, fish, anchors, rosettes<br />
and other plant and geometric motifs in<br />
parallel horizontal bands. Some of the above<br />
themes are repeated on the front of chests,<br />
while the vine, cross, angels, dragons etc. come<br />
from the very rich repertoire of carved icon<br />
21
22<br />
screens. The influence of ecclesiastical art and<br />
the religious character of certain motifs are<br />
evident. In rare cases the initials are imprinted<br />
of the builder who used the wooden mould<br />
and the date (see e.g. moulds from the Karpass<br />
in Papademetriou 1992, 83, fig. 69, and 61,<br />
fig. 36).<br />
A remarkable theme is that of the lions face<br />
to face and chained to a tree, which appears<br />
on carved icon screens, like that in the church<br />
of Ayios Georgios at Alona (Papademetriou<br />
2003, 87, fig. 129) and in the church of the<br />
Holy Cross at Ayia Eirene, dated 1802 (Stylianou,<br />
Stylianou 1965, 81-98, fig. XXVI) and also<br />
on the carved wooden lintel of an outer<br />
door at Ayios Elias in the Karpass (Papademetriou<br />
1992, 78, fig. 61) on chests and on stone<br />
relief . In mainland Greece, the chained lion<br />
Souvantza made of plaster in an old house in Vikla (fig.6)<br />
is depicted in wall paintings on the façade of<br />
mansions of the 19 th century as a guardian<br />
of a repellent nature (e.g. on the Kontou mansion<br />
(1840) in Ano Volos: Kizis 1994, 317,<br />
fig. 513 and on a wall painting of 1818 on the<br />
house of P. Kornoutos, also at Pelion: Makris<br />
1976,198).<br />
In the interior of traditional houses which<br />
have a double room (dichoro) with a wooden<br />
nefka (central beam), the architrave and<br />
the side supports of the pillar propping it up<br />
are also available for decoration which – where<br />
it exists – is composed of simple, carved, geometric<br />
designs. Worthy of note are two such<br />
architraves from Rizokarpasso which, apart<br />
from vertical parallel grooves, have, on the first<br />
one, a cross in relief (Sinos 1976, 115, ill. 112)<br />
and on the second, a flower pot with leaves
The House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios. Carved ceiling of the reception room<br />
and rosettes in the centre and two scrolls in<br />
the style of an Aeolian capital at the ends. The<br />
scrolls are repeated in miniature at the base of<br />
the flower pot (Ohnefalsch-Richter 1895,<br />
60:b). The decoration is symmetrical, plain<br />
and tasteful.<br />
Much more complex are the carved wooden<br />
brackets which support the nefkes in the richer<br />
examples of urban architecture, as in the<br />
mansion in Axiothea Street (19 th century) in<br />
Nicosia. Here, a rare example has also survived<br />
of a wooden carved ceiling with a central medallion,<br />
from the centre of which hangs a pome-<br />
granate, and decorated cornices on the<br />
walls. The rich decoration is similar to that of<br />
the Synod room of the Monastery of the Holy<br />
Cross at Omodhos.<br />
Finally, there is the painted, carved and gilded<br />
ceiling, in the reception room of the<br />
mansion of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis<br />
Kornessios, which dates back to the end of the<br />
18 th century. The ceiling is unique in <strong>Cyprus</strong>.<br />
More simple wood carved decoration adorned<br />
the ceilings of other urban houses but it has<br />
survived in only a very few cases.<br />
23
24<br />
Arsena with a cross in the portico of Ayios Heraklidios<br />
Monastery (Magda Ohnefalsch–Richter,<br />
Griechische Sitten und Gebräuche auf Cypern, Berlin<br />
1913, plate 17:1) (fig. 5)<br />
Stone carved decoration<br />
Stone carving as architectural decoration developed<br />
more in the areas where stone was the<br />
basic building material and was suitable for<br />
working. The craftsmen selected the stones<br />
they used for carved decoration and, when<br />
there was no suitable local material, they<br />
brought it from other areas. They usually carved<br />
the yellowish sandstone from Yerolakkos<br />
and Ayia Paraskevi, pale stone from Mammari,<br />
Ayia Phyla and Tochni, reddish stone<br />
from Pyroi, yellowish-white stone from Oroklini<br />
etc. The stone suitable for carved decoration<br />
was called athasopetra or aspropetra by the<br />
craftsmen (Kanthos 1981, 93, Ionas 1988,<br />
135-41).<br />
The craftsman wetted the stone so that it would<br />
not rub during fashioning with the smilari<br />
(chisel), marked out the design and, after<br />
removing the superfluous pieces (to xechondrisma),<br />
he carved the motifs with fine, pointed<br />
smilarka. Finally, he smoothed the surface<br />
with a file (Kanthos 1981, 91-95).<br />
The richest carved stone decoration is associated<br />
with ecclesiastical buildings, where it is<br />
placed on doors and windows but especially<br />
on the bell-towers, heavily adorned with relief,<br />
in the decoration of which the master craftsmen<br />
of Kaimakli excelled.<br />
In secular traditional architecture the main<br />
part of the house which lends itself to decoration<br />
and show is the entrance on the façade<br />
or the outer door, if the house is built back<br />
from the street.<br />
On stone built constructions, the frame of the<br />
outer door and of the windows is usually<br />
different from the rest of the building and is<br />
built with carefully hewn stone. The keystones<br />
on the lintels are usually carved but in many<br />
cases the decoration extends to the doorposts,<br />
creating elegant stone door frames. Wider<br />
frames are fashioned around the opening of<br />
the entrance with straight, curved or stepped<br />
outline, with half-columns, waves, bands of<br />
various geometric designs, compositions in<br />
relief of floral motifs e.g. branches with leaves<br />
and pomegranates, double-headed eagles and<br />
other birds, animals etc.<br />
The decoration of stone lintels of houses is<br />
impressive not only in urban centres but in<br />
rural districts as well.<br />
Gothic style door-frames, richly decorated<br />
pointed arches, brought from older buildings<br />
or of later construction in imitation of medieval<br />
models, survive incorporated into traditional<br />
buildings. The doors of the Monastery of<br />
the Holy Cross at Omodhos, with serrated<br />
bands of relief, are of such a type, and very
The façade of the wine press in Omodhos. Entrance<br />
with a stone carved pointed arch (fig. 7)<br />
similar to them is the door of the winepress<br />
in the same village (fig.7). The entrance to the<br />
mansion of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis in<br />
old Nicosia is similar.<br />
Entrances decorated with neo-classical motifs<br />
of the 19 th century make up a special category.<br />
The half-columns, carved in limestone,<br />
which terminate in variations of ancient<br />
capitals are their main characteristic, while the<br />
keystone of the arch of the entrance is frequently<br />
adorned with floral motifs in relief<br />
(stylised anthemion, rosettes, bouquets etc.),<br />
the double-headed eagle, angel, cross etc.(fig.8).<br />
The date may be carved or fashioned on the<br />
iron grating which covers the fanlight over the<br />
panelled wooden door.<br />
Other notable examples of the art of stone<br />
carving are the decorated architectural features,<br />
capitals or arches, which we come across<br />
in the types of houses with porch or portico<br />
with a row of arches (fig.9). The arches are<br />
supported on low columns or pillars with<br />
crowns of analogous shape, which facilitate<br />
the joining of the arch to its base. Their outline<br />
is emphasised with carving and their surfaces<br />
adorned with simple geometric motifs,<br />
bands, rosettes etc.<br />
In traditional houses with the interior in the<br />
form of a dichoro (double room) with arch<br />
(palati), analogous decoration is observed at<br />
the points where the arch "fades" into the walls<br />
or ends in a pilaster incorporated into the wall.<br />
These points usually have simple but varied<br />
relief decoration of geometric and floral motifs.<br />
The inclination to create variations with similar<br />
motifs is so strong that the phenomenon<br />
is observed of the ends of the same arch having<br />
different decoration. Carved decoration<br />
(e.g. rosettes) may also emphasise the keystone<br />
of the arch of the dichoro.<br />
Another category of stone relief is the protective<br />
lintel of churches or houses and on other<br />
traditional buildings such as mills, winepresses,<br />
bridges, fountains. These are usually<br />
plaques on which are carved in relief symbolic<br />
elements which are sometimes combined with<br />
religious sayings or prayers in abbreviated form,<br />
inscriptions stating the owner or founder and<br />
the date of the building. In theses cases, the<br />
decorative designs, when they exist, have a secondary,<br />
complementary character (fig.10).<br />
On most protective lintels the focal point is<br />
the cross of various types, usually with trefoilshaped<br />
ends to the arms, and with a fan-shaped<br />
or triangular base which represents Golgotha.<br />
The cross is often combined with the instruments<br />
of the martyrdom (Arma Christi), the<br />
spear and the sponge placed diagonally on the<br />
arms of the cross and between them the Greek<br />
25
26<br />
letters IC XC NI KA. On such a talisman<br />
from Rizokarpasso, the Crucified is depicted<br />
between the spear and the sponge in the<br />
shape of a disproportionately large face with<br />
staring eyes. The date 1898 is carved (Sinos<br />
1976, 100, fig.101). The cross may be surrounded<br />
by a leafy branch or be combined<br />
with other floral designs. In another case, the<br />
composition of floral designs with a background<br />
of a trilobed opening in an arch, betrays<br />
the influence of the medieval monuments<br />
of the island (Papademetriou 1992, 18, fig.<br />
17), while other examples seem to be influenced<br />
by coats of arms. Elsewhere the cross is<br />
framed by rosettes, lions, birds and even human<br />
figures. It is also combined with a capital of<br />
the ancient type which is placed on top ( Sinos<br />
1976, 106, fig. 107: protective lintel from an<br />
old house in Karavas).<br />
Decorated doorway in the mansion in Axiothea Street (fig.8)<br />
Ecclesiastical woodcarvings echo lions facing<br />
each other, chained to a tree in the middle,<br />
while cherubim fly above (Papademetriou<br />
1992, 46, fig. 13). The lions are turned<br />
to the front and their anthropomorphic characteristics<br />
emphasise the apotropaic character<br />
of the depiction. The theme of the lion,<br />
well-known from ancient art, is revived and<br />
becomes more popular during the Venetian<br />
period. It is recycled, like many other motifs<br />
which pass through the crucible of popular<br />
creation to be introduced into traditional art.<br />
On most protective lintels the religious<br />
character is evident. The protective lintel on<br />
a house in the village of Lazania is the most<br />
eloquent example of this category (fig.11).<br />
The whole surface of the rectangular plaque<br />
of limestone, measuring 42x28.5 cm, is covered<br />
with relief depictions, the first letters of
eligious sayings such as T(opos) K(raniou)<br />
P(aradeisos) G(egonen) (The Place of the Skull<br />
has become Paradise), an inscription recording<br />
the owner’s name, abbreviated, and an<br />
apotropaic inscription. In the centre there is<br />
a large cross with the symbols of the passion,<br />
flanked by the moon and sun, above which<br />
can be seen the date, 1817. To the right of the<br />
cross a guard/soldier is drawing his sword,<br />
while on the left, from the bottom corner of<br />
the plaque, appears the hand of God showing<br />
the cross to a small devil in the form of a<br />
goat, who is standing terrified before it. The<br />
inscription on the top part of the same side<br />
is directed to him: "YOU SEE, SATAN, THE<br />
ARROW THAT HAS HIT YOU. GO FAR<br />
AWAY FROM THIS HOUSE." In Greece<br />
similar inscriptions accompany the Archangel<br />
Michael as guardian on lintels (Korre 1978,<br />
51 and 403, ill. 368) and a somewhat similar<br />
inscription, with the date 1811, is preserved<br />
on the wall next to the main gate at the house<br />
of Lazaros Kountouriotis on the island of<br />
Hydra (Bechraki (ed.) 2002,29).<br />
A folk craftsman – in this case the well-known<br />
artist Skevophylax Mitrophanis from Lazania<br />
village, a deacon at that time at the<br />
nearby monastery of Makhairas – rarely<br />
expressed himself so graphically on a protective<br />
lintel of a simple house, with an accumulation<br />
of traditional symbolic and depictive<br />
elements, the resultant combination of<br />
which shows unequivocally the desire to protect<br />
the house with the divine presence and<br />
the simultaneous warding off of evil. Without<br />
doubt all the other simpler protective lintels<br />
conceal the same meaning (Egoumenidou<br />
1984, 375-388).<br />
The richly carved stone decoration of a house<br />
of the early 20 th century in Mitsero village also<br />
Stone carved decoration in a house in Pera Orinis<br />
(fig. 9)<br />
has a religious character. It is perhaps a unique<br />
case of a traditional house in <strong>Cyprus</strong> which is<br />
decorated with 40 stone reliefs, 17 around the<br />
entrance and 23 on the arch of the dichoro, all<br />
creations of the owner Sofronis Haralambous,<br />
a farmer but also a skilful carver of wood<br />
and stone.<br />
This is a panorama of folk stone carving with<br />
themes which can be differentiated into:<br />
Carved stone plaque used as protective lintel in a<br />
house in the village of Lazania (fig. 10)<br />
27
28<br />
1) compositions of a decorative character (trees,<br />
a variety of flowers, rosettes, stars, vases<br />
of flowers, birds – doves, eagle – in pairs,<br />
alone or in combinations with flowers etc.<br />
2) religious symbols and scenes inspired by<br />
the Old or New Testament (cross at Golgotha,<br />
St George and St Demetrios, a bishop<br />
giving the blessing, a martyr enduring<br />
death by being sawn apart, the sacrifice<br />
of Isaac, a charioteer, the Archangel Michael,<br />
the Annunciation, cherubim etc.)<br />
3) Magic or deterrent symbols (solar symbols,<br />
hexagrams, palms of hands etc.).<br />
Another scene contains a ship with a wheel<br />
(steamship?). (Relief presentation and interpretation<br />
of the themes of the decoration of<br />
the house at Mitsero, see in: Rizopoulou-<br />
Egoumenidou and Seretis 2000, 407-431).<br />
At the same time as the religious symbols,<br />
there also appear on protective lintels<br />
themes of magic, pagan character, which contain<br />
mainly depictions of demonic, zoomorphic<br />
animals or also human faces with horrifying<br />
symbolism.<br />
Such examples are a plaque with a depiction<br />
of a demonic being with beard, from a<br />
house in Lapithos, a zoomorphic face carved<br />
onto a stone incorporated over the lintel of a<br />
house in Fikardou village (Egoumenidou 1984,<br />
plate LXXXIV: 6,3), the face of a moustached<br />
Carved stone plaque used as protective lintel above<br />
the door of a house in the village Lazania (fig. 11)<br />
man in the wall of a house in Acheritou (archive<br />
of Vanna Hadjimichali, Department of Antiquities)<br />
etc.<br />
The co-existence of a cross and apotropaic<br />
mask in the water mill of Kykkos Monastery<br />
at Kalopanayiotis is particularly interesting:<br />
above the keystone of the arch of the aqueduct<br />
of the mill there is a plaque with a cross<br />
in relief and an inscription recording the owner’s<br />
name, while a fully carved man’s face with<br />
moustache projects from the base of the plaque.<br />
The use of similar masks at key points of buildings<br />
(churches, houses, bridges, fountains,<br />
even on pottery kilns) is very widespread in<br />
Greece and the Balkans generally. They are<br />
interpreted as guardians/protectors but also<br />
as portraits of the foremen or owners or as<br />
"good creatures" for the protection of the<br />
building (Korre, 1978, 80-89).<br />
The cross is also combined with a pentagram<br />
or a hexagram on stone relief protective<br />
lintels. An analogous mixture of Christian and<br />
averting magic symbols is also observed on<br />
manuscripts, magic spells etc.<br />
In the conscience of the simple man, primitive,<br />
pagan and religious concepts did not conflict<br />
with each other and it is natural that<br />
the syncretism of folk beliefs should find expression<br />
in folk art also.<br />
Carved stone architectural decoration, beyond<br />
know-how, artistic disposition and the level<br />
of aesthetics, gives us the ability to "read"<br />
the beliefs, conceptions and the values of<br />
traditional society.<br />
Painted decoration<br />
In contrast with wood carved and stone carved<br />
decoration, painted decoration is exceptionally<br />
rare in the traditional secular architecture<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong>. It presupposes and shows off in the
Marble slab with the winged Lion of Venice.The House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios<br />
most eloquent way the prosperity and high<br />
social position of the owner of the house.<br />
In urban architecture a striking exception of<br />
a wall-painted interior space is the reception<br />
room (to aspastikon, i sala) in the mansion of<br />
the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis, which dates<br />
to the end of the 18 th century. The painted,<br />
carved and gilded ceiling (fig.13, from the<br />
Department of Antiquities), the multicoloured<br />
floral compositions on the wooden panels covering<br />
the walls between the windows and<br />
the mural of Constantinople framed by angels<br />
with trumpets in an apse-like niche over the<br />
wooden wall-cupboards, may be compared<br />
with similar contemporary decorations of mansions<br />
in the Turcobaroque style, throughout<br />
the Ottoman empire from the Balkans to<br />
the East, from the mansions in Northern<br />
Greece (e.g. Siatista, Ambelakia et al.) to the<br />
konak of Çakir Aga at Birgi and the house<br />
of Murat in Bursa. Despite the local variations,<br />
in the painted decoration of mansions<br />
29
30<br />
Arch with stone carved religious symbols in a<br />
house in Mitsero (fig. 12)<br />
of the 18 th and 19 th centuries a common<br />
style is identified, in which the blending of<br />
eastern and western artistic elements is expressed<br />
with a clear resemblance between areas far distant<br />
from each other.<br />
The fine reception room of Hadjigeorgakis<br />
which occupies the southern end of the building’s<br />
east wing and projects slightly on the<br />
western side, had painted decoration also on<br />
the outside: a band with geometric designs in<br />
various colours, which ran round the top part<br />
of the walls below the projecting wooden cornice<br />
of the roof. Only parts of the band, painted<br />
on plaster, have been preserved and these<br />
are exhibited in the house of Hadjigeorgakis<br />
(Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1999, 15-20).<br />
A century later, painted decoration on houses<br />
reflects the influence of neo-classicism. Sur-<br />
viving examples are isolated but their presence<br />
in Lefkara is characteristic. Because of the<br />
trade in embroideries, Lefkara had close links<br />
with Europe and the financial means to follow<br />
the decorative trends of the time. The<br />
painted decoration is very discreet, with gentle<br />
colours and fine lines. It is confined to narrow<br />
bands round ceilings and to imitations<br />
of marble on the bottom part of the walls.<br />
As regards folk art, very few examples have<br />
survived in <strong>Cyprus</strong> and are preserved only<br />
in fragments. G.Ch.Papacharalambous also<br />
emphasises the rarity of wall- paintings in<br />
his book on the Cypriot house (Papacharalambous<br />
1968,13).<br />
In view of this large gap, parts of wall-paintings<br />
of a popular nature which were removed<br />
from a house of traditional architecture in the<br />
village of Pera Orinis shortly before it was<br />
demolished, acquire great interest. They are<br />
kept at the Department of Antiquities. The<br />
whole composition is not clear. On one piece<br />
there is an inscription, bordered by lions, relating<br />
to the birth of a son, while on other<br />
fragments of wall paintings from the same<br />
room one can distinguish a steamship, a double-headed<br />
eagle, sea-horses, curtains, bands<br />
with geometric designs et al. (Rizopoulou-<br />
Egoumenidou 1987,48).<br />
The most important examples of folk painting<br />
that decorate traditional buildings come<br />
from old coffee shops. These are wall-paintings<br />
of great size, with pictorial representations<br />
among which the depictions of the arrest<br />
of Athanasios Diakos and of the athlete Panayis<br />
Koutalianos predominate (fig.14). George<br />
Seferis located a wall-painting with the<br />
arrest of the hero of 1821 in Christodoulos’<br />
coffee shop in Peristerona, together with depictions<br />
of a sea battle, a city with monumental<br />
domed buildings et al. (Kasdaglis (ed.) 1990,
The arrest of the Greek hero Athanasios Diakos. Wall painting in the “Kazino” of Kritou Terra, RDAC<br />
1989 (fig. 14)<br />
fig. 92-94). Parts of wall-paintings of the year<br />
1892, with the arrest of the hero Athanasios<br />
Diakos and the athlete Koutalianos, who is<br />
holding cannons, were also found in a coffee<br />
shop in Yeri, from where they were removed<br />
and are now kept at the <strong>Cyprus</strong> Folk Art Museum<br />
(Papademetriou 1996, 80-81).<br />
Perhaps the only examples of wall-paintings<br />
which are preserved in situ are at the old<br />
coffee shop, known as "Kazino" at Kritou Terra,<br />
in the Paphos district. They are painted on<br />
plaster and were later covered with whitewash.<br />
The main representation is on the west wall,<br />
which is not broken by openings. It consists<br />
of two scenes with a tree depicted in the middle,<br />
with leaves and fruit and a snake wound<br />
round the trunk. One scene includes an armed<br />
man in a high headdress resembling a fez with<br />
The athlete Koutalianos holding the heavy cannons<br />
“Kazino” Kritou Terra (fig. 15)<br />
the fringed headscarf which the Zeibekides<br />
wore. A young woman is following him, holding<br />
flowers, while more flowers between the<br />
two figures set the scene in a spring landscape.<br />
Both faces are turned towards the main scene,<br />
31
32<br />
Painted decoration in the reception room of the House of the Dragoman Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios,<br />
Nicosia (fig. 13)<br />
the arrest of Athanasios Diakos, and are unquestionably<br />
connected with it. The young hero<br />
is standing between two armed soldiers, holding<br />
his broken sword in his right hand.<br />
On the next, south wall, the top half of a representation<br />
of Koutalianos has been preserved<br />
(the opening of a door destroyed the bottom<br />
half). Koutalianos is demonstrating his<br />
physical strength by holding 2 cannons. His<br />
garment, red with black spots, clearly denotes<br />
the skin of the leopard which he had killed<br />
at some time.<br />
The rest of the decoration of the dichoro room<br />
consists of floral themes, wreath, branch with<br />
leaves, a flowerpot with leaves and roses, which<br />
is repeated with variations of colour within a<br />
window, with drawn back curtains and<br />
three crosses on top. High up, a garland<br />
with tassel-like ornaments runs round the walls<br />
and on the bottom part there is a band with<br />
a meander pattern. These decorative elements<br />
which reflect the influence of neo-classical<br />
themes can be dated to the turn of the 19 th<br />
to the 20 th century (Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou<br />
1989, 195-299).<br />
The portrayal of the arrest of Diakos on several<br />
wall-paintings that survive in <strong>Cyprus</strong>, are<br />
without doubt modelled on lithographs and<br />
other depictions which circulated widely during<br />
this period. In Greece the same scene<br />
was a particularly popular theme in art, with<br />
regular production from 1841, when Demides’<br />
lithograph was printed, until the second half<br />
of the 20 th century (For Athanasios Diakos in<br />
Greek art see Papaspyrou-Karademetriou<br />
1986).<br />
In <strong>Cyprus</strong> the subject of the arrest of Athanasios<br />
Diakos was also adopted by folk artists<br />
and often portrayed in pictures painted on<br />
glass (fig.15).<br />
The depiction of the legendary hero and of<br />
the athlete of world-wide fame, Koutal-
ianos, in coffee shops, the main gathering place<br />
for the lower classes of the population, cannot<br />
be interpreted except in the context of the<br />
ideological and political climate which prevailed<br />
on the island during this period (end<br />
of the19 th century/first decades of the 20 th century).<br />
The presentation of subjects of heroic<br />
and national content, of models worthy of<br />
admiration and imitation, is linked with the<br />
ideology of the Great Idea, towards the realisation<br />
of which the liberation struggle of 1821<br />
made the first contribution. In these cases, the<br />
works of folk art which adorn the traditional<br />
architecture express the national conscience,<br />
the national ideals which <strong>Cyprus</strong> served too,<br />
with its voluntary participation in common<br />
struggles by the side of Greece.<br />
Foreign Bibliography<br />
Ionas, I., 1988: La Maison Rurale de Chypre ( XVIII-<br />
XXe siecle). Aspects et Techniques de Construction, Publications<br />
du Centre de Recherche Scientifique de Chypre,<br />
XII, Nicosie.<br />
Ohnefalsch – Richter, Max and Magda, 1985: Studies<br />
in <strong>Cyprus</strong>. Introduction: Andreas Malecos. Translations<br />
and Excerpts: Anna G. Marangou. General Supervision:<br />
Anna G. Marangou and Andreas Malecos. General<br />
Coordination: Marina Vryonidou – Sofianou.<br />
Cultural Centre <strong>Cyprus</strong> Popular Bank, Nicosia.<br />
Ohnefalcsh – Richter, Magda (1913) 1994: Greek Customs<br />
and Traditions in <strong>Cyprus</strong> ( Greek edition), Translation<br />
- Introduction - Comments and Supervision :<br />
Ana Marangou, Cultural Centre <strong>Cyprus</strong> PopularBank,<br />
Nicosia 1994 ( first edition in German: Griechische Sitten<br />
und Gebrauche auf Cypern, Berlin 1913).<br />
Rizopoulou – Egoumenidou, E., 1999: The House of<br />
the Dragoman of <strong>Cyprus</strong> Hadjigeorgakis Kornessios: Façade<br />
and Interior Decoration Proceedings of the Seminar on<br />
Surveying and Restoration of Decorated Façades, Genoa,<br />
9 July 1999, 15-20.<br />
Rizopoulou – Egoumenidou, E., Seretis, K., 2000: Folk<br />
Art Stone Carvings in Traditional Houses in the Village<br />
of Mitsero, Report of the Department of Antiquities<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong>, 407-431.<br />
Stylianou, A., Stylianou, J., 1965: “The Painted Chapel<br />
of the Holy Cross, Agia Irene, Troodos Range of Mountains",<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> Studies (Greek edition), vol. 18, 81-98.<br />
Greek Bibliography<br />
∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, º., 1984: §Èı·Ó¿ÁÏ˘Ê· «Ê˘Ï·ÎÙ¿»<br />
ÛappleÈÙÈÒÓ ÙÔ˘ ¯ˆÚÈÔ‡ §·˙·ÓÈ¿, Report of the Department<br />
of Antiquities <strong>Cyprus</strong>, 375-388.<br />
∫¿ÓıÔ˜, £., 1981: §·˚ÎÔ› Ù¯ӛÙ˜ Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘,<br />
¢‹ÌÔ˜ §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.<br />
∫¿Û‰·ÁÏ˘, ∂.Ã. (ÂappleÈÌ.), 1990: ∫‡appleÚÔ˜. ªÓ‹ÌË Î·È<br />
·Á¿appleË Ì ÙÔ Ê·Îfi ÙÔ˘ °ÈÒÚÁÔ˘ ÂʤÚË, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi<br />
∫¤ÓÙÚÔ §·˚΋˜ ∆Ú¿appleÂ˙·˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.<br />
∫›˙˘, °., 1994: ËÏÈÔÚ›ÙÈÎË √ÈÎÔ‰ÔÌ›·, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi<br />
∆¯ÓÔÏÔÁÈÎfi ÿ‰Ú˘Ì· ∂∆µ∞, ∞ı‹Ó·.<br />
∫ÔÚÚ¤, ∫., 1978: ∏ ·ÓıÚÒappleÈÓË ÎÂÊ·Ï‹ ı¤Ì·<br />
·appleÔÙÚÂappleÙÈÎfiÛÙË ÓÂÔÂÏÏËÓÈ΋ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË, ∞ı‹Ó·È.<br />
ª·ÎÚ‹˜, ∫., 1976: ∏ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË ÙÔ˘ ‹ÏÈÔ˘,<br />
∂ΉÔÙÈÎfi˜ √›ÎÔ˜ «ª¤ÏÈÛÛ·», ∞ı‹Ó·.<br />
ªapple¯ڿÎË, ∂. (ÂappleÈÌ.), 2002: ∏ πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ √ÈΛ·<br />
§·˙¿ÚÔ˘ ∫Ô˘ÓÙÔ˘ÚÈÒÙË – ⁄‰Ú·, πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ ηÈ<br />
∂ıÓÔÏÔÁÈ΋ ∂Ù·ÈÚ›· Ù˘ ∂ÏÏ¿‰Ô˜, ∞ı‹Ó·.<br />
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1992: ∂ıÓÔÁÚ·ÊÈο ∫·Úapple·Û›·˜,<br />
§Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.<br />
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1996: ∏ Ï·˚΋ Ù¤¯ÓË Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘.<br />
ªÔ˘ÛÂ›Ô §·˚΋˜ ∆¤¯Ó˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘ – ∂Ù·ÈÚ›· ∫˘appleÚÈ·ÎÒÓ<br />
appleÔ˘‰ÒÓ, ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈÎfi ∫¤ÓÙÚÔ §·˚΋˜ ∆Ú¿appleÂ˙·˜,<br />
§Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.<br />
·apple·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 2003: ∏ Ù¤¯ÓË ÙÔ˘ ͇ÏÔ˘ ÛÙËÓ<br />
∫‡appleÚÔ, ÀappleÔ˘ÚÁÂ›Ô ·È‰Â›·˜ Î·È ÔÏÈÙÈÛÌÔ‡ –<br />
ÔÏÈÙÈÛÙÈΤ˜ ÀappleËÚÂۛ˜, §Â˘ÎˆÛ›·.<br />
·apple·Ûapple‡ÚÔ˘ – ∫·Ú·‰ËÌËÙÚ›Ô˘, ∂., 1986: √ £·Ó¿Û˘<br />
¢È¿ÎÔ˜ ÛÙËÓ Ù¤¯ÓË, πÛÙÔÚÈ΋ Î·È ∂ıÓÔÏÔÁÈ΋ ∂Ù·ÈÚ›·<br />
Ù˘ ∂ÏÏ¿‰Ô˜, ∞ı‹Ó·.<br />
·apple·¯·Ú·Ï¿ÌappleÔ˘˜, °.Ã., 1968: ∏ ΢appleÚȷ΋ ÔÈΛ·,<br />
¢ËÌÔÛȇ̷ٷ ÙÔ˘ ∫¤ÓÙÚÔ˘ ∂appleÈÛÙËÌÔÓÈÎÒÓ ªÂÏÂÙÒÓ<br />
ππ, §Â˘ÎÒÛÈ·.<br />
ƒÈ˙ÔappleÔ‡ÏÔ˘ – ∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, º., 1987: ÙÔȯ›·<br />
Ï·˚΋˜ ‰È·ÎÔÛÌËÙÈ΋˜ Ù¤¯Ó˘ ÛÙËÓ apple·Ú·‰ÔÛȷ΋<br />
·Ú¯ÈÙÂÎÙÔÓÈ΋ Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘, ∞Ú¯·ÈÔÏÔÁ›· 24, 44-<br />
49.<br />
ƒÈ˙ÔappleÔ‡ÏÔ˘ – ∏ÁÔ˘ÌÂÓ›‰Ô˘, ∂., 1989: ∆ÔȯÔÁڷʛ˜<br />
Ï·˚΋˜ Ù¤¯Ó˘ ÛÙÔ «∫·˙›ÓÔ» ÛÙËÓ ∫Ú‹ÙÔ˘ ∆¤ÚÚ·,<br />
Report of the Department of Antiquities <strong>Cyprus</strong>,<br />
195-202.<br />
›ÓÔ˜, ., 1976: ∞Ó·‰ÚÔÌ‹ ÛÙË Ï·˚΋ ·Ú¯ÈÙÂÎÙÔÓÈ΋<br />
Ù˘ ∫‡appleÚÔ˘, ∞ı‹Ó·.<br />
33
34<br />
Greek Embassy Honours Solomos Frangoulides<br />
The Embassy of Greece in collaboration with<br />
the Bank of <strong>Cyprus</strong> Cultural Foundation<br />
organised an exhibition under the symbolic<br />
title "The Embassy of Greece Honours<br />
Solomos Frangoulides" dedicated to the remarkable<br />
Cypriot painter. The Minister of Education<br />
and Culture, Mr. Pefkios Georgiades<br />
opened the exhibition on May 6th, 2005.<br />
Greek Ambassador, Christos Panagopoulos,<br />
in the exhibition catalogue address, pointed<br />
out that the realisation of this exhibition<br />
redeems a moral obligation in memory of the<br />
artist who so much loved Greece and, in his<br />
will, donated his personal collection to the<br />
Greek state. It was a gesture of gratitude for<br />
the support he was offered during the last years<br />
of his life.<br />
For the first time in 19 years Cypriot art lovers<br />
had the privilege to see the Frangoulides collection<br />
of the Greek Embassy, impressive both<br />
in excellence and quantity, a great number<br />
of oil paintings, sketches, drawings, and memorabilia.<br />
The exhibition also included some<br />
religious paintings from the churches of Agros<br />
Minister of Education and Culture, Mr. P. Georgiades,<br />
Ms Lefki Michaelidou, Ms Olga Mentzafou<br />
and the Greek Ambassador, Mr. C. Panagopoulos<br />
at the exhibition opening<br />
and Moutoullas and some other works belonging<br />
to 17 private collectors and the Bishoprics<br />
of Limassol and Morfou.<br />
The Greek Ambassador made a special<br />
mention to the organisers of the exhibition<br />
and congratulated the Chairman of the Bank<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong> Cultural Foundation, Mr. Yiannis<br />
Kypri and Mrs Lefki Michaelidou, Director<br />
of the Foundation for sparing no effort to<br />
make this exhibition a success..<br />
Solomos Frangoulides 1902 - 1981<br />
Frangoulides was born in 1902 in Pano Zodia<br />
in a family of farmers. He was attracted to<br />
painting from an early age. "It was at the gymnasium<br />
that my instinct for art awoke", he<br />
wrote in an autobiographical note. "Since then<br />
it has been both the food that sustains me and<br />
the thorn in my side. It is my substitute for<br />
all the wealth".<br />
After graduating in 1920, he accidentally met<br />
a Russian refugee, Elia Karishiev, who had<br />
studied art in Paris. Recognising Frangoulides’<br />
interest in painting he offered to give him lessons.<br />
During these first lessons he acquired<br />
the fundamental precepts to which he adhered<br />
throughout his career: in rendering the human<br />
body he had to concentrate on ample movement<br />
and great mass.<br />
For one year, in 1923, he worked as an elementary<br />
teacher without qualifications and<br />
with the money he saved, he set off for Athens<br />
where he enrolled at the Higher School of the<br />
Fine Arts in 1924. His teachers were Nicolaos<br />
Lytras, George Iacovides, Spyros Vikatos, Pavlos<br />
Mathiopoulos and George Roilos. He came
Self–portrait, oil, 1940. Greek Embassy collection<br />
35
36<br />
top of his class in the first semester examinations<br />
and was automatically promoted to<br />
the second year.<br />
Although he had to do all sorts of odd jobs to<br />
secure his livelihood, he continued to excel in<br />
his studies. As a result of his outstanding<br />
achievements in his exams he received a monthly<br />
allowance from Antonios Benakis which<br />
offered a temporary relief. When he graduated<br />
in 1930 he shared the "Philadelphio Prize"<br />
with Manolis Zepos.<br />
For two years he remained in Athens and<br />
worked as an illustrator at the "Hellenic Letters"<br />
and "Nea Estia" magazines. But life in<br />
Athens was not easy and, in 1932 when<br />
Photis Kontoglou proposed to him to paint<br />
the church of Agros he decided to return to<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> and try his hand in iconography. As<br />
he recalls in his autobiography, the period of<br />
Wine–press, oil, 1937. Solon Papachristoforou collection<br />
two years he spent to complete this project<br />
was one of the happiest of his life. With regard<br />
to the rather freer style he used, he reveals:<br />
"I completely forgot traditional religious painting<br />
and relied on my own feelings. For each<br />
icon I would draw a preliminary sketch in<br />
charcoal, down to the slightest detail and then<br />
I would make a true copy turning the tones<br />
into colour. I used Rubens’ method. This was<br />
a positive basis for my subsequent development,<br />
which I owe to the first experiments<br />
with methods and systems which I freely used<br />
in Agros. Until this day, this work has remained<br />
in my heart, even though it is one of my earliest".<br />
Back to Athens, in 1934, he taught drawing<br />
at the Sivitanideios Technical School and<br />
later the Benakis Museum assigned him to<br />
prepare drawings of the exhibits in the Museum’s<br />
catalogue.
Fisherman’s house, oil, 1963. Bank of <strong>Cyprus</strong> collection<br />
In 1936 he had his first one-man exhibition<br />
at Parnassos which was favorably reviewed by<br />
Dionysis Kokkinos in "Nea Estia" magazine,<br />
Yiannis Panayiotopoulos and Gerasimos<br />
Anninos in "Proia" newspaper and Achylleas<br />
Kyron in "Estia".<br />
Zacharias Papantoniou, then Director of the<br />
National Gallery appreciated his work and<br />
introduced him to the collector Ioannis Papastratos<br />
who commissioned him to paint "Exodus<br />
from Mesolongi", which was donated to<br />
the Municipal Hall of this historic town.<br />
With the outbreak of war, Frangoulides volunteered<br />
and was sent to the front with the<br />
"Spiritual Mobilisation". From there he would<br />
send his illustrated correspondence to the "Hel-<br />
lenic Letters". The German occupation found<br />
him in Athens where he suffered hunger<br />
and sordid poverty. Artists would meet at<br />
the "Food Hall", organised in the great hall<br />
of the Museum of Archaeology, which was to<br />
become the Chamber of Fine Arts. He joined<br />
the Greek Liberation Front (EAM) and<br />
converted his room into a printing house where<br />
he would print committed posters carrying<br />
revolutionary messages in thousands of copies.<br />
After liberation he worked for EAM newspaper<br />
"Eleftheri Ellada" but as the gathering<br />
clouds of the civil war were coming, he decided<br />
to return to <strong>Cyprus</strong> in 1947.<br />
Unfortunately, his leftist political convictions<br />
made his employment as a teacher of art prac-<br />
37
38<br />
Report, oil, 1972. Greek Embassy collection<br />
tically impossible. After a short spell in Nicosia<br />
where he opened a small shop in Solonos street,<br />
he settled in Karavostasi village where he spent<br />
13 years of isolation. This is a fruitful period<br />
of painting landscapes and especially seascapes,<br />
his favourite subject. But he missed the<br />
artistic dialogue. He wrote: "I pondered for<br />
a moment how interaction and mutual influence<br />
precipitates progress, how seminal problems<br />
mature into solutions automatically upon<br />
the sighting of another artist’s findings".<br />
An aborted attempt to return to Greece, in<br />
1958 brought him involuntarily to Venice for<br />
a short while. This direct contact with the<br />
great masters of the Venetian Renaissance had<br />
a strong impact on him. Back to <strong>Cyprus</strong>, he<br />
managed to solve his financial problem by<br />
pioneering into the mushroom cultivation<br />
and then he devoted himself to his personal<br />
creativity. During this period he painted some<br />
of his most important works like "Pieta", "A<br />
Night at Karavostasi", "Scarecrow", "Study of<br />
Sunrise".<br />
In 1961 he participated in the Paris Salon of<br />
Modern Art with his painting "Scarecrow".<br />
Throughout his life Frangoulides laboured<br />
tirelessly and tenaciously but he rarely<br />
exhibited his work considering that there was<br />
always room for improvement. He had seven<br />
one-man exhibitions: 1936, Athens at Parnassos;<br />
1953, Famagusta at Constantine Hotel;<br />
1966, Nicosia at "Pnevmatiki Stegi;" 1972,<br />
London at Cumberland Hotel; 1974, Nicosia<br />
at Argo Gallery; 1976, Athens at Skopja Gallery;
One Night, oil, 1969. Andreas Zembylas collection<br />
39
40<br />
1977, Nicosia at Zygos Gallery.<br />
After his exhibition in 1966 he received an<br />
invitation to visit the Soviet Union and on his<br />
return to <strong>Cyprus</strong>, the Soviet Embassy com-<br />
Soldier, 1940, Solon Papachristoforou collection<br />
New Testament, 1970, Church of Agros<br />
missioned him to paint the portrait of Archbishop<br />
Makarios. The painting entitled "A<br />
Message of Freedom" was donated to the<br />
Pushkin Museum in Moscow.<br />
In 1972 he was awarded a silver medal in<br />
the Biennale d’ Arte Sacra held in Foggia, Italy.<br />
In the same year he had also the satisfaction<br />
of being declared a pensioner of the Greek<br />
state and granted a monthly allowance for the<br />
rest of his life. That is the reason why he<br />
bequeathed his private collection of his<br />
work to the Greek state.<br />
In the last years of his life, confined in his<br />
house because of poor health, he applied himself<br />
to still life, revealing, once again, his<br />
love for nature in rich and vivid colours.<br />
He died on the 9th of December, 1981.<br />
Bibliography: Eleni S. Nikita: Solon Frangoulides, 1902-<br />
1981, Cypriot Artists, The First Generation, Nicosia<br />
2002, Publication of the Cultural Centre Laiki Group.<br />
Olga Mentzafou: A Genuine Creator, Exhibition catalogue,<br />
Bank of <strong>Cyprus</strong> Cultural Foundation, 2005.
Leaps of Faith was an international exhibition<br />
and multi-disciplinary arts project held in<br />
Nicosia, in May 2005.<br />
Designed by two internationally renowned<br />
curators, Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova<br />
the event included happenings, public space<br />
interventions, film screenings and concerts.<br />
The venue was the war-ravaged Green Line<br />
partitioning the capital of <strong>Cyprus</strong> where the<br />
aggressive barbed wire, military debris and<br />
shattered houses are a depressive reminder<br />
of separation and past suffering.<br />
The organisers of this thought-provoking event<br />
hope that by exposing the absurdity of war<br />
it will inspire alternative communication and<br />
social change or what they call "political and<br />
cultural cohabitation". Katerina Gregos explains:<br />
"Our proposal evolved to organising an event<br />
which would have the Green Line as a starting<br />
point but actually spill out onto both sides<br />
of the city thus creating a symbolic bridge<br />
between them".<br />
"The 23 artists whom we invited", Erden<br />
Kosova adds, "have come from regions that<br />
have experienced similar geographic and cultural<br />
divisions, ethnic conflicts and some kind<br />
of traumatic history like the Middle East,<br />
Balkans, South Africa, Northern Ireland. Their<br />
Dan Perjovschi (Romania)<br />
Leaps of Faith<br />
work contains some kind of experimentalism<br />
and is based on a research and an intervention<br />
into a social space and context".<br />
Katerina Gregos further explains: "This project<br />
is not about production of the art objects,<br />
it is more about production of a discourse.<br />
We wanted artists to come here and do research<br />
and spontaneously respond to a specific geopolitical<br />
situation.<br />
Will the impact of this exhibition change the<br />
status-quo? "We have modest expectations";<br />
concludes Gregos. "But the project could be<br />
an eye-opener and make people more engaged<br />
and in the long-term, culture could evolve<br />
in a more constructive way in <strong>Cyprus</strong>".<br />
Athens-based Katerina Gregos has curated<br />
over 25 exhibitions internationally and has<br />
authored numerous artists’ catalogues. She<br />
has lectured and participated in conferences,<br />
biennials and art fairs internationally and is<br />
a regular contributor to art periodicals.<br />
Erden Kosova is based in Istanbul and London.<br />
He contributes to contemporary art magazines<br />
as a writer and editor and lectures on<br />
socially and politically engaged art and culture.<br />
His most recent curatorial project is<br />
"Along the Gates of the Urban", which was<br />
held both in Berlin and Istanbul.<br />
Participating artists in exhibition:<br />
ARTLAB (Great Britain), KATERINA ATTALIDES<br />
(<strong>Cyprus</strong>), MARC BIJL (Netherlands), THE CALL #<br />
192 (Maria Loizidou, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Socrates<br />
Stratis / <strong>Cyprus</strong>), HUSSEIN CHALAYAN (<strong>Cyprus</strong>),<br />
PHIL COLLINS (Great Britain), MINERVA CUEVAS<br />
(Mexico), KENDELL GEERS (South Africa), SEJLA<br />
KAMERIC (Bosnia), SERAP KANAY (<strong>Cyprus</strong>),<br />
SIGALIT LANDAU (Israel), PANAYIOTIS MICHAEL<br />
(<strong>Cyprus</strong>), DAN PERJOVSCHI (Romania), SUSAN<br />
PHILIPS (Great Britain), PLATFORMA 9,81 (Croatia),<br />
MINNA RAINIO & MARK ROBERTS (Finland),<br />
AKRAM ZAATARI (Lebanon)<br />
41
42<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> World Heritage<br />
The Convention concerning the Protection<br />
of the World Cultural and Natural<br />
Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in<br />
1972 has signalled a new era for the preservation<br />
of the cultural and natural sites<br />
of the member-states. The Republic of<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> ratified the World Heritage convention<br />
in 1975, thus joining the family<br />
of nations committed to the protection<br />
of the world’s legacy from the past. Then<br />
procedures started for the inscription of<br />
the <strong>Cyprus</strong> sites on the most famous register<br />
of the world, the UNESCO World<br />
Heritage List.<br />
The rigorous nature of the criteria for evaluating<br />
proposals for inscription ensure<br />
that the World Heritage List comprises<br />
properties that are of truly outstanding<br />
nature. Once a property is inscribed on<br />
the List it has a major claim to conservation<br />
against both natural and man-made<br />
hazards so that future generations will<br />
have the same opportunity as ourselves<br />
to derive pleasure and inspiration from<br />
these exquisite vestiges of the past. The<br />
preservation of this rich cultural heritage<br />
(more than 1000 ancient monuments)<br />
has been entrusted to the Antiquities<br />
Department of <strong>Cyprus</strong>.<br />
Here are, in chronological order, the successful<br />
submissions for nomination of<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> sites for their inscription on the<br />
World Heritage List:<br />
• 1980 – Archaeological sites of Kato<br />
Paphos (mosaics, Tombs of the Kings,<br />
Crysopolitissa area, Theatre area ) and<br />
Palaepaphos at Kouklia ( Temple of<br />
Aphrodite and Petra tou Romiou).<br />
• 1985 – Nine Byzantine Churches in the<br />
Troodos mountains ( Panagia Asinou,<br />
Nikitari; Ayios Nikolaos tis Stegis, Kakopetria;<br />
Panagia tou Arakos, Lagoudera; Ayios<br />
Ioannis Lampadistis Monastery, Kalopanagiotis;<br />
Panagia tou Moutoulla; Timios<br />
Stavros, Pelendri; Atchangelos Michael,<br />
Pedoulas; Timios Stavros Agiasmati, Platanistasa;<br />
Panagia Podithou, Galata).<br />
•1998 – Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia
Paphos, Petra tou Romiou,Birthplace of Aphrodite.<br />
43
44<br />
Buildings clustered together in the Neolithic settlement of Chirokoitia<br />
• 2002 – Church of Metamorphosis of<br />
Sotiros, Palaichori was added to the Troodos<br />
Churches List.<br />
For a country the size of <strong>Cyprus</strong> it is a distinction<br />
to have so many properties inscribed<br />
on the World Heritage List and most significant<br />
is the fact that they represent completely<br />
different phases in the evolution of<br />
the island’s history – a testimony to the<br />
breadth and diversity of its heritage.<br />
Choirokoitia – neolithic settlement located<br />
in the Maroni valley, provides ample<br />
evidence for the initial establishment of<br />
stable communities in <strong>Cyprus</strong>. The homes<br />
were circular in shape built of pisé, mud<br />
bricks and stones with a flat thatched roof.<br />
An opening in the wall, quite frequently<br />
with a paved threshold, formed the entrance<br />
to the house, some of which had openings<br />
for ventilation and light. Vessels characteristic<br />
of the aceramic period were made<br />
of diabase, a hard stone and indicate great<br />
skill in stone-cutting. Human figures were<br />
carved on stone, depicted on murals or<br />
shaped into figurines made of picrolite –<br />
a green stone from the Kourri river.<br />
Palaepaphos – site inhabited<br />
since the Chalcholotic<br />
period;<br />
acquires predominance<br />
in the 12th<br />
century BC when<br />
the Mycenaean<br />
Greeks settled in<br />
Temple of Aphrodite<br />
on a coin of the Emperor<br />
Vespasian, 75-6 AD
<strong>Cyprus</strong>. The first temple of Aphrodite,<br />
the most important of all Sanctuaries all<br />
over the ancient world mentioned by Homer<br />
and other Greek and Latin authors is<br />
dated to this period. The huge ashlars blocks<br />
of local limestone in the true megalithic<br />
Cyclopean order testify the magnificence<br />
of the original temple. The shrine had a<br />
peribolos wall enclosing a tripartite cella<br />
that housed a conical baetyl (sacred stone)<br />
in the centre symbolizing the power of the<br />
great goddess.The temple survived the collapse<br />
of the Mycenaean world and flourished<br />
in the Archaic-Classical times (7th-<br />
4th centuries BC).<br />
Nea Paphos – established towards the end<br />
of the 4ty century BC by<br />
Nikokles, the last King of<br />
Palaepaphos.The city grew<br />
rapidly in importance becoming<br />
the capital of the island<br />
by the 2nd century BC until<br />
the annexation of <strong>Cyprus</strong> by<br />
Rome in 58BC. The monumental<br />
underground tombs<br />
in atrium form known as<br />
"Tombs of the Kings" suggest<br />
the wealth and sophistication of<br />
Hellenistic Paphos. The town was<br />
embellished during the Roman period<br />
with many public buildings, an Agora,<br />
an Odeon and a theatre. Mosaic floors in<br />
private houses are of unique quality and<br />
value due to the great variety of their<br />
subjects and their excellent workmanship.<br />
Cradle of the Christianity, Nea Paphos saw<br />
the erection of many basilicas and Byzantine<br />
churches.<br />
Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis, Kakopetria–<br />
built and decorated with wall painting in<br />
the 11th century. In the 12th century a<br />
The Rape of Ganymede. Mosaic from the House of<br />
Dionysus, Nea Paphos<br />
narthex is added and painted. Important<br />
redecoration of the church dates<br />
from the 13th-15th centuries.<br />
Monastery of Agios Ioannis Lampadistis,<br />
Kalopanagiotis – built and decorated<br />
with painting in the 11th and 12th centuries. Additional -<br />
13th century frescoes<br />
reflect the contact of<br />
the Italian Renaissance<br />
with the art of<br />
Byzantium.<br />
Panagia Phorviotissa,<br />
Asinou – monastic<br />
church built in the<br />
12th century. The frescoes<br />
dated 1105-6 are<br />
of an exceptional quality<br />
of the Comnenian style. A<br />
second layer of paintings in<br />
1332-3 bears strong Frankish influence.<br />
Panagia tou Arakos, Lagoudera – monastic<br />
church built at the end of the 12th century<br />
and decorated with painting in 1192.<br />
45
46<br />
The frescoes in late Comnenian style constitute<br />
the most complete set of frescoes<br />
of the mid-Byzantine period.<br />
Panagia at Moutoullas – erected and decorated<br />
in 1280 with paintings reflecting<br />
the monumental art of the Crusaders, of<br />
which almost nothing survives elsewhere.<br />
Church of Archangelos Michael, Pedhoulas<br />
– built and painted in 1474 in a<br />
style developing a synthesis of Byzantine<br />
art incorporating some elements of<br />
western art. But, irrespective of influences,<br />
the artist remained a naïve painter true<br />
to his tradition.<br />
Church of Timios Stavros, Pelendri – preseves<br />
paintings of the original decoration<br />
of the 12th century building. The 14th century building and painting display local<br />
and western features and to a certain degree<br />
The Hospitality of Abraham (above ), Moses Receiving the Ten Commandements, the Enthroned Virgin with<br />
Child, Moses before the Burning Bush. Around 1500. Agios Ioannis Lampadistis Monastery
The Virgin Arakiotissa. Panagia tou Arakos, south wall, 1192<br />
the revived art of Paleologan Constantinople.<br />
Panagia Podhitou, Galata – wall paintings<br />
dated 1502 are highly influenced by<br />
the paintings of the Renaissance, with vivid<br />
colours and three – dimensional rendering.<br />
Timios Stavros Ayiasmati, Platanistassa –<br />
built in the 15th century and painted in<br />
1495 by Philip Goul, a Hellenized Syrian<br />
Orthodox who relied on eclectic drawing<br />
fom Byzantine art, western painting<br />
and local tradition. The biblical scenes<br />
recall manuscript miniatures.<br />
Church of the Transfiguration of the Saviour,<br />
Palaichori – built at the beginning<br />
of the 16th century and decorated in the<br />
2nd or 3rd decade of the same century. Constitutes<br />
one of the most accomplished series<br />
of wall paintings of the post-Byzantine<br />
period in <strong>Cyprus</strong>, the artist being an<br />
outstanding representative of the Cypriot<br />
School.<br />
In 1980, only five years after the ratification<br />
of the UNESCO Convention concerning<br />
the Protection of the World Cultural<br />
and Natural Heritage, <strong>Cyprus</strong> became<br />
a member of the World Heritage Committee.<br />
It remained a member until<br />
1987 and it was reelected in 1991 until<br />
1997. In addition, the then Permanent<br />
Delegate of the Republic of <strong>Cyprus</strong> to<br />
UNESCO, Ambassador C. Leventis, was<br />
elected Chairman of the 9th Session of<br />
the General Assembly of the World Heritage<br />
Convention in 1993.<br />
Source: Department of Antiquities<br />
47
48<br />
The Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated<br />
with the Pierides Museum of Contemporary<br />
Art, the Cultural Services of the<br />
Ministry of Education and Cultural and the<br />
Cultural Centre of the Laiki Group of<br />
Companies have organised "Accidental Meetings",<br />
a large-scale exhibition which seeks to<br />
explore the contemporary art scene of <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
and observe how it evolved since 1974 to<br />
the present day. Its objective is to bring about<br />
"accidental meetings" among the Greek and<br />
Turkish Cypriot artists which would spark off<br />
a fruitful dialogue of creativity.<br />
Yiannis Toumazis, Director of the Nicosia<br />
Municipal Arts Centre and the Pierides Foun-<br />
Accidental Meetings<br />
dation, curated the exhibition which opened<br />
on May 6 and will continue until 31 July.<br />
In the introduction to the exhibition catalogue,<br />
Yiannis Toumazis is trying to find the<br />
criteria and data according to which he could<br />
attempt a reading or even a deciphering of the<br />
Cypriot visual arts scene.<br />
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition aspires<br />
to present an as-far-as-possible truer picture<br />
of today’s reality, a reality shaped by the 30year<br />
development of a major problem which<br />
has determined the actions, reactions and<br />
behaviours of an entire generation.<br />
The development of Cypriot art from 1960<br />
Klitsa Antoniou, Episodes of Domestic Nature, 2005. Ceramic tiles, seaweeds, mirror, slide projection,<br />
photographs
(the year of establishment of the Republic<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong>) to 1974 (the year of the Turkish<br />
invasion), formed the main object of examination<br />
of the exhibition held by the Nicosia<br />
Municipal Arts Centre, Collaboration: Pierides<br />
Gallery, under the title "1960-1974: Young<br />
Cypriot Artists at the Dawn of the Republic".<br />
The main characteristic of this first period<br />
was the air of the neophyte as brought to<br />
the island by the first Cypriot artists to have<br />
studied in major art centres abroad (mainly<br />
London), as well as the fresh look provided<br />
by modernism and abstraction, which pulled<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> away from a long Byzantine, folkloric<br />
and ethnographic tradition.<br />
1974 was a turning-point for Cypriot artists,<br />
both Greek and Turkish Cypriots. The tragic<br />
events caused great unrest, both external<br />
and existential. A long time was needed in<br />
order for an internal calm to prevail, an element<br />
necessary for any intellectual quest. The<br />
memories and the inevitable trauma inescapably<br />
pushed an entire generation of young adults<br />
to leave the island and pursue studies in Art<br />
abroad. At this juncture, it may well be worth<br />
pondering for a moment that for years, <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
did not possess a university. Despite the fact<br />
that <strong>Cyprus</strong> enjoys one of the comparatively<br />
higher proportions of tertiary education<br />
graduates in the world, the establishment of<br />
the University of <strong>Cyprus</strong> was only made possible<br />
a mere fifteen years ago. I believe that<br />
this fact had a drastic, if not dramatic influence<br />
on the shaping of our modern identity.<br />
On the one hand, the return to <strong>Cyprus</strong> of<br />
graduates from the four corners of the earth<br />
may well have brought to the country a charming<br />
polyphony and a wealth of ideas, systems<br />
and perceptions, yet on the other, the lack<br />
Yiorgos Kipris, Muscle Exercises. Crystal. Collection<br />
of State Gallery of Contemporary Cypriot Art<br />
Athina Antoniadou, Untitled from the series Between<br />
Conversations, 2004, mixed media<br />
49
50<br />
Rinos Stefani, Targets, installation, mixed media,<br />
29 figures<br />
of a central high-standard intellectual establishment<br />
in my opinion prevented the creation<br />
of a purely Cypriot tradition and conscience.<br />
While the Greek Cypriots entered the 20th<br />
Century in continuation of a rich tradition of<br />
Byzantine and folk art, it wasn’t until much<br />
later that the Turkish Cypriots began dealing<br />
seriously with the matter, and this mainly<br />
after the reforms instituted by Kemal Ataturk.<br />
Whatever the case, the overriding fact is that<br />
Maria Perendou, Kniphofia, triptych, oil on canvas, 2004 – 2005<br />
Mary Plant, The Chosen Shell, oil,<br />
graphite, gold leaf, 1993<br />
the absence of a Fine Arts School in <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
deeply influenced the shaping of today’s artistic<br />
landscape.<br />
It is also a fact that the 30-year lack of communication<br />
between Greek and Turkish Cypriots<br />
does not permit us to speak of a common<br />
development and common parameters.<br />
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition attempts<br />
to trace the developments in both the Greek<br />
Cypriot and the contemporary Turkish Cypriot<br />
Visual Arts reality, in appreciation always
Stass Paraskos, Prisoner of Conscience, mixed media,<br />
2005<br />
of the great difficulty of the endeavour.<br />
The exhibition aspires to form a meetingplatform<br />
for a large number of the island’s<br />
significant artists, older but most importantly<br />
younger, who, in these last thirty years, have<br />
succeeded, through their works, in creating<br />
a multifaceted mosaic which, in my opinion,<br />
constitutes our contemporary artistic<br />
identity.<br />
The fact that we can, today, select a pleiad<br />
of worthy artists (always bearing in mind<br />
the total population of the island) who successfully<br />
manage to maintain the dynamic<br />
existing at present in <strong>Cyprus</strong>, is, in itself, a<br />
notable and praiseworthy feat. One could liken<br />
"Accidental Meetings" with the paths followed<br />
by the electrons and neutrons in an atom’s<br />
core. Collisions, fusions, the release of ener-<br />
gy, creation, genesis of matter. It was in some<br />
such way that the situation developed. <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
was the meeting- and gathering-place for so<br />
many different schools and systems of throught,<br />
a field in which many and different trends<br />
developed and continue to do so. The lack<br />
of a Fine Arts School, or even a Museum of<br />
Modern and Contemporary Art, contributed<br />
to the somewhat anarchical and without specific-orientation<br />
development of our artistic<br />
reality. For this reason, our artists functioned<br />
more like autophotous units, by and<br />
large avoiding their incorporation into group<br />
processes of creation.<br />
The exhibition constitutes a challenge to<br />
our artists for them and them alone to<br />
determine the artistic mien of present-day<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> at a time when our country is acquiring<br />
greater and greater geo-political significance<br />
and interest. The initial desire was<br />
that the exhibition would lead to collaborations<br />
between older and younger artists, and<br />
thus create new dynamic relationships. In some<br />
Christos Polydorou, "18". Acrylic on canvas.<br />
Wood and metal<br />
51
52<br />
Polis Peslikas, Incidents with a Cowboy Haircut, 2005, oil on canvass. Courtesy: Archimede Staffolini Gallery<br />
cases this was achieved, in others these relationships<br />
are more esoteric and "underground".<br />
Nicosia is preparing to host, in 2006, the Manifesta,<br />
the European Biennale of Contemporary<br />
Art, which may be the third most important<br />
after those of Venice and Cassel. This<br />
on its own is an event of major significance<br />
for our country but especially for our artists,<br />
our art curators and, in general, all those<br />
involved in the process of cultural production.<br />
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition is<br />
essentially the first chance to self-analyse and<br />
self-delineate modern Cypriot Art, and form<br />
a meeting-point for trends and perceptions<br />
and ideas and mentalities, but mainly a space<br />
where energy can be released and new matter<br />
created.<br />
It is a fact that in the thirty years which have<br />
elapsed since 1974, Cypriot artists have managed,<br />
through many adversities, to articulate<br />
their own distinctive utterances.<br />
For many, these utterances did not follow the<br />
paths that some would have liked. It is quite<br />
often the case that the realisation of a problem<br />
such as the <strong>Cyprus</strong> issue is expressed as<br />
a purely internal process. The continued existence<br />
of the Green Line, the lack of a solution<br />
and the insurmountable problems which still<br />
exist are all elements which have influenced<br />
us significantly.<br />
One could say that it is almost the fashion<br />
in this day and age for artists to observe and<br />
comment on socio-political and other phenomena<br />
of our times, and set themselves at<br />
the frontline of "difficult" problems and in<br />
the vanguard of critical regions.
On the other hand, one should appreciate<br />
in Cypriot Art of recent years the fact that it<br />
tried to create a contemporary Cypriot face,<br />
searching desperately (and often extrovertly)<br />
in an attempt to determine itself.<br />
We should also note that the, albeit late-inmaturing,<br />
interest of the international community<br />
(artistic and otherwise) in the Green<br />
Line and the existing division is clearly and<br />
on its own a very positive element.<br />
It is, however, one thing to observe a problem<br />
and another to live it, especially for such a long<br />
time. The difference is huge. I believe that this<br />
in itself explains the need of our artists, through<br />
all these years, to turn to the outside world,<br />
essentially attempting to "exorcise" the sensed<br />
evil and feel (even if this in essence does not<br />
stand) that they belong to a normally-developing<br />
environment and that they form part<br />
of a wider international milleu. For this rea-<br />
Simge Uyger, untitled, installation, mixed media, 2004<br />
son, I would say to those who through documentary-like<br />
practices search for the concerns<br />
of our creators, to examine with greater<br />
attention the entire and complex matrix which<br />
took shape through all these years.<br />
One thing is certain: the overpowering fact is<br />
that today, <strong>Cyprus</strong> stands at an ideological<br />
crossroads which will determine its future in<br />
the years to come. It is for this reason that<br />
introspection and an analysis of its hitherto<br />
Visual Arts course is significant.<br />
The "Accidental Meetings" exhibition seeks<br />
to record the today which derives from our<br />
modern history, aiming at constituting a nodal<br />
point for realization and re-delineation. And,<br />
of course, look to the future, which, we hope,<br />
our dynamic and highly-promising new generation<br />
of artists will substantively determine.<br />
Source: Yiannis Toumazis, Accidental Meetings<br />
(Exibition catalogue).<br />
53
54<br />
The 8th European Dance Festival, hosted<br />
at the Rialto Theatre in Limassol, was a<br />
milestone in the evolution of the event since<br />
the recent enlargement of the European<br />
family was reflected in the increasing number<br />
of participating countries: not only was<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> participating as a full member in its<br />
own right, but also Spain, Sweden, Poland,<br />
Estonia and Malta were represented for the<br />
first time. The event was organised under<br />
the auspices of the European Commission<br />
Representation in <strong>Cyprus</strong> and was coordinated<br />
by the Cultural Services of the Ministry<br />
of Education and Culture.<br />
For a whole month, between May 7 and<br />
<strong>June</strong> 11, 2005 the Rialto Theatre offered<br />
a panorama of dance, music, movement and<br />
aesthetic expression from eleven groups,<br />
with choreography that reflects the Euro-<br />
European Dance Festival<br />
pean prevailing trends. This prestigious<br />
event which has scored mounting success<br />
over the year has created new bridges of<br />
communication with the international scene<br />
of contemporary dance.<br />
The dance companies featuring during the<br />
Festival were:<br />
Italy – Compania Danza Travirovesce<br />
performed "Appuntamenti in Nero" an<br />
exploration of anguish, crime and noir.<br />
Malta – Contact Dance Company with<br />
"Poetry in Motion" focusing on the drama<br />
and liveliness of poetry and "Are You Right,<br />
Am I Wrong" about the cycle of friendship<br />
stages.<br />
France: La Compagnie Apotosoma with<br />
the work "Use" choreographed by Greek-<br />
Frenchman Antonis Phoniadakis who returns
to his Cretan roots.<br />
Austria: Tanzatelier Wien performed<br />
"Land Body Scope" a work focused on<br />
the combination of music, dance, images<br />
and light.<br />
Sweden: Company Kudo with the production<br />
"Lizard" choreographed" by Statoshi<br />
Kudo.<br />
Poland: Ensemble Plastique Animée performed<br />
"O Widowisku" using a music mosaic<br />
to create a balance between theatre, movement<br />
and light.<br />
Estonia: Fine 5 Tantsuteater with "24<br />
Hours" choreographed by Tommi Kitti.<br />
Germany: cie. toula limnaios group with<br />
"Double Sens" featured another Greek link.<br />
Spain: Cienfuegos U6 – DT performed<br />
"Pargatorio" choreographed by Yoshia Cienfuegos.<br />
Greece: Iros Angelos Dance Theatre with<br />
an excerpt from Christopher Marlone’ s<br />
"Edward II".<br />
The <strong>Cyprus</strong> participation as in previous<br />
years was the winner of the 5th Dance Platform<br />
event. This year’s winner was Natasa<br />
Georgiou’ s group InterAct Dance Theatre<br />
with "An Angel at my Table" which was<br />
unanimously selected by eight judges from<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> and abroad. On graduating from<br />
UK’s Laine Theatre Arts, Natasa Georgiou<br />
founded Omada Pente from which she eventually<br />
resigned forming InterAct two<br />
years ago. With her work "Babble On", she<br />
also won second prize at the 4th Dance Platform<br />
in 2004.<br />
"An Angel at my Table", although inspired<br />
by Cypriot women, presents a contemporary<br />
view on the universal idea of waiting,<br />
55
56<br />
expecting, anticipating. Impressive stage<br />
props: large, clunky tables burden the stage<br />
which are excellently used symbolically by<br />
three women as a metaphor for their illusion,<br />
their vain anticipation as they wait for<br />
their partner to join them for dinner. There<br />
is condensed drama in this piece which is<br />
poignantly sensitive and packed with emotions.<br />
The European Dance Festival was an excellent<br />
opportunity to explore and create innovative<br />
work by using outside mainstream<br />
dance traditions and to share the diversity<br />
of dance through the varied channels of different<br />
forms of culture. As Adriaan van<br />
der Meer, Head of the European Commission<br />
Representation in <strong>Cyprus</strong>, put it in<br />
his opening message, the EU aims to continue<br />
to encourage cultural exchanges, the<br />
dissemination of art and culture, inter-cultural<br />
dialogue and knowledge of the history<br />
and cultural heritage of Europe.<br />
Inter Act Dance<br />
Theatre:<br />
An Angel at my<br />
Table,<br />
winner of the<br />
5th Dance<br />
Platform
Contemporary Classical Music Competition<br />
"United in diversity" is the ideology promoted<br />
by the European Union in whatever concerns<br />
matters of culture. And naturally music,<br />
as a universal means of communication precisely<br />
because of its immediacy, is in a position<br />
to contribute to the promotion of the<br />
above principle through the development of<br />
the intercultural dialogue and of communication<br />
between peoples, thus contributing<br />
to international peace and stability. With<br />
the challenges of the times in mind, our<br />
contemporary music creation acquires special<br />
importance.<br />
The third competition for the composition<br />
of a work of contemporary classical music is<br />
an initiative by the Cultural Services of the<br />
Ministry of Education and Culture which has<br />
the aim of promoting and furthering the writing<br />
of contemporary music.<br />
The prizes were awarded on the recommendations<br />
of the Judging Committee appointed<br />
by the Ministry of Education and Culture<br />
and composed of:<br />
Elena Theodoulou-Charalambous, President<br />
(without the right to vote)<br />
Yiorgos Koumentakis<br />
Miltos Loyiadis<br />
Maciej Zoltowski<br />
There were 16 entries.<br />
The prizes were awarded as follows:<br />
1st Prize: for the work "Interaction" by Vassos<br />
Nicolaou.<br />
2nd Prize: For the work "Perception" by Charalambos<br />
Sophocleous.<br />
Ms Eleni Nikita, Director of the Cultural Services<br />
of the Ministry of Education and Culture addressing<br />
the award ceremony<br />
1st Prize: Vassos Nicolaou<br />
57
58<br />
2nd Prize: Charalambos Sophocleous<br />
3rd Prize: Maria Andreou<br />
Honourable Mention: Costas Papageorgiou<br />
3rd Prize (shared): for the work "Metaptoseis"("Transitions")<br />
by Maria Andreou and<br />
for the work "Music for Five" by Phanos<br />
Dymiotis.<br />
Grounds for the awards<br />
1st Prize: Vassos Nicolaou for his work "Interaction":<br />
This is a work with clear exposition of ideas,<br />
which is structured in the framework of a firm<br />
musical form. The work has rich harmonic<br />
and rhythmic fabric. The finale is extremely<br />
interesting. At the same time the composer<br />
appears to have the special ability of correctly<br />
"hearing" his material, which develops in<br />
a very balanced way.<br />
The composer assimilates contemporary trends<br />
and influences and in a personal way dares<br />
with very fine balances to create a unique<br />
musical world. The work shows spontaneous<br />
inspiration which appears to be the product<br />
of a deeper need for musical expression.<br />
2nd Prize: Charalambos Sophocleous for<br />
his work "Perception":<br />
This is a well-written work, correctly structured<br />
from the harmonic aspect. It presents a<br />
very beautiful and clever juxtaposition of the<br />
two parts, with the second part showing clear<br />
influences and impact from musical movements<br />
of the jazz space. There is a deliberate<br />
limitation in the range of chromatic sound,<br />
which stylistically leads to an imaginative sense<br />
of rhythm. It is a work with humour and with<br />
clarity of intention and one which assimilates<br />
in a functional and original way all its musical<br />
influences.<br />
3rd Prize (shared): Phanos Dymiotis for his<br />
work "Music for Five" and Maria Andreou<br />
for her work "Metaptoseis" ("Transitions").<br />
Phanos Dymiotis for his work "Music<br />
for Five":
Members of the <strong>Cyprus</strong> State Orchestra performing works which were awarded prizes<br />
The work reveals an experienced composer.<br />
While the writing moves within conventional<br />
frameworks, the great sensitivity of the<br />
composer unfolds, giving a work which will<br />
sound very good in performance. In this work<br />
one sees a composer with good acoustic perception<br />
and rhythmic eloquence.<br />
Maria Andreou for her work "Metaptoseis"<br />
("Transitions"):<br />
The composer writes very engagingly with<br />
clear influences from Kurtag, which she assimilates<br />
in a very creative way. She is a composer<br />
with talent and sensitivity. There is clear<br />
orientation in relation to the style. The<br />
work seemingly moves in the form of the<br />
miniature, which eventually is reshaped and<br />
develops into an homogeneous form of exceptional<br />
interest.<br />
The committee also singled out the work<br />
"Rhapsody" by Nikos Troullos and the work<br />
"String Quartet" by Costas Papageorgiou, and<br />
recommended that they should receive honourable<br />
mention.<br />
Honourable Mention: Nikos Troullos for<br />
his work "Rhapsody".<br />
Here is a creator whose musical writing is characterised<br />
by sincerity in expression. The work<br />
stands out for its impressive finale, which indicates<br />
imagination and musical perception.<br />
Honourable Mention: Costas Papageorgiou<br />
for his work "String Quartet".<br />
This is a work of very great interest and its<br />
creator appears to have very good knowledge<br />
of the Orchestra.<br />
The committee recommended that these two<br />
works be included in the works to be performed<br />
at the award ceremony and recorded<br />
on CD for the purposes of projecting and promoting<br />
the work of the prizewinners.<br />
59
60<br />
International Xperimental Film Festival<br />
For the fourth year running the Xperimental<br />
Film Festival has continued coordinating<br />
creators of all kinds, who have chosen to express<br />
themselves through film. The festival,<br />
organised by the Pantheon Cultural Association<br />
and sponsored by the Cultural Services<br />
of the Ministry of Education and Culture, was<br />
hosted at the Pantheon Cultural Association.<br />
President of the Pantheon Cultural Association,<br />
Petros Lapithis launching the festival,<br />
stressed the fact that: "the character of any<br />
form of experimentation in art releases an honest<br />
and playful visual expression. The participants<br />
of the Xperimental festival have each<br />
developed their own unique style of filming,<br />
producing an atmospheric result either technically,<br />
visually or through a given concept.<br />
You can never tell how people will react to<br />
these films, but such reactions are necessary<br />
because they make people think, they remind<br />
people that they are alive."<br />
The themes are approached in new and innovative<br />
ways – a far cry from the conventional<br />
approach – something that makes this type<br />
of film very appealing to artists everywhere.<br />
What is more they are attractive to film makers<br />
not only because of their broad possibilities<br />
but also because expenses can be virtually<br />
non existent.<br />
More than 60 films were submitted by artists<br />
around the world out of which only 30<br />
short films were selected. They include films<br />
from the U.S.A, the U.K, France, Japan, Chile,<br />
Greece, Germany, <strong>Cyprus</strong> and they can last<br />
from 30 seconds to 20 minutes.<br />
There were the seven <strong>Cyprus</strong> entries:<br />
Lefkios Clerides: "Saw You Drown"<br />
(4.30 min), 2004. The film is about a young<br />
man’s struggle with another self that is<br />
somehow pushing him to make the decisions<br />
he doesn’t want to make.<br />
Minos Papas: "Kalipolis" (16 min),<br />
2004. The artist describes the events that<br />
follow the arrival of a young woman in New<br />
York City for the first time. In her new,<br />
empty apartment, she discovers an audio tape<br />
that takes her on a journey through the city,<br />
through the eyes of a poet preparing to leave<br />
forever. Minos Papas received an Outstand-<br />
“26 Weeks”. Lia Lapithi, 2004, <strong>Cyprus</strong> "Spoil". Senih Conusoglu Emrah Aslan, 2005,<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong>
“Compilation”, Christodoulos Demosthenous, 2004/5,<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
ing Achievement Award at the 15th Annual<br />
Dusty Film Festival, 2004, for this work.<br />
Lia Lapithi: "26 weeks" (8.18 min), 2004.<br />
The video is a journey through female experiences,<br />
as a means of communication and<br />
shared experiences. Emotions are the least<br />
understood of all the cognitive functions, and<br />
such meanings begin to take on a new interpretation:<br />
"medialization of life", "embryos",<br />
"sterile incubation", "motherhood"<br />
(birth/rebirth/growth/sepatation).<br />
Senih Cavusoglu & Emrah Aslan: "Spoil"<br />
(1.33 min), 2005. What was the real motive<br />
of the American Intervention in Iraq? No<br />
weapons of mass destruction were found. Did<br />
"Berio". Elina Roditou, 2004, <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
this ferocious onslaught really bring "democracy<br />
and humanity?"<br />
Myria Konari & Despina Fysentzou: "The<br />
Bingo Project: Incidental Experince I" (0.5<br />
min), 2005. Contemporary culture tends torwards<br />
an expectation of reward. The society<br />
seeks the chance of winning, The gateway to<br />
a triumphant change of fate.<br />
Elina Roditou: "Berio" (2.17 min),<br />
2004. Based on the last interview the composer<br />
Berio had given, the video depicts through<br />
visuals, the way he wanted the musicians to<br />
use every single part of the instruments to create,<br />
to find music in everything.<br />
Christodoulos Demosthenous: "Compilation"<br />
(9.30 min), 2004/5. A compilation of<br />
five short videos, 3-colours, Eorisis, Hands,<br />
Red and Swing. The experimental film<br />
scene in <strong>Cyprus</strong> is probably not large, but it<br />
is certainly growing. Petros Lapithis specified<br />
that "The beauty of experimental films lies<br />
within its final result, and its result can best<br />
be described as removing boundaries and limits<br />
within art." He is convinced that experimentation<br />
in all forms of art must be supported<br />
in order to keep the vibe of fresh ideas<br />
and new ways of thinking alive.<br />
“The Bingo Project: Incidental Experience 1". Myria<br />
Konnari Despina Fysentzou, 2005, <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
61
62<br />
The second International Children’s Festival<br />
of <strong>Cyprus</strong> opened on the 13th May, 2005 in<br />
a full garden at the French Cultural Centre,<br />
with an outdoor projection of the French film<br />
"Les Choristes" by Christophe Barratier 2004.<br />
The festival combines films with education<br />
and opens the door to the world of cinema<br />
with the aim of encouraging children to analyse<br />
and discuss, to distance themselves from emotional<br />
reactions and introduce them to the<br />
history of cinema.<br />
During the two-week festival daily screenings<br />
and workshops were held simultaneously in<br />
both communities on both sides of the Green<br />
Line (Intercollege: Cine-Studio and Arabahmet<br />
Cultural Centre) for an already selected<br />
group of children from seven primary and secondary<br />
schools in the south and four in the<br />
north.<br />
This non-profit initiative came from Highgate<br />
School, was operated under the auspices<br />
of the Ministry of Education and Culture,<br />
and was funded through the US Embassy’s<br />
Children’ s Film Festival<br />
Bicommunal Support Programme.<br />
Eva Argyrou, a teacher at Highgate, explained<br />
on behalf of the organisers that films were<br />
selected for their educational aspects, their<br />
portrayal of the relationships between children<br />
and adults and between children and<br />
other children, for non-violence, respect for<br />
other cultures, for the environment and for<br />
their contribution towards broadening young<br />
people’s perspective of the world.<br />
During the weekend of 21-22 May, 2005<br />
bi-communal workshops were held at the Fulbright<br />
Centre and Ledra Palace, where children<br />
of both communities had the opportunity<br />
to create and work together on the<br />
films they had seen during the week: writing<br />
scripts, shooting and editing scenes, and composing<br />
music related to images.<br />
"This is a festival with a difference", the organisers<br />
maintain, "since great emphasis is laid<br />
on the educational value of the films and workshops<br />
help children build a strong and peaceful<br />
relationship between themselves through<br />
this art".<br />
Festival organisers:<br />
French teacher,<br />
Bérangère Blondeau (left)<br />
who teaches Film Studies<br />
at Highgate, Françoise<br />
Arnould (right),<br />
a freelance journalist<br />
and Eva Argyrou (middle),<br />
Deputy Head Teacher,<br />
Highgate School
Greek Ministry of Culture honours<br />
the Leventis Foundation at Olympia<br />
A modest ceremony was held at ancient Olympia<br />
on <strong>April</strong> 9th at which the Deputy Minister<br />
of Culture, Mr P. Tatoulis, honoured the Leventis<br />
Foundation and the German Archaeological<br />
Institute for their important contribution<br />
to the restoration of a column of the<br />
ancient temple of Olympian Zeus, as well as<br />
the partial restoration of the round temple<br />
known as the Philippeion. The restoration of<br />
this monument is expected to be completed<br />
this coming September. The architect Mr<br />
K. Zambas, who together with the German<br />
architects supervised the restoration o the column,<br />
said that the column of the temple of<br />
Olympian Zeus was the tallest Doric column<br />
in ancient Greece. It is 10.50 metres high and<br />
slightly higher than the columns of the Parthenon<br />
Vassos Karageorgis<br />
The restored Doric pillar of the temple of Zeus at Olympia<br />
and of the temple of Zeus at Nemea.<br />
Mr Tatoulis referred to the multifaceted contribution<br />
of the Leventis Foundation to the<br />
preservation and projection of Greek culture,<br />
not only in Greece and <strong>Cyprus</strong> but also wherever<br />
it is to be found. He also referred to the<br />
programmes which the Ministry is preparing<br />
for cultural cooperation on an international<br />
level, between <strong>Cyprus</strong> and Greece. Local political<br />
and religious authorities were present at<br />
the ceremony as well as the Director General<br />
of Antiquities of Greece, Mr Haris Leventis<br />
and Mrs Louiza Leventi and the officers of<br />
the German Archaeological Institute who<br />
came specially from Berlin for the ceremony.<br />
Professor Karageorgis referred to the background<br />
of the undertaking by the Leventis<br />
63
64<br />
Drawing: The Philippeion in Olympia, as it will be restored by the end of September 2005<br />
Foundation of the restoration programmes<br />
on the site of ancient Olympia, which are connected<br />
to the contribution of the Foundation<br />
to the cultural Olympiad. Professor Helmut<br />
Kirielais, former President of the German Institute,<br />
referred at length to the work of the<br />
Leventis Foundation, which revives the institution<br />
of the leitourgia (liturgy) which existed<br />
in ancient Greece.<br />
Mr Haris Leventis promised that the Foundation<br />
would continue its interest in projecting<br />
the monuments of Olympia, a site<br />
which has universal symbolism and value. Mr<br />
Leventis said inter alia:<br />
" The A.G. Leventis Foundation has as its primary<br />
aim the preservation and projection of<br />
Greek culture both in Greece and in <strong>Cyprus</strong>,<br />
and also everywhere else where it appears. Tangible<br />
examples of this culture are the monuments<br />
which stand stubbornly in the face of<br />
time and proclaim their beauty and spirituality,<br />
their ancestral achievements. The proposal<br />
for the partial restoration of monuments<br />
on the sacred site of Olympia was accepted<br />
with keenness and great pride by the Commissioners<br />
of the A.G. Leventis Foundation,<br />
this being too an example of the vision and<br />
the wisdom of my late brother, Constantinos<br />
Leventis.<br />
With the cooperation of the Ministry of Culture<br />
of Greece and of the German Archaeological<br />
Institute, one of the columns of the<br />
temple of Olympian Zeus has been restored<br />
and the partial restoration of the Philippeion<br />
is nearly finished. Without the peace and beauty<br />
of the environment of the archaeological<br />
site being affected, the monuments of Olympia<br />
have acquired a new breath of life and the visitor<br />
can visualise their size more easily.<br />
I warmly thank all those who contributed and<br />
worked with us, who with their knowledge,<br />
sensitivity and thought, brought the work we<br />
undertook to a successful conclusion. It was<br />
our contribution to the projection of Greece<br />
on the occasion of the Olympic Games, but<br />
their work will remain a possession for ever.<br />
Olympia is a symbol of peace and spirituality<br />
for the whole world. We consider therefore<br />
the opportunity given to us to contribute to<br />
its projection a great privilege. We thank the<br />
Minister of Culture for wishing to honour<br />
at this ceremony the contribution of the German<br />
Archaeological Institute and the Leventis<br />
Foundation."
Early <strong>Cyprus</strong>, Crossroads of the Mediterranean<br />
World scholarship is fortunate indeed to be<br />
enriched by a book on Cypriote archaeology<br />
which for the first time, has been published<br />
in four languages.<br />
In 2002 , the renowned publishing house in<br />
Milan, Electa Mandatori published Professor<br />
Vassos Karageorgis’ book "Cipro. Crovecia del<br />
Mediterraneo orientale, 1600 -500 a.C."<br />
In the same year , the book was circulated in<br />
an English translation :"Early <strong>Cyprus</strong>, Crossroads<br />
of the Mediterranean" by the Paul Ghetty<br />
Museum in Los Angeles, California and in<br />
Greek: "K‡appleÚÔ˜ ÙÔ Ù·˘ÚÔ‰ÚfiÌÈ Ù˘ AÓ·ÙÔÏÈ΋˜<br />
MÂÛÔÁ›Ԣ 1600-500 apple.X." by the Kapon<br />
publicatioms in Athens. In 2004, the above<br />
mentioned book was published in Spanish by<br />
the Bellaterra publishing house in Barcelona.<br />
The lavishly illustrated edition with a series<br />
of pictures that in themselves give a panoramic<br />
view of the covered period, deals with problems<br />
of Cypriote history and archaeology and<br />
the trade links the island had with neighbouring<br />
civilizations between 1600-500<br />
BC. It tracks the landmarks in the evolution<br />
Golden objects from Palaepaphos - Skales. <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
Geometric II period. Kouklia Museum<br />
of the island, mainly its Hellenization with<br />
the arrival of the Achaeans settlers that<br />
transformed <strong>Cyprus</strong> into a Greek-speaking<br />
land, and the trade links with the Syro-<br />
Palestinians, Egypt, Anatolia and the Aegean<br />
world.<br />
The Leventis Foundation purchased a number<br />
of copies of the Greek edition and distributed<br />
them gratis to the Universities and<br />
the Archaeological Departments of Greece.<br />
Similarly, copies were offered to the students<br />
of Archaeology at the University of <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
and the University of Athens.The remaining<br />
limited number of copies is available for college<br />
libraries. Persons interested in acquiring<br />
them should contact the "Anastasios G. Leventis<br />
Foundation", 40,Gladstonos Str.,Nicosia<br />
1095, phone: +357-22667706.<br />
65
66<br />
Concept and framework<br />
This year the Biennale of Venice is celebrating<br />
its 110th anniversary. On this occasion,<br />
the current President, Davide Croff commented<br />
that bearing such a heritage, this<br />
threshold, requires a new review of the historic<br />
role of the Biennale, a necessity to reinvent<br />
itself and reaffirm its positions in the<br />
international scene of contemporary art in<br />
the years to come.<br />
The event will feature two exhibitions. The<br />
first entitled The Experience of Art, curated<br />
by Maria de Corral explores the trends from<br />
recent years to the present; the second one,<br />
under the title Always a Little Further, is organised<br />
by Rosa Martinez and looks to the immediate<br />
future and the trends that are prefiguring<br />
the new scenarios.<br />
The Biennale of Venice<br />
12 <strong>June</strong> – 6 November 2005<br />
The Cypriot participation<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong>, a country on the periphery of Europe,<br />
is also undergoing a transitional period on different<br />
levels. As a new member of the extended<br />
European family, it is opening up to new<br />
discourses and new contexts with which to<br />
approach issues of contemporary art and society.<br />
The mobility of artists is increasing, creative<br />
exchange and cooperation between the<br />
two local communities seem to gradually<br />
bypass existing political obstacles.<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> is participating in the Venice Biennale<br />
with two artists: Panayiotis Michael and<br />
Konstantia Sofokleous. They were selected<br />
among 22 different entries, by Spanish curator<br />
Chus Martinez, who was invited to collaborate<br />
with the Ministry of Education and<br />
Culture in the framework of this Year’s national<br />
participation.<br />
Konstantia Sofokleous. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, video animation (still)
Panayiotis Michael. Preparatory installation for the work: I Promise, You Will Love Me Forever<br />
The presentation of <strong>Cyprus</strong>, under the general<br />
title Gravy Planet was held in the exhibition<br />
spaces of Palazzo Malipiero, on 9 <strong>June</strong>,<br />
2005 in the presence of the Minister of Education<br />
and Culture, Mr. Pefkios Georgiades,<br />
the Director of the Cultural Services of the<br />
Ministry, Dr. Eleni S. Nikita and the <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
Commissioner, Ms. Louli Michaelidou.<br />
The two artists’ works for the pavilion comprise<br />
drawings on paper, wall interventions<br />
and animations. Although the exhibition is<br />
based on two individual presentations, the<br />
project has a shared aim: to investigate mechanisms<br />
that allow us to locate our universe<br />
of private worries within the public sphere.<br />
By using an intimately personal language<br />
to describe and determine their own subjective<br />
universe, they are embarking on a<br />
challenging journey to make sense of the<br />
global environment, to define their own Gravy<br />
Planet, to create a space where new values<br />
acquire form.<br />
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and a Popular<br />
Children’s Poem are the two animated pieces<br />
on which Konstantia Sofokleous’ installation<br />
is based, together with a large series of wall<br />
drawings.<br />
Panayiotis Michael – under the general title<br />
of I Promise, You Will Love me Forever – has<br />
chosen different works on paper and murals<br />
that combine many issues, primarily focusing<br />
on how collective action produces public good.<br />
The artists<br />
Panayiotis Michael was born in Nicosia in<br />
1966. He studied Graphic Arts and Design<br />
67
at the Moscow Academic Art Institute, and<br />
Painting at Queens College, New York. Since<br />
1994 he has presented his work in many solo<br />
and group shows, in his home country and<br />
abroad. He has represented <strong>Cyprus</strong> in the<br />
Rijeka Biennale of Croatia (1998) and the<br />
20th Alexandria Biennale in Egypt (1999),<br />
where he was awarded the Jury Prize. Michael<br />
is co-founder of Artrageous, (www.artrageousgroup.com),<br />
an artist group created in<br />
2004 with the purpose of creating a socialpolitical<br />
manifestation that focuses on the role<br />
of the artist as an agent of public awareness<br />
within a contemporary art context. For the<br />
past few years, he lives and works in Nicosia.<br />
In Venice, the artist will be showing a series<br />
of drawing collages.<br />
Konstantia Sofokleous was born in Limassol<br />
in 1974. She studied Graphic Design at the<br />
Technological Education Institute of Athens<br />
and Internet Technologies at New York University.<br />
This year she is to conclude her Master’s<br />
Degree in Computer Animation at the University<br />
of Westminster, London. During the past<br />
few years she has participated in various European<br />
and international programmes for young<br />
artists. Since 1997 she has been working in<br />
the field of Graphic Design and Web and<br />
Multimedia Development. In Venice, Sofocleous<br />
will present two animation movies, traditional<br />
and experimental, as well as drawings<br />
and storyboards created during the<br />
production phase<br />
A 96-page publication – catalogue by Revolver<br />
Verlag containing articles signed by Chus<br />
Martinez, Lars Bong Larsen and Sarah Lowndes<br />
is being distributed at the exhibition hall.<br />
Panayiotis Michael. Detail from the work: I Promise,<br />
You Will Love Me Forever<br />
Konstantia Sofokleous<br />
Konstantia Sofokleous. Popular Children’s Poem,<br />
video animation.(Drawings)<br />
69
70<br />
Old newspapers and magazines are very interesting<br />
and always give me great pleasure when<br />
they happen to come into my hands. Through<br />
such publications, people who lived their life<br />
in times gone by come to life and I try to<br />
imagine myself, how it would have been if<br />
I had lived in the same period. Announcements,<br />
news, stories, other images, other eras.<br />
Some things appear incredible to me, strange,<br />
and others so lovely and enviable! I live for<br />
a little in those years when my father and<br />
grandfather were still very young or unborn,<br />
when time went by at a different pace, slowly<br />
and monotonously to us. My mind cannot<br />
grasp many events, they are completely<br />
incomprehensible. A quiet world without<br />
cars, without radio, without television, without<br />
the internet.<br />
It had never occurred to me, however, that it<br />
was possible I should come across a piece of<br />
news that I recognised as untrue. I had<br />
heard the story at first hand and it was different.<br />
At first I had not realised it, but gradually,<br />
with the passing of time, I set down<br />
bit by bit the findings of my memory and the<br />
information I got from older people and in<br />
The Dragoman’s Daughter<br />
Nicos Nicolaou-Hadjimichael<br />
Nicos Nicolaou Hadjimichael was born at Vasili,<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> in 1948. He studied Mathematics at<br />
the University of Athens. He published essays<br />
and short stories in Greek and Cypriot magazines.<br />
He had two one-man painting exhibitions<br />
and participated in several group exhibitions.<br />
He was awarded the State Prize for Literature<br />
(Short Story) for “The Dragoman’s<br />
Daughter”, published in 2003. He lives and<br />
works in Nicosia.<br />
the end I managed to complete the real story.<br />
I could not believe that the report in<br />
Neon Kition 10/22 October 1883 – 10 th October<br />
by the old calendar, 22 nd by the new – did<br />
not give the true version of the facts but had<br />
distorted them. Here is the report:<br />
"Last week there was nearly an unpleasant incident<br />
in the village Vassilika over a Christian<br />
woman who loved an Ottoman and after a<br />
few days abandoned him. The Ottoman, taking<br />
the insult badly, hired to help him eighteen coreligionists,<br />
who went armed at night to the<br />
woman’s village, to abduct her by force in the<br />
dark. But the Christians, learning of what was<br />
afoot in time, rang the church bell and immediately<br />
quite a number came running from the<br />
surrounding villages and obliged the Turks to go<br />
away humiliated, leaving the beautiful Eleni in<br />
her father’s house."<br />
How could I ever imagine that the beautiful<br />
Eleni of the report of 1883 had lived exactly<br />
opposite my house and I had seen her nearly<br />
every day. I used to take her a little food which<br />
my mother put on a plate. The plate - with a<br />
second, smaller one to cover it - was always<br />
wrapped in a napkin tied at the corners.
First the two diagonal corners of the napkin<br />
in a tight, double knot and then the other two,<br />
tied across more loosely, but again in a double<br />
knot.<br />
How could I imagine that the beautiful Eleni<br />
was the hundred year old Eleni who would sit<br />
all day on her stool, seeking a little conversation<br />
with passers-by or, more often, talking to<br />
and telling off her cats.<br />
When she saw me nearby, she would stand in<br />
the middle of the doorway and call me. She<br />
beckoned me to come close. For me, of course,<br />
playing was more important but she knew<br />
some tricks. She immediately embarked upon<br />
a story, and I liked stories. As soon as she<br />
was sure that I would keep her company for<br />
a while, she would go limping to the corner,<br />
tapping her stick on the marble, and opened<br />
a little door. She never let anyone see what was<br />
in the dark, little room. She took care that no<br />
cat went in and as she entered she turned<br />
her head to see if anyone was following her<br />
and closed the door. She always came out,<br />
however, holding an apple or soutzoukos*<br />
or a few hazelnuts or almonds.<br />
She commented on everything and especially<br />
the women who wore such short skirts.<br />
"Aaah!" she went, "These women of today!<br />
… God will punish them! Look! They should<br />
make their skirts down to here," and she pointed<br />
to her long white drawers, with elastic at<br />
the bottom of the legs, that covered her ankle.<br />
"A woman’s anklebone should not be visible."<br />
And she would make a movement with her<br />
hand as if to say "Modern women …" or "Who<br />
listens to me now!"<br />
"When I was young, there was no girl more<br />
beautiful than me. To save me from the Turks<br />
* A sweetmeat made from grape juice and nuts.<br />
they took me to Trikomo, to the Dragoman’s<br />
house. I stayed there a long time. Do<br />
you know where Trikomo is? You don’t. It’s a<br />
long way from the village. I went on foot with<br />
my father. He knew the way but we went by<br />
another route so they wouldn’t see us. We<br />
arrived at daybreak."<br />
The story stopped at the most critical moment.<br />
There were many tasks to be done in the village<br />
and mother or father always called me<br />
and the story was left in the middle.<br />
The next time the story started at some other<br />
part. It didn’t matter. What mattered was<br />
that someone was listening to her and punctuating<br />
the unending hours of her loneliness.<br />
"I was tall, strong, full of life and slender. I<br />
put the pitcher on my head, full of water from<br />
the spring, and carried it home without touching<br />
it with my hand, without it falling. No<br />
other girl in the village could do that, only<br />
me. Do you know where the village spring is,<br />
son? Have you ever been? You don’t know!<br />
Come, I’ll show you."<br />
And she would get up without waiting for an<br />
answer, limping, with he stick tapping on the<br />
marble, and I would follow her patiently. Every<br />
two or three steps she turned her head to make<br />
sure I was following. "Come, come and I’ll<br />
show you where the spring is." She went a little<br />
to the right of the oven and stopped.<br />
"Do you see that eucalyptus? The carob trees?<br />
That old poplar? Under that is the spring. You<br />
go one day and tell me if the water is still flowing.<br />
How can it have water now, son! They<br />
tell me our spring has dried up. But then it<br />
was perennial." And she made a circle with<br />
her hands to show how much water had flowed.<br />
"Off with you, you naughty hen. Go and<br />
eat some corn so you lay me an egg!" and<br />
she chased the hen off with her stick. "Our<br />
spring had a lot of water, my dear, but now?<br />
71
72<br />
You should have heard the birds! Like this!<br />
…" and, first putting the stick under her arm,<br />
she tapped the wrinkled tips of her fingers<br />
together, "tens of them. They came to drink<br />
the cool water. It was there the Turk saw me.<br />
I was very beautiful, son. His horse neighed<br />
and I noticed him. He tied his horse under<br />
the eucalyptus and came towards me with<br />
great strides. I wasn’t afraid of him. He came<br />
up to me and tried to get his hands on me but<br />
I got away from him. I was seventeen, like a<br />
wild goat. He couldn’t catch me. But I left the<br />
pitcher there."<br />
She stopped and looked at me, as if wondering<br />
whether she should be telling these stories<br />
to a child. "Ah, son, it’s getting dark." And<br />
she began to call "Cluck, cluck, cluck" to<br />
her hens to get them into the henhouse. She<br />
just had time to give me two eggs. I gave them<br />
to my mother saying "Cluck, cluck, cluck"<br />
and she smiled. "You’ve been listening to your<br />
story again today I see!"<br />
Two or three days later the same story.<br />
"Where did the Turk go, Grandma?"<br />
"What Turk, son?" She talked to me about<br />
other things and I tried to get to the bottom<br />
of her stories.<br />
"Ah! I loved Demetros. He was a very tall<br />
young man. I barely came up to his shoulder.<br />
He worked on his father’s land but he knew<br />
another craft as well. He made everything you<br />
see here: the wardrobe, the bed, the cupboards,<br />
the doors … I haven’t given his tools to anyone.<br />
When I die, whoever wants them can<br />
have them. As long as I live, they’ll remain just<br />
as he left them. It’s time I went to find him.<br />
It’s twenty years since he left me. I’ve had<br />
enough of being on my own. I’m tired. I can’t<br />
walk easily any more. When I’m ill, I sit and<br />
cry on my own all night and nobody hears<br />
me. I’ve only got these cats. Last night one<br />
of them, that black one, brought me a snake<br />
this big and I was scared. She held it and played<br />
with it till she killed it."<br />
"Grandma, where did the Turk go?"<br />
"I told Demetros, son, and he looked at me<br />
for along time and then he took me in his arms<br />
and his eyes filled at the thought I might have<br />
been harmed. Demetros worked his father’s<br />
fields, we weren’t to get married yet, and he<br />
sent a message to my father that he would take<br />
me into the fields as well for a time. The Turk<br />
wanted me, however, and they saw him going<br />
round the village. One day he caught me again<br />
at the spring. Do you know where the<br />
spring is, son, or shall I show you? But I was<br />
not his due. I threw the clasp-knife at him and<br />
scared him. I ran home. The village heard<br />
about it and everyone was in a ferment. I loved<br />
Demetros. You see this mirror? He carved it,<br />
day and night, day and night until he finished<br />
it. He made a vase of roses and over the roses<br />
some birds singing and vine leaves all around.<br />
He made the roses red and the birds blue. He<br />
ordered the glass from the town. No one<br />
else had such a mirror. He made it for me. He<br />
loved me very much and never said "No" to<br />
me. "I made it for you, sweetheart, for when<br />
you comb your hair, so you’ll always be beautiful."<br />
That’s what he used to say. "For the<br />
birds to sing while you’re combing your hair<br />
and make you always happy and for you to<br />
be as fresh as the roses." God bless him! I haven’t<br />
got a picture of him to look at but it doesn’t<br />
matter. I’ve got him in my mind."<br />
"What became of the Turk, Grandma?"<br />
"It was a night, son, I shall never forget as long<br />
as I live. They locked me up in the inner room<br />
but I found a way to see out. The villagers saw<br />
them coming in the distance holding torches<br />
and they rang the church bell. I could see<br />
Demetros, who was anxious and pacing up
and down like a wild animal in a cage, and I<br />
wanted to get him and go far away. I didn’t<br />
want anything to happen to him because of<br />
me. For when you’re in love, you’re equal to<br />
facing a thousand, not the eighteen who came<br />
that night! As soon as the village bell rang out,<br />
the bell of Ay’ Demetris could be heard as well.<br />
People gathered from three villages and<br />
waited for them. When the Turks were about<br />
two hundred yards away they urged on their<br />
horses to charge at the people, thinking that<br />
they would frighten them and scatter them.<br />
They fired a couple of pistol shots and shouted<br />
fiercely in Turkish, but we didn’t understand<br />
what they meant. But the people not<br />
only didn’t go, they began shouting at them,<br />
that they should be ashamed of themselves<br />
and go away. Demetros insulted the Turk, who<br />
was on his white horse, and told him that if<br />
he had any guts at all, he would throw down<br />
his weapon and dismount. The Turk rode two<br />
or three times round Demetros, as if he were<br />
sizing him up, but he didn’t have the courage<br />
to dismount. There were a lot of people and<br />
the Turks lost their nerve. I don’t know what<br />
came over them but they shouted out something<br />
in Turkish again and vanished. Someone<br />
who knew Turkish said they would come<br />
back. I saw Demetros give a sigh of relief<br />
and he lifted up his arms and gave thanks to<br />
God. He crossed himself three times. He<br />
was a brave fellow and his soul told him so. If<br />
the Turk had dared to dismount , he would<br />
have strangled him. He wouldn’t have escaped.<br />
I waited in the inner room until my father<br />
came after a short while and let me out.<br />
"Get ready quickly. We’re leaving," he said<br />
anxiously. He was holding a lantern and I saw<br />
that he, too, was upset. He told me to take a<br />
few clothes and we would leave. That’s what<br />
we did. He got his leather satchel, put in some<br />
bread and water and we set off. We were silent<br />
on the road. We didn’t talk at all. I kept thinking<br />
of Demetros. Before we set off, we went<br />
behind the house, he embraced me and kissed<br />
me, hugged me and I clung tightly to him and<br />
I didn’t want us to part. But my father was<br />
in a hurry. In the morning we reached the<br />
Dragoman’s house. Do you know where Trikomo<br />
is? It’s a long way from our village. I stayed<br />
at his house for eighteen months. He treated<br />
me like his daughter. In the end, that’s what<br />
they called me in the village – "the Dragoman’s<br />
daughter". However, after eighteen<br />
months he brought back himself in his carriage<br />
and handed me over to my father. I’m<br />
very tired. Help me to lie down on this bed,<br />
son, and you have my blessing."<br />
I left the old woman to her thoughts and headed<br />
for home, deep in thought myself.<br />
Many years have gone by since then. As<br />
soon as my eye fell on the report in the old<br />
newspaper, the bells of Ay’ Demetris and<br />
Ay’ Vassilios rang out. I began adding and subtracting:<br />
seventeen years, which was her age,<br />
plus seventeen up to 1900. Thirty four and<br />
sixty six: one hundred. Dear God, it’s her! Yes,<br />
it’s her!<br />
I collected the fragments of memory and<br />
put them in order. I ought now to write the<br />
real story, as I had heard it at first hand. I<br />
had an obligation. The truth had to be reestablished,<br />
albeit after one hundred and nineteen<br />
years. The beautiful Eleni never loved the<br />
Ottoman. Her only love was her Demetros,<br />
with whom she lived till ’37, and then survived<br />
as his widow for years. She died in ’66<br />
at the age of 100, on July 3rd , 1966. I remember<br />
it very well because the next day I was<br />
called up into the army. Troubles with the<br />
Turks had already begun again.<br />
73
74<br />
Symposium on European Culture<br />
The Minister of Education and Culture,<br />
Mr Pefkios Georgiades, took part with his<br />
counterparts of the 25 member-states of<br />
the European Union in the impressive event,<br />
organised by the French Ministry of Culture<br />
and Communication under the auspices<br />
of the President of France, Jacques<br />
Chirac, in Paris on 2nd and 3rd May 2005.<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> was represented by 18 Greek Cypriot<br />
and Turkish Cypriot artists, while 800<br />
artists and intellectuals of international<br />
repute from the whole of Europe participated,<br />
including the Spanish writer Jorge<br />
Semprun, the French philosopher Michel<br />
Serres, the directors Costas Gavras, Patrice<br />
Chéreau, J-J Annaud, Luc Besson, Arianne<br />
Mnouchkine and Pedro Almodovar, Marianne<br />
Faithfull, Jeanne Moreau, Alain<br />
Finkielkraut, Nana Mouskouri, Cyprien<br />
Katsaris and many others.<br />
The gathering of men and women of the<br />
intellect and the arts of Europe, with the<br />
presence of the French Ministers of Culture,<br />
Mr Renaud Donnadieu de Vabres,<br />
and of European Affairs, Mr Claudie Haigneré,<br />
and the Ministers of Culture of other<br />
European member-states, reflects the<br />
cultural diversity of the Union. "The European<br />
edifice is indisputably in its essence<br />
primarily cultural; the political edifice of<br />
Europe would not be possible without a<br />
common heritage which has its roots in<br />
common history. It is the wish of a group<br />
of peoples and states to share the same cultural<br />
ideals while remaining faithful to<br />
their own identities," confirmed the President<br />
of the Republic of France, Jacques<br />
Chirac.<br />
President Chirac also announced his immediate<br />
plans for the creation of institutions<br />
such as the European Library, the<br />
European Distinction of Cultural Heritage<br />
and an increase in funds to facilitate the<br />
movement of exhibitions between member-states,<br />
giving the assurance that "Europe<br />
will be at the vanguard of the struggle for<br />
the preservation of cultural diversity."<br />
During the conference the "Declaration<br />
for a Charter of Culture for Europe" was<br />
signed. In the Charter, the Ministers or<br />
representatives of the member-states of the<br />
EU express the conviction that "culture<br />
constitutes the foundation stone of the Europe<br />
in which we live" and that " it represents the<br />
primary dimension of the identity of the European<br />
citizen" and commit themselves to<br />
making culture "one of the priorities of the<br />
edifice of Europe."<br />
They also reaffirm the certainty that culture<br />
contributes to the lustre of Europe all<br />
over the world and the respect for cultural<br />
diversity and the traditions of the peoples<br />
of Europe, one of the aims of the EU.<br />
The Charter also reaffirms that the pro-
French President Jacques Chirac with the Minister<br />
of Education and Culture Pefkios Georgiades.<br />
tection of the wealth of the cultural and<br />
linguistic diversity of the European Union<br />
is a fundamental aim of the common Euro-<br />
Minister of Education at Bergen Meeting<br />
The Minister of Education and Culture, Mr<br />
Pefkios Georgiades, recently took part in the<br />
Ministerial Meeting in Bergen, Norway on<br />
the Bologna Process for the creation of the<br />
"European region of Higher Education".<br />
The meeting reviewed the progress of the<br />
Bologna Process for the period (2003-2005)<br />
sine the Berlin Meeting.<br />
The assessment presented at the meeting indicates<br />
that <strong>Cyprus</strong> has achieved a relatively<br />
high mark and the Minister expressed his<br />
particular satisfaction about this in his comments.<br />
In the course of the discussion, Mr<br />
Georgiades also stressed the importance of<br />
institutions of Higher Education being accountable<br />
to society and the State and the need<br />
to find ways of the more effective exploitation<br />
of available financial resources. The Minister<br />
also supported the position of Greece<br />
with reference to intermediate national qual-<br />
pean action, as the motto of the Union<br />
notes: "United in diversity".<br />
Finally, the conviction is expressed that the<br />
respect for and the active realisation of the<br />
principles which support the policy of the<br />
Union and its member-states which involve<br />
cultural and linguistic consequences "will<br />
be able to make culture a recognised political<br />
programme for Europe. This programme,<br />
which is based on the preservation and promotion<br />
of cultural diversity, will strengthen<br />
the sense of European identity, the consciousness<br />
of every European citizen that he or she belongs<br />
to a community of values, and his or her desire<br />
to build a common future with fellow humanbeings,"<br />
concludes the Declaration.<br />
ifications within the framework of the first<br />
course of studies.<br />
It was also decided to promote the interrelation<br />
of instruction and research, with special<br />
reference to the social dimension and<br />
the mobility of students and academics.<br />
It should be noted that the Bologna Process<br />
is acquiring increasing importance and aims<br />
at the creation of a unified European space of<br />
Higher Education, for comparability and<br />
mutual recognition of qualifications, and that<br />
45 countries already participate in it.<br />
The Minister of Education and Culture headed<br />
a five-member delegation to the meeting,<br />
composed of the Rector of the University of<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong>, Mr S. Zenios, the Senior Officer for<br />
Education, Mr Efst. Michael, the Cultural<br />
Attaché at the Permanent Representative of<br />
the Republic to the European Union, Mr Chr.<br />
Valanidou and the General Secretary of POFEN,<br />
Mr S. Lazarou.<br />
75
George Lanitis<br />
1936 - 2005<br />
Well-known columnist, photographer,<br />
filmmaker and cultural figure,<br />
George Lanitis passed away last May,<br />
at the age of 69. His untimely death<br />
was received with a profound sense<br />
of sorrow, for his enthusiasm and<br />
immense creativity in so many fields<br />
represented the generous, the intelligent,<br />
the artistic side of <strong>Cyprus</strong>.<br />
Born in Famagusta on 23 February,<br />
1936, he went to the Pancyprian<br />
Gymnasium for a classical secondary<br />
education and then studied<br />
Communication and Arts at the<br />
London College of Printing of the<br />
University of London.<br />
During his college years he was<br />
awarded the Associateship of the<br />
Royal Photographic Society and the<br />
Fellowship of the Royal Society of
78<br />
Arts. He also helped his professor, the wellknown<br />
artist Dennis Bowen, establish the<br />
first abstract art and photography gallery<br />
in London, the New Vision Centre of<br />
Marble Arch, where he and other contemporary<br />
photographers exhibited abstract<br />
photographs.<br />
He worked for The Times of <strong>Cyprus</strong> and the<br />
BBC. He was appointed Chief Cameraman,<br />
Film Director and Head of International<br />
and Public Relations of the <strong>Cyprus</strong> Broadcasting<br />
Corporation. He edited and published<br />
the <strong>Cyprus</strong> Diplomatist and for<br />
over 24 years he was the regular diarist of<br />
The <strong>Cyprus</strong> Weekly.<br />
As the age of seventeen, George Lanitis organised<br />
the first photographic exhibition to be<br />
held by a school in <strong>Cyprus</strong> at the Pancyprian<br />
Gymnasium. After his studies, back in<br />
his native island he had a one man show of<br />
photogrammes, a novelty at the time, selling<br />
all the pictures exhibited at high, for the first<br />
time, prices.<br />
With his great friend George Pol Georgiou,<br />
one of the important Cypriot painters, he travelled<br />
round the island which they got to know<br />
step by step. Lanitis’ sense of beauty and his<br />
ability to discover and depict it permanently<br />
in photography resulted in the publication of<br />
his first book Nasos tas Aphroditas, (Island of<br />
Aphrodite), a best seller at the time. It was<br />
upon meeting Henri Cartier-Bresson that<br />
Lanitis decided to become a photojournalist<br />
and immortalised with his Leica some of the<br />
most remarkable personalities of the 20th century<br />
(Winston Churchill, General De Gaulle,<br />
Nehru, Mao Tsedong, Indira Ghandi, Pablo<br />
Picasso, Marilyn Monroe, Lawrence Olivier<br />
and Queen Elisabeth II).<br />
He attended postgraduate refreshment<br />
studies: Creative Photography under Prof.<br />
Dr. Otto Steiner at the Folkwangschule für
Gestaltung at Essen Werden and read and<br />
learned cinema at the Deutsche Film – und –<br />
Fernsehakademie in West Berlin.<br />
In 1974, with the Turkish invasion he lost his<br />
house at Bellapais and thousands of negatives,<br />
his archives, his collection of photographs, his<br />
The hills of Ayia Anna<br />
equipment, his books, his antiques, practically<br />
a whole life. He gave up photography<br />
professionally for several years as an expression<br />
of his sadness, disappointment and sense<br />
of injustice. He then moved to the Hilton<br />
hotel in Nicosia which was the only place<br />
where you could get a telex connection<br />
overseas. It was during this period that he was<br />
asked to set up a Press and Information Office<br />
at the <strong>Cyprus</strong> High Commission in London<br />
where he did an excellent job keeping the British<br />
Press so eloquently informed.<br />
In 1978, he organised the first Commonwealth<br />
Exhibition of Photography at Edmonton,<br />
Canada during the Commonwealth Games.<br />
Many heads of state were impressed and paid<br />
high tribute to the cultural manifestation of<br />
Edmonton and, as a result, laid the foundation<br />
of the Commonwealth Arts Organisation.<br />
George Lanitis was unanimously elected<br />
Secretary General. In this capacity he advised<br />
governments and art institutions at the same<br />
79
80<br />
Stavrovouni, from my garden<br />
time organising exhibitions and seminars in<br />
Canada, Africa, India, Australia, Hong<br />
Kong etc. He instigated the Commonwealth<br />
Photography Prize.<br />
Founding the <strong>Cyprus</strong> Photographic Society,<br />
of which he served as President he succeeded<br />
in putting <strong>Cyprus</strong> on the international map of<br />
photography. He was honoured with the highest<br />
distinction of Maître de la Fédération Internationale<br />
de l’ Art Photographique (MFIAP).<br />
For his film communication he was awarded<br />
the First Prize for best documentary at the Thessaloniki<br />
Film Festival. For his film on Sinai and<br />
Saint Catherine he was made Chevalier of<br />
the Order of Saint Catherine.<br />
During the last years of his life George Lanitis<br />
was working on his own ideas of movement<br />
and colour within the limitations of still<br />
photography. This work was exhibited in his<br />
own gallery, L’ Artiste Assoiffé in the village<br />
of Psevdas.<br />
In 2004 the President of the Republic of <strong>Cyprus</strong><br />
awarded George Lanitis the highest cultural<br />
distinction for his contribution to the Arts. In<br />
a special ceremony at Famagusta Gate Cultural<br />
Centre in Nicosia, the Minister of<br />
Education and Culture, Pefkios Georgiades<br />
presented him the insignia of the Aristeion for<br />
Excellence in Arts and Letters.<br />
An additional evidence of recognition by<br />
the Ministry of Education and Culture for the<br />
significant contribution made by George Lanitis<br />
in the field of Arts was the publication of<br />
the album George Lanitis – 50 Years of Photography<br />
that came out a few days before his<br />
passing.<br />
His numerous friends will remember him as<br />
a bon-viveur, an enthusiastic wine connoisseur,<br />
an avid gardener, a dedicated animal protector<br />
a great story-teller with a unique sense<br />
of humour. He will be dearly missed, as will<br />
his <strong>Cyprus</strong> Weekly column. The Editorial<br />
Board of <strong>Cyprus</strong> <strong>Today</strong> offers its deepest sympathy<br />
to the family.