A territory without terrain

Efi Savvides’ solo exhibition A Territory Without Terrain has opened at the Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery presenting a series of works dealing with the life of political refugees at Richmond Village in the Dhekelia base.

Over the last decade, Savvides’ practice has centred around producing socially engaged art – a form of art that also serves as a means of contributing to public conversations and as commentary on issues of social responsibility. One of the questions arising from the exhibition asks how the experience of refugeehood, and its precarious transitory human condition of anticipation, is translated and mediated in art. Those who work closely with communities of asylum seekers, refugees and migrant workers continuously bring to the fore the unjust treatment of these populations with the aim of ensuring that their stories are not forgotten or concealed.

Alongside the personal and family stories of the people of Richmond, Savvides’ lens and the way she presents the lives of people there reveal the absence of social cohesion and the ignorance allowed by our civic structure. Richmond and its territory are the repositories of a narrative for very real and current spatial, but also human relations. Savvides’ work makes visible and restores stories situated in a territory without terrain.

Savvides aims to help the community accomplish a common goal, raise awareness, encourage conversations on related issues and above all develop human bonds. Her socially engaged art does not act as a tool of interference but rather as one that invents a form allowing communities to have a life of their own.

A territory without terrain includes texts by Tegiye Birey, Olga Demetriou, Alkis Hadjiandreou and Christos Hadjioannou, offering multiple readings of the stories of Richmond and Savvides’ work. The exhibition is further accompanied by a publication of the same name, with contributions by the abovementioned authors. The exhibition coincides with World Refugee Day and is part of a list of events organized by the UNHCR and other institutions in Cyprus.

A Territory Without Terrain

Solo exhibition by Efi Savvides. Until September 4. Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery, Larnaca. Monday-Friday: 10am-1pm, 4-7pm. Saturday: 10am-1pm. Tel: 24-658848