Mountains turned upside down

Local and international artists present an exhibition in the Solea Valley finds ELENI PHILIPPOU

It is not often that Galata village in the Solea Valley is the host of an art exhibition that presents the work of Cypriot and international artists but that is exactly what is happening this August. The artist-led project Settlements hosts an exhibition this month at two locations, curated by a group of artists from Cyprus and abroad.

The Mountains Up-Side Down showcase features works of Vicky Pericleous (CY), Burchhard Garlichs, (DE), Demetris Neokleous (CY), Kyriakos Kallis (CY), Michael Nicolaides (DE), Nika Span (DE/SI), Panikos Tempriotis (CY) and Stephanos Karambambas (GR) that the public can view from August 13 to 20 at Rodous΄ Watermill and Aeriko.

“This artist-led research project,” say organisers, “focuses on the development and curation of art contexts, situations and exhibitions that engage with multiple mediums, technologies and modalities, in order to re-negotiate spatiotemporal disputes around a variant of biopolitical landscapes, and in respect to their currency today.

“This first exhibition Mountains Up-Side Down, is proposed as an open-ended site-specific installation in the spaces of Aeriko and Rodous’s Watermill in the village of Galata, which stresses physically and perceptually, across Klarios or Karkotis river and meets contextually the communities of the wider region and lands of Troodos area.

“These places are re-approached as spaces of alternative expressions and transformative contemplations on hetero-temporalities and on patterns of life, death and re-birth in respect to the biopolitical landscape(s) of the wider region and of the Troodos’ communities and territories; looking into how this landscape grows, elsewhere and how it interacts with the Other.

“The installation of the artworks in these territories both indicates and seeks the rising of an – other- community. However, temporal within the context of a visual exhibition, it embeds at the same time, witnesses of the biopolitical layers, narratives and spatiotemporal remains of the valley of Solea and Troodos area.”

Within the exhibition’s purpose, and the wider project’s, it aims to move from a local to a trans-local development and understanding, seeking to create patterns of alternative economies of life and production that can include more communities and places.

On the opening day, a lecture by Dr. Anastasia Hamatsou will be given at 11am titled Intertemporal-diachronic peculiarities of the Cyprus Olympus, while at 12.30 a guided tour of the exhibition will be offered by the participant artists.

Mountains Up-Side Down

Group art exhibition by the artist-led project Settlements. Featuring Cypriot and international artists. August 13-20. Rodous΄s Watermill and Aeriko, Galata. Opening at 11am