Unconscious architecture
Geographies
of Cypriot state housing
Orestis
Lambrou and Evi Tselika
Within
European contemporary art the terrain of council/ community/ social housing has
become a firm trend throughout the last twenty to thirty years. Mass Council
housing in Cyprus is barely thirty years old. And it is presently an
unchartered creative and artistic pathway to be explored. This local specific
response towards communitarian spatial environments highlights a plethora of
tensions. The understanding of displacement, the monumentality of both the
built setting and the narratives of war demonstrate the local specificity and
yet unifying characteristics of what social housing means in Europe.
The
absence of civic dialogue in relation to the Cypriot state estates, better
known locally as ‘refugee neighbourhoods’ become a good springboard in
launching artistic experiments and reflection. The use of Modernist models of
community housing that these estates demonstrate situate this creative enquiry
into the wider understanding of European interpretations of mass/ social
housing developments. The Cypriot state developed them hurriedly to fulfil the
needs after 1974, thus even using ready made plans from the UK. This is
presented through the architectural construction and through the creation of
new communities; by not only making houses and blocks of flats but also by
creating green spaces, shops, services, schools, churches, pathways and roads.
The
current communities of these semi state and semi-private, built clusters present
particular micro geographies and socio spatial narratives. The artists were
invited to question, document, narrate and face these charged neighbourhoods.
The project explores the notions of ‘how the built environment defines
community’ and how ‘the community defines the built environment’. This
exhibition and happenings question the public understanding of Cypriot state
housing, how community shapes these environments, how planned urban
developments become organic and how these can demonstrate the disputed notion
of failure in relation to the Modernist legacy of European social housing.
All proceedings, art
production, archival, architectural, site specific, theoretical, research will
be documented with the aim of being presented in a publication in 2013.
Exhibition and happenings
This
project includes an exhibition with works by artists exploring the theme in a
gallery space, an artistic residency, theoretical reflections and other
happenings that will take place within council estates in Nicosia.
The exhibition will present
works by
Claudia Djabbari (Germany)-
Residency
Yiannis
Ioannou (Cyprus)
Achilleas
Kentonis (Cyprus)
Phanos
Kyriacou (Cyprus)
Orestis
Lambrou (Cyprus)
Maria Toumazou (Cyprus)
Evi
Tselika (Cyprus)
Exhibition will take place at
the Visual Artists Association Nicosia- 11.10.12 to 19.10.12
For
the duration of the show a workshop will run for the Fine Art students of the
University of Nicosia
Affiliated happenings
Square at the end of Assias
street, Plati, Aglantzia, 2114
-Exploring the site-
Experimenting and displaying in state estates- Platy, Aglantzia- morning to
afternoon 13/10
Site specific
experimental workshop/ display/ documentation of experiment for publication
Invited artists
participate in an experimental day of action in the space of the state
housings.
Participants include the
artists mentioned above and amongst others Christos Avraam, Chrystalleni
Loizidou, Christos Hadjichristou
-Talk by structural engineer Mr Kypros
Pafitis member of the team responsible for the construction of the Plati estate
housing- 17:00
-Cafe Philosophique-
13/10
18:00- 20:00
Lead
by Dr Andreas Vrahimis (University of Cyprus, University of Technology of
Cyprus)
Discussion
on state housing in Cyprus- social housing, European modernism
For
more information please visit
Or
contact
Orestis
Lambrou- orestislambrou@gmail.com
Evi
Tselika- e_tselika@hotmail.com
This project is being
carried out with the kind support of the
Cyprus Ministry of Education
and Culture
The German Embassy
Visual Artists Association
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