ELLE: Woman in Antiquity is a poignant display of the evolution of Cypriot sculpture

After being displayed in Madrid and Vienna, the photographic exhibition ‘ELLE: Woman in Antiquity’ opened at the Museum of Byzantine Civilisation in Thessaloniki 10 days ago.

The exhibition, which opened on March 13, presents depictions of sculptures of deities and female figurines, from the Bronze Age (4th millennium BC) until the Roman period (4th century AD), belonging to the Cyprus Antiquities Department. It presents the stylistic evolution of Cypriot art through sculptures of women.  

In a press release, the producer of the exhibition, the Press and Information Office (PIO), said the approach of the photographer Stefanos Kouradzis, and his use of photographic shading, allows the viewer “to discover the evolution and specificity of Cypriot sculpture and is transported to the historical, religious and cultural past of Cyprus”.

“This photographic journey would be described as a modern-day contact with female deities of antiquity and an acquaintance with votive figurines of the era,” said the PIO.

In her address at the opening in Thessaloniki, first lady Philippa Karsera Chrisodoulides, said the exhibition, which travelled from country to country, “acquired new meaning, shaped by the eyes and hearts of those who stand in front of the pictures in a different place and time”.

First lady, Philippa Karsera Christodoulides at the Museum of Byzantine Studies with PIO director Aliki Stylianou (right), museum director Agathoniki Tsilipakou (left) and Cyprus’ Consul-General in Thessaloniki, Constantinos Polycarpou

“Woman as a source of life and symbol of persistence and resilience always found the way to pave paths, to create, to move forward and maintain her self-mastery,” she said.

PIO director, Aliki Stylianou said all the women of antiquity depicted in the exhibition bring to life and transmit the aura, wisdom, femininity to all those who see them.

“This is the power of this photographic exhibition, and it is for this reason it has been travelling ever since the photographs were developed,” said Stylianou.

Charalambos Bakirtzis, the chairman of the Museum of Byzantine Civilisation, said that in Cyprus, “the worship of the female fertility deity, as depicted in Cypriot prehistoric figurines was ancient and only later came from the East and settled in Cyprus as Astarte, depicted in dedicatory statuettes, clothing, precious jewellery and holding a dove in a ritual posture of immobility.”

PIO director Aliki Stylianou said this exhibition “is a reminder that memory in every form has the power to change the world, but first of all to change us”.

It was the Greeks who transformed the fertility of Astarte into beauty, and “instead of an non-iconic stone worshipped at the ancient sanctuary of Palaipafos, they saw Aphrodite emerge from the sea at Petra tou Romiou.”

The curator of the exhibition, Cathrene Louis Nikita said the show “reminded us that Anassa, Inanna, Astarte, Nemesis, Hathor, Isis, Urania, and Aphrodite continue to move us”.

The exhibition in Thessaloniki

“Through this exhibition we understand the interaction between the civilisations of East and West, for more than 9,000 years, in relation to the evolution of Cypriot civilisation,” said Nikita.

Two days later, at the House of Cyprus in Athens, a spin-off exhibition, titled “ELLES: Mythological Forms of Yesterday, Creators of Today,” also produced by the PIO, was opened, by Cyprus’ first lady.

For this exhibition, six artists, inspired by the forms of antiquity, re-examine myths and symbols from Cypriot heritage, using tools of modern art such as performance, photography and video. Through their eyes, the artists share their thoughts about the evolution of the female form through the centuries.

The artists who contributed to this exhibition were Klitsa Antoniou, Melita Kouta, Lia Lapithi, Arianna Economou, Efi Spyrou and Stefanos Kouradzis, as well as the film directors Petros Charalambous and Yianna Americanou.

The artists with first lady, PIO director, Cyprus’ Ambassador to Greece at the opening at the House of Cyprus in Athens

This exhibition was also curated by Nikita, who said: “Through this exhibition, Cyprus confirms not only its historic role as a bridge between civilisations, but also proposes a thought about the building of a European identity, in which the past and present, tradition and innovation, the East and the West meet and feed off each other.”

The exhibition in Athens

‘ELLES: Woman in Antiquity’ is on show at the Museum of Byzantine Civilisation in Thessaloniki until April 13. ‘ELLES: Mythological Forms of Yesterday, Creators of Today’ in on show at the House of Cyprus in Athens until April 2.