Filenews 6 December 2020 - by Dora Christodoulou
An "open museum", through the construction and placement of works of art by artists in public places, have been seen by residents and visitors almost everywhere in Paphos for the last three years. This special "museum" was recently put in our homes via a television device OPAP, which uses as a basic motif in its new advertising campaign the sculpture, with the girl figure and the sparrow, which overlooks the view from the square of the Paphos Provincial Administration and which in the advertisement "communicates" with the little girl who observes it with admiration.
It is one of the most important heritage projects of the Organization for the European Capital of Culture Paphos 2017, with the projects already placed in the port area of Kato Paphos having been transformed into a attraction for visitors to Paphos.
The project "Marks in Time and Space" includes a total of 12 works, which were placed in various parts of the city, thus creating an open museum in the city.
A geometric marble installation the "Views of Infiniteness" by Charis Paspallis, the symbol of Cyprus, Aphrodite on a rock as the "Other Sun" of Yota Ioannidos and the red "Paparouna" of Andreas Paraskevas that emerges between the Lighthouse and the sea, are the three works that have been installed first in strategic points of the city, on the western coastal front of Kato Paphos , giving her another interesting perspective.
Nine more sculptures followed – installations in the area of Kato Paphos. The interventions of artists who have already installed works are complemented by Andreas Makarios, Umit Inatcsi and Dimitris Makarios who created sculptures and visual works in open spaces, giving a new dimension to the open culture factory as an idea but also further development in the philosophy of the "Open Museum".
As announced by the European Capital of Culture Paphos 2017, at that time of the cultural boom of Paphos, the ambition with these projects is to put Paphos on the map of those cities with interesting and charming reference points for both its inhabitants and visitors.
Speaking today to "F" the artist Yota Ioannidos, whose artistic interventions now adorn many areas of the center of Paphos and the tourist area, stressed that the work is part of the artistic proposal "Signs in Time and Space", proposed and approved by Paphos 2017 by the Art de Fact team.
"The proposal concerns the search for the cultural tradition of myth and archetypal historical memory and their evolution into artistic interventions in space, so as to be the sourdough for the creation of a permanent "Modern Open Museum of Art" with new markings and semantics," he explains. "The visual artists, the direct relationship with the general public do not have it. There is usually a limited audience in galleries and museum spaces. An audience that works, either by levering its need to admire, or to see and experience what the work emits. There is a big difference in a work that is exhibited in a public space and in an interior space, galleries, museums. Galleries and museums are for me research spaces where you talk more with colleagues or art experts or with people who are introduced to visual pursuits. You can have a dialogue at expert level.
But when it's in the public domain, things change radically. You have the cultural reality to face. You're trying to put your hand in a real space, so the dialogue you're opening isn't with the experts, it's directly with the general public and with the transverse power. When you do an exhibition in a gallery, in a museum, art people have an ideological approach to art each and a place limited to the objectively correct. So dialogue isn't hedonistic, it doesn't have the hedonistic element. Whereas with the world there is this relationship. Abroad, art for the public is something of a natural phenomenon, perhaps even necessary."
Her idea, stresses Mrs. Ioannidos, is based on the cultural stratification of the place and space especially. What concerned me from the moment the idea of the sculpture began,she explains, was whether it could be incorporated into the lives of the inhabitants of this city.
"This important relationship with the public has troubled me enough to wonder: who am I to come into your space and impose my opinion on you," she stresses. "The work should have a connection with what we call the historical stratification or cultural status of the space. So I started thinking about how I could make the work come about, get out of space and not me put the work in space. The artist becomes a medium, so he will have to understand what is happening in the area where he puts his work. This, of course, is determined by the place where the sculpture will be placed. It's the energy emitted in an invisible way that pushes you to complete your work.
When you start with a stimulus that for us Pafites could be the Medieval Castle, next to the port and the archaeological site, you have a creation plan. This also determines your own artistic reason in relation to the final image of the work. In the course of implementation, random events often determine the end result. And where you say as a creator it's over, you deliver it to his world."
Modern Aphrodite in the Medieval Castle
The area next to the Medieval Castle, within an archaeological site already has enough energy, capable of supporting its importance, says Yota Ioannidos.
"Information a lot, experiences so much more," she stresses. "It is the city where I was born and the place I first observed artistically. One understands when one finds himself in the place where the sculpture of modern Aphrodite was installed next to the Medieval Castle, the sea and the rest of the archaeological site, that the energy of the work is outside the work. So it matters what the play does to you, not its carving, or its detail or its material. You don't say what a nice carving. So he's out of his stuff. And you feel the energy behind you, beside you, you feel your senses affected."
22 pigeons ready for the unknown
The "open museum" of Paphos is no longer limited to central points of the upper city or tourist area. The road opened by those first works of the artists, follow other creations that now enter the houses of the city. A typical example of which are the "fixed pigeons", which have been adorning Mrs. Ioannidos' private space for some time.
Pinned pigeons, waiting for the time of freedom, optimism, wandering and changing course. With these words she explains her work, Yota Ioannidos. The 22 pigeons placed in the courtyard of her residence, made of mashed paper, have, she stresses, the symbolic concept of fluttering for the unknown, which was once certain, necessary and inevitable.
This new and impressive work by Yota Ioannidos has been created in quarantine conditions, hence the title of "Art in difficult times. Birds, March April 2020".
"The work was created on the occasion of the symbolic character of the dove and the optimism of tomorrow," stressed the artist. "When a project operates in its space, it creates energy, culture, culture and discussions as it activates the senses. This is also the goal of art, to activate the questions and answers that come from the world in order to create culture."
