Performances in the museum

As spaces for artistic expression, museums not only host exhibitions but also sometimes performances. Majestic State Gallery in Nicosia welcomes two artists to its grounds this July who will present two performances, each with an individual theme.

On Thursday, the Gallery will host a performance on motherhood by Petros Konnaris. The piece is titled The Only Thing That Matters is How Much You Love and was initiated as part of the Moving the New 2020 programme of the Dance House Lemesos, premiering at the Open House Festival 2021.

It is a tribute to the people who long to care and to the ones who did not receive enough care. Presented as a performative lecture, Kounnaris looks at the local systems as well as the social norms and conditions of child adoption for a queer man.

The piece will take place in two parts, starting at 7pm with a durational act next to the artworks Virtuous Fruits of the Earth by Loukia Nikolaidou and Second Letter to Mother by Antis Ioannides, on the first floor of the Gallery. The second part of the evening will begin at 8pm in the garden of the Gallery with the performance. Upon entering the space, homemade watermelon soup will be given to spectators.

Later on in the month, on July 21, a dance piece will be presented on the Gallery’s second floor by movement and performance artist Belinda Papavasiliou. Titled Around and Αbout: A dance work for the State Gallery of Contemporary Art, the piece is a dance work and an ongoing practice rather than an event or a project.

“It is a physical practice exploring what alternative realities the body could open up in the gallery space alongside art objects and through the encounter of the work with the spectators,” say the organisers. “The practice questions whether movement and presence can stand next to artworks without hierarchy, negotiating pathways into creating space rather than moving in between, while perpetually revealing new spatial and material relations.

“The performance,” they conclude, “is a durational site-responsive work inviting the spectator to witness the performance at the time they arrive when they happen to visit the gallery. Visitors are welcome to stay for as long as they wish.”

The Only Thing that Matters is How Much You Love

Performance on motherhood by Petros Konnaris. July 14. Majestic State Gallery, Nicosia. 7pm. Free. Tel: 22-458228

Around and Αbout: A Dance Work for the State Gallery of Contemporary Art

Piece by Belinda Papavasiliou. July 21. Majestic State Gallery, Nicosia. 10am- 4.45pm. Free. Tel: 22-458228