It’s a long way from Chirokitia to Mars: Cyprus at the Venice Biennale

How the ancient settlement of roundhouses in the Cyprus village of Chirokitia could provide the blueprint for sustainable living on Mars is the focus of the Cyprus stand at the upcoming Venice Biennale.

Titled From Chirokitia to Mars, the island’s participation will look at the first community dwellings of the Cyprus Neolithic period, in particular those in Chirokitia, where remains dating from 7,500 BC were found.

The idea behind the opus is to try to understand how the remains of an autonomous self-sufficient settlement can be used to address issues of social sustainability within a humanistic and cultural context.

It is based on the premise that social sustainability can be attained through means of collaboration and common awareness. The aim is to activate spaces in a three-dimensional and temporal manner to induce values of social and egalitarian participation.

The message is that social sustainability mainly concerns the creation and maintenance of the quality of life for people within a society, emphasising psychological and physical health, while encouraging people to contribute to society as a whole and develop relationships within it.

The Chirokitia settlement, as it turns out, was such a an example, containing socio-political elements of an egalitarian society with no evidence of warfare or competition going on at the time.

The presentation proposes that the settlement could be used as a model for designing communities on Mars, where social sustainability will be key to the survival of any colony.

The show asks whether the primitive paradigm of the Neolithic period could model the future of architectural design, and whether new settlers, scientists, and space navigators could successfully bring to completion a future project of community living on another planet.

“Our proposal is taking you through matter, time and space!” its curators said.

“A voyage channelled by the stars can take you anywhere. Indeed, this describes the voyage of the early Neolithic travellers from the mainland to the coasts of Cyprus, by these courageous wanderers searching for their future homeland. Will this be the solitary salvation of humankind?”

The proposal has been put together by Petros Lapithis, Lia Lapithi, Nikos Kouroussis and Ioanna Ioannou Xiari with the input of the Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation (CSEO). The Biennale will run from May 20 to November 26.