Beneath the unsettled sky

The Lefteris Economou Cultural Foundation will present the first institutional solo exhibition of the artist Anastasia Mina this week. The exhibition at Garage Art Space running from Saturday to December 2 presents several series of recent works as well as a new large-scale drawing titled The Sky Hasn’t Decided (2021-23).

“Mina’s work is recognisable by her fascination with mark making and imprints on personal images,” comment organisers. “These contain themes on familial connections, inherited memory, and the ways in which the personal adds complexity and emotion to national narratives. Her work is largely inspired by her grandmother’s photographic archive. Katerina Michael was born in Cyprus in 1929 and witness to the decades of hopes and fears, wars and liberations that have formed the troubled modernity of this island.

“The subject of the artist’s main work is an image that depicts Mina’s mother and aunt along with a group of young people the same age during the 1970s. The work comments on the role of photography and memory through the positioning of the family album as a historical archive connected to the personal memory of generations. Images from decades ago can be decoded and offer mysteries for those who recognise the subjects, but offer a colder sociological and aesthetic voice for the main public.”

The title Under Erasure is the English translation of the term ‘sous rature’ by the philosopher Jacques Derrida which describes the impossibility of writing the lived experience. “Photography,” conclude organisers, “like writing, is insufficient, yet necessary to the world. Anastasia Mina translates this semantic dilemma into the realm of art through the relationship of the image to the construction of history.”

Under Erasure: Beneath the Unsettled Sky

Solo exhibition of the artist Anastasia Mina. November 11-December 2. Garage Art Space, Nicosia. Opening: 7pm. Tuesday-Saturday: 5pm-8pm. Tel: 22-001508