DISPLAYS OF HISTORY
Displays of History (2018)
Under a deep red morocco with a gilt letterpress title, the book Lawrence Cesnola’s Collection, Cyprus Antiquities, excavated by Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola, 1876-1879 comprises 60 albumen photographs and silk moiré endpapers with printed English text. Bearing on the current debates around collection, classification, documentation and display of Cypriot archaeology and the significance of such practices in the formation of the cultural identity in Cyprus, my project takes a close examination of the rare album. I focus on the representation and materiality of the album, in order to question the motives behind the accumulation of knowledge around Cypriot archaeology; the rationale for collecting, evaluating and displaying Cypriot antiquities worldwide; as well as the strategies of representation employed in the documentation of the artefacts at the time.
EXHIBITION
AR(T)CHAEOLOGY
Intersections of Photography and Archaeology
NiMAC | NICOSIA, CYPRUS
19 October 2018 – 12 January 2019
Curators: Elena Stylianou, Artemis Eleftheriadou, and Yiannis Toumazis.
Artists: Victoria Ahrens, Peter Ainsworth, Charalambos Artemis & Alexandra Manglis, Nicolas Lambouris, Wiebke Leister, Adam O’Meara, Zé Barretta, Kyriaki Costa, Marina Kassianidou, Efi Savvides, Stephen Vaughan, Michal Baror, Armenoui Kasparian Sairadari, Thomas Nicolaou, Sara Sallam, Lena Séraphin & Andrea Meinin Bück, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Andreas Papallas & Thomas Aquilina.
This collaborative project seeks to investigate the relationship between archaeology and contemporary art photography. It involves meetings with international artists, a roundtable discussion, a visual publication and an exhibition, all aiming to critically negotiate issues such as the fabrication of narratives and the possibility of re-imagining history, the construction of archives and their politics, and processes of tracing and collecting.
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