IAmWhereYouAre
Participants: VeronikaAntoniou, AlessandraSwiny, YiorgosHadjichristou, MatthieuTercieux, DespoPasia, StefanosPanteli, AnastasiosBalabanides, EvdokiaDemetriou, JoseLuna
The works of additional Participants will be selected through two Open Calls
Commissioners: Republic of Cyprus, Ministry of Education and Culture
Curators:
Veronika Antoniou_Architect, Urbanist, Co-Founder and Managing Director of the NGO Urban Gorillas
Yiorgos Hadjichristou _Architect, Professor University of Nicosia, Board Director of the NGO Urban Gorillas
Alessandra Swiny_Architect, Head of the Department of Architecture, University of Nicosia
Organizers and other collaborators (please specify the qualification)
Urban Gorillas (NGO), Cyprus Architects Association, University of Nicosia, CCMC Bi-Communal Media Studio, Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, ‘Cyprus from Air’ (NGO), MOI Worldwide Company, Teresa Ditadi (organizer)
Supporters
Republic of Cyprus, Ministry of Education and Culture, University of Nicosia, Nice Day
TEXTS
• Long text
I Am Where You Are
Yiorgos Hadjichristou, Alessandra Swiny, Veronika Antoniou
“We call upon voices of resistance. We challenge the globalization of the built environment. We accentuate the crafting of humanitarian constructed fragments. We augment the simplicities of everyday rituals. We note the synergy of the untouched and the harnessed environment. We record an interwoven scenography of nature and the human condition”.
Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
‘I Am Where You Are’is a platform for communication. By highlighting, questioning and then deconstructing sets of binaries (key to cultural perception in and about Cyprus), we disengage from convention. Multiplicities, found in between these binaries, “built_unbuilt, tradition_modernity, Island of Love_place of conflict, immigration_local identity”, are revealed in the pavilion, allowing unexpected experiences to be celebrated.
Architecture is the mediator and the lens used to investigate these often-unnoticed conditions. We focus on the importance of the architectural section. The Pavilion show-cases significant contemporary innovative projects, and incorporates important ancient and vernacular works. We collapse notions of time/space and presence/non-presence, utilizing digital and interactive means. The physicality of the body of the visitor dissolves, as it is enveloped in a wearable apparatus and immersed into a moving-scape of simultaneous projections.
‘I Am Where You Are’,because we are constantly moving and shifting, both physically and digitally. We continuously transform, therefore, ‘I encompass some of what you are and you encompass some of what I am’. The Cyprus Pavilion becomes a transmitter and a receiver: within the exhibit, visitors interact with people in Cyprus and are transported virtually in space and time into the Cypriot context. Different languages, customs, cultures etiquette and built form we experience on a daily basis mix and merge They bring into focus that which differentiates, connects and binds us together.
• Short text
I Am Where You Are
We call upon voices of resistance. We accentuate the crafting of humanitarian constructed fragments. We augment the simplicities of everyday rituals. We note the synergy of the untouched and the harnessed environment. We record an interwoven scenography of nature and the human condition.
‘I Am Where You Are’is a platform for communication. The Cyprus Pavilion becomes a transmitter and a receiver. By highlighting, questioning and deconstructing sets of binaries (key to cultural perception in and about Cyprus), we disengage from convention. We collapse notions of time/space and presence/non-presence, utilizing digital and interactive means. Multiplicities, found in between the binaries, are revealed in the pavilion, allowing coexistence to flourish. Architecture is the mediator and the lens used to investigate often unnoticed conditions. The physicality of the body of the visitor dissolves, as it is enveloped in a wearable apparatus and immersed into a moving-scape of simultaneous projections.
5 Images:
1.Authors:
Drawing by Stefanos Pantelis, Collage by Anastasis Balabanides
Concept: Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
Work’s title: ‘Constructed rituals’
Year: 2018
Technique: Ink hand drawing, mixed media collage, model
Size: 30cm x 120cm
2. Author: Stefanos Pantelis
Concept: Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
Work’s title: ‘Crafted Scenographies’
Year: 2018
Technique: Ink hand drawing
Size: 37cm x 45cm
3.Authors:
Collage by Evdokia Demetriou
Concept: Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
Work’s title: ‘Shadows & Stairs”
Year: 2018
Technique: Mixed media collage
Size: 300cm x 2300cm
Name of Photographers: Yiorgos Hadjichristou, NGO Urban Gorillas, Teresa Ditadi
Courtesy: Thompson, John, Through Cyprus with the Camera in the Autumn of 1878, Free of Copyright
4.Authors:
Collage by Jose Luna
Concept: Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
Work’s title: ‘The Milk Maid & a White Flamingo’
Year: 2018
Technique: Mixed media collage
Size: 300cm x 2300cm
Name of Photographers: Yiorgos Hadjichristou, NGO Urban Gorillas, Teresa Ditadi
Courtesy: Thompson, John, Through Cyprus with the Camera in the Autumn of 1878, Free of Copyright
5.Authors:
Collage by Anastasis Balabanides
Concept: Curators of the Cyprus Pavilion
Work’s title: ‘Human Topographies_ Emerging Identities’ reloaded
Year: 2018
Technique: Photo collage
Size: 50cmx250cm
Name of Photographers: Yiorgos Hadjichristou, Ourania Apserou
Courtesy: Cyprus Pavilion at the Milano Triennale,2016 Curated by: Alessandra Swiny, Veronika Antoniou and Yiorgos Hadjichristou. Additional Team members: Christiana Karamalli, Yiorgos Papiotis, Ourania Apserou
Photos: Curators Cyprus Pavilion_ A.Swiny, Y.Hadjichristou, V.Antoniou