Fenced town of Famagusta show to open by the sea

While life buzzes in the popular summer town of Ayia Napa, an important art exhibition arrives at the central Thalassa Museum dedicated to the fenced town of Famagusta. The exhibition will be inaugurated on Friday, coinciding with Ayia Napa’s Famagusta Remembrance Day.

Running until August 31, the exhibition includes works by well-known and established artists, older and contemporary. The former, having known and lived in Famagusta, document their experiences visually, while the latter express themselves based on what they learned from a distance about Cyprus’ sea-kissed city, their recent visits to the occupied territories and the enduring hope of return.

The paintings of Giorgos Skoteinos and Elena Sarri Varnava, the video of Lia Lapithi, the ceramic by Panagiotis Pasantas, the installation of Elina Theodotou and Marios Theophilidis, as well as the photographs of George Pantazis and Katia Christodoulou formed the section dedicated to Famagusta in an exhibition hosted last spring by the House of Representatives.

“The present exhibition,” organisers say, “is complemented by an important work of Andreas Ladommatos, which for the first time the artist has lent to an exhibition beyond his studio. The painting was executed in November 1974. Its basic composition draws on a shocking photograph by the celebrated London-based Cypriot photographer Doros Partasides. It shows a dead young man hanging upside down from the mezzanine of the Salaminia Tower Hotel in Famagusta, documenting in the most graphic manner the brutality of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Along with Ladommatos’ painting, the original photograph by Doros Partasides will also be exhibited.”

Exhibition for the Fenced Area of Famagusta

Group exhibition curated by Maria Paphiti. July 7-August 31. Thalassa Museum, Ayia Napa. Opening night: 8pm. Monday and Saturday: 9 am – 2 pm. Tuesday – Friday: 9 am – 5 pm. Tel: 23-816366