A poetic landscape experience

By Heidi Trautmann

It often happens to me that I find myself in a place – be it an old city or an untouched landscape with the air flickering and dancing over it - that I discover forms of another reality, another time level and I have to touch my face, close and reopen my eyes to find my presence again. There is an olive tree in our garden, some hundred years old, and when I pass it or pick its fruit in autumn I feel the presence of its owners that lived with it a long time ago.

Brunella Longo brought this experience to life in a project that took about four years, from 2011 to 2015. Imagery of dreams. Photographic collages. She is known to travel to places for her work that are untouched by human presence but that have inspired her to create dreamworlds of her own, stories and legends that she associates with the aura of the landscape.

A selection of very fine art works she brought with her from Italy for her exhibition at the ArtRooms in Kyrenia. She came here on invitation of Ümit Inatçı, an artist friend she has met during his time in Italy. It is her first visit to Cyprus and I am positive that she will discover the imagery that overlays the island and will have a story to tell one day.

I asked Brunella what she wanted to say with the title of the exhibition... ‘art-emide’...

“It is a play of words on the basis of the Goddess Artemis, to Artemis=Artemide, art-emide. My art work dedicated to Artemis, with art included in her presence.... you understand? It is the myth that goes with her that inspired me.”

Artemis, the goddess, protectress of women, the hunter and virgin, protecting and defending her chastidy and her freedom; her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag and the moon.  

The symbols of Artemis, carried through centuries, a travel into our subconsciousness where the history of earth is stored, the human forms included as shadows, fleeting shadows.

The exhibition is open until 29 June; viewing times from midday to midnight according to the opening hours of the restaurant The House opposite the Colony Hotel.