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- Ελληνικά
It is a great pleasure to be in the exceptional space of the Smokehouse, a landmark of Athenian topography, for the presentation of the art installation "Spectators in a ghost City". The project represented Cyprus at the 15th World Exhibition of Performing Arts Design and Space in Prague in 2023, known as the Quatrienale, where it won the Grand Prix Golden Triga of the International Jury, among 100 other creative teams and 2000 artists from 59 countries.
This is perhaps the most important distinction in the field of performing arts design and a unique honour for Cyprus and for all those who contributed to the creation of this essential work, which highlighted Cypriot art and culture on the international art scene.
This participation of Cyprus in last year's Prague Quatriennale, in which our country has been participating continuously since 1991, gathering various distinctions from time to time, took place under the responsibility of the Cyprus Theatre Organisation, with the theatrologist Marina Maleni as curator, the visual artist and set designer Melita Kouta in artistic research and visual installation, and with the collaboration of the set designer and director Haris Kafkaridis.
The main theme of the Quadrennale was about the concept of the "rare", i.e. the raw realities that an artist creates, inviting the audience to envision how the world and theatre could be in the future. This theme gained particular momentum after the new realities that have emerged in our time after the pandemic.
The curatorial team decided to use the occupied Famagusta as a point of reference and starting point, a very rare and special case indeed. The ghost town that has remained closed, abandoned and mute for half a century, as a result of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, is presented here from a different perspective. A city without human presence, inaccessible, which through this artistic intervention opens its doors to thousands of visitors from all over the world to live a peculiar, unique and charged experience.
The artwork includes experimental sculptural models, sound works and performances, which speak in a different way about trauma, its components and possibly the attempt to heal it.
The art installation brings back the pain and mixed memories of the Famagusta people, who in 1974 were forced to leave the land that gave birth to them, to them and to their ancestors. It brings to light the faint memories of the city of Famagusta and what happened there before 1974. At the same time, it evokes the feelings of all refugees around the world, and reflects the universal human fear of war.
The horrors of war reflected in the play continue to affect our world today, from Ukraine to our neighbourhood next door in the Eastern Mediterranean region. And in doing so, the visual art inspires us even more deeply, reinforcing our need to seek peace and a better and more just world.
I am delighted that this important work is returning to Athens, after its first presentation last December in the same city, and even here, in the exemplarily renovated building of the former Smokehouse. This emblematic architectural monument is undoubtedly the ideal venue for the presentation of the work to the wider Greek public, all the more so because it is now inextricably linked to the Greek Parliament.
I would therefore like to thank the Greek Parliament and its President, His Excellency Mr. Tassoulas for this invitation, which particularly honours Cyprus and its artists, and at the same time acquires substantial and strong symbolic implications in the context of the 50th anniversary of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. I congratulate once again the creators of the work for this great success, which is a source of inspiration and pride for all of us.
I would like to conclude with a reference to the rationale behind the awarding of the work, as formulated by the international jury: "...scenography can raise compelling questions and meditate on local issues of memory, absence and presence that nevertheless resonate globally...". The same committee declared that this work "....suggests the rare possibility of hope."
I wholeheartedly hope that this hope, with which art steadily feeds us, will one day become a reality.
Thank you.
(EP/EATH)
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