Presentation of Venice Biennale Cyprus Pavillion
Hosted by the UNIC Department of Architecture
The UNIC Department of Architecture will host a presentation of the Pavilion representing the Republic of Cyprus at the 16th International Architectural Exhibition Biennale Architettura di Venezia 2018 at an event on 24 October 2018 at 7 pm, at the [ARC] Architecture Research Centre.
In addition, the event will feature three book presentations: “Green Urban Lab – Activating Public Spaces” (editors: V. Antoniou, R. Carraz, Y. Hadjichristou); “In_Out Crisis – Unit 5” (tutors: A. Swiny, N, Christou , M.Georgiou, Y. Hadjichristou); and “I Am Where You Are” (editors A. Swiny, V. Antoniou, Y. Hadjichristou).
The Venice Biennale is one of the most important cultural events in the world for more than 120 years. It is reminded that Alessandra Swiny, former Head of the Department of Architecture at the University of Nicosia, George Hadjichristou, Professor of the Department of Architecture at the University of Nicosia and member of NGO’s Board of Directors Urban Gorillas, and Veronika Antoniou, architect, urban planner, co-founder and NGO Director Urban Gorillas, were selected to represent Cyprus at the Exhibition (26 May to 25 November), as curators of the Cyprus Pavilion, with the proposal “I Am Where You Are”.
‘I Am Where You Are’ is a platform for communication. By highlighting and questioning sets of binaries, key to cultural perceptions in and about Cyprus, we disengage from convention. A multiplicity of other, ‘freespaces’, is revealed in the pavilion, these are seen as the ‘in-between’ and are set in contrast to binaries, such as the“built_unbuilt, tradition_modernity, Island of Love_place of conflict, migration_locality”, allowing unexpected experiences to be celebrated.
Architecture is the mediator and the lens used to investigate these often-unnoticed conditions. The Pavilion show-cases significant contemporary innovative projects and incorporates important historical and vernacular works. We collapse the 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 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: visitors are transported through the images found in the pavilion into the Cypriot context, and virtually interact with the people and built environments of Cyprus through an interactive video art piece. Different languages, customs, cultures, etiquette and built forms we experience on a daily basis mix and merge. They bring into focus that which differentiates, connects and binds us together.
The event will be addressed by the President of the Association of Architects of Cyprus, Christos Christodoulou, and the Director of Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, Mr Pavlos Paraskevas.
For bookings and relevant information, please call: 22842601 or email [email protected].
