Ar[t]chaeology: Intersections of Art and Archaeology
October 2018 – January 2019
Archaeology is a field of inquiry that directly deals with material culture and the study of objects/artefacts, primarily as a means of providing coherent ideas for the interpretation of the past. However, poststructuralist theories that sprung in the late 1970’s led to a still relevant widespread critical discussion about archaeology’s failings in fully understanding and embracing the social and political dimensions of objects, their multifaceted relationship to history and human societies, as well as the proliferation of competing narratives. The task of encouraging diverse viewpoints and comprehending the social role of objects seems to demand an interdisciplinary approach. The exhibition Ar[t]chaeology is the outcome of a collaborative project between eighteen local and international artists, curators and academics who have been exploring this exact complex relationship between archaeology and contemporary photography by asking whether the two can work synergistically for the interpretation of material culture.
The artists involved in Ar[t]chaeology adopted archaeology in a Foucaultian way: as a methodological approach that understands discourse, classification and the archive as a dynamic set of relations. Inspired and drawing from the field of archaeological practices, artists in the exhibition work through excavation and fieldwork, the process of laboratory analysis and classification, and with archives to critically negotiate issues relevant to three main axes: (1) unpacking and deconstructing official narratives, processes of memorialization, personal accounts, and witnessing, as a way of re-imagining history and the past [Victoria Ahrens; Peter Ainsworth, Charalambos Artemis & Alexandra Manglis, Nicolas Lambouris, Wiebke Leister and Adam O’Meara]; (2) tracing, collecting and appropriating fragments as a way of engaging with diverse temporalities, historical knowledge and discontinuity [Ze Barretta, Kyriaki Costa, Marina Kassianidou, Efi Savvides and Stephen Vaughan]; and (3) engaging with existing archives and constructing new ones as sites for excavation and critical analysis [Michal Baror, Armenoui Kasparian, Thomas Nicolaou, Sara Sallam, Lena Seraphin and Andrea Meinin Bück, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert and Andreas Papallas & Thomas Aquilina].
Finally, Ar[t]chaeology offers a platform for further discussion on how artists’ archaeological engagements, fabrications, and visual solutions may produce an alternative interpretive framework for material culture and the past. More importantly, the works, individually and collectively, ask how art/archaeology could offer us with a new connection with the present that has social and political rationality, especially in relation to fluid notions of historicity, identity, memory and materiality in the world of global encounters and transcultural crossings – all equally relevant to both archaeology and photography.
Curators: Elena Stylianou, Artemis Eleftheriadou, Yiannis Toumazis.
Artists: Victoria Ahrens, Peter Ainsworth, Charalambos Artemis & Alexandra Manglis, Nicolas Lambouris, Wiebke Leister, Adam O’Meara, Zé Barretta, Kyriaki Costa, Marina Kassianidou, Efi Savvides, Stephen Vaughan, Michal Baror, Armenoui Kasparian Sairadari, Thomas Nicolaou, Sara Sallam, Lena Séraphin & Andrea Meinin Bück, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Andreas Papallas & Thomas Aquilina.
The exhibition was presented at The Nicosia Municipal Art Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation, [NiMAC], Nicosia, Cyprus and sponsored by the Cultural Services of the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth.
