By Heidi Trautmann

The Old Power House is the Municipal Art Centre in the centre of the old city, one of the art centres that amazes me each time I go there. It is not only the fact that this old building has been given a new and perfect meaning, it also represents the respect the municipality has for art. Enviable!

Above that, the art centre has a permanent crew, curator, secretary and carpenters and what not to give all their knowhow to a forthcoming exhibition. And they have Knowhow. Enviable! Whatever is required for the new project, will be done, the walls newly painted, walls erected, spaces in space erected, cabinets made, etc. etc. I am sure they have their own architect. I asked one of the carpenters, he is an employee of the Municipality,  how long it took them to prepare the present show, he said one month! Just one month? My respect!

Before I get carried away with praising the people in the background I turn my attention now to the ambitious exhibition from 4 July till 30 December: Terra Mediterranea – In Crisis,

curated by Yiannis Toumazis at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre [Old Power House] in association with the Pierides Foundation.

A dynamic group of 41 artists from Cyprus, read list below,  the surrounding area and beyond (Greece, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Bulgaria, Great Britain, United States) have scrutinised the current turbulence experienced globally, especially as viewed through “Mediterranean” eyes, from both a political and a poetic stance, so they say in the catalogue. Among the 41 artists about ten are known to me. Contemporary art including paintings, installations, photography, video installations, light and sound, all aiming at researching and reflecting on today’s universal landscape of economic, political, religious, social, but also deeply existential crisis of identity.

The visitor enters the building through hard grey metallic cubicles like the anteroom of an underground war hideout and is suddenly confronted with a huge installation of hunger itself, dry bread rotting on the floor with a painting of hungry humans on the wall.  From here the building has been adapted to the theme: chaos, crisis, war, disaster,  the walls representing war in a city and in-between life still existing represented by art work, huge paintings in black and white, dead bodies floating in water,  a friend who had come with us, got scared and ran out; what is a flag, nothing but a piece of material; on a several metres high shelf the pages of a crisis report laid out. Through black curtains we entered small cubicles to watch videos and light and sound installations. We were caught in an unreal traumatic space. In an underground room we experienced bombing by light and sound, frightening.

Yes, although we read about the traumatic experiences in the countries along the Mediterranean coasts, initiated by the anger of the masses, we cannot really relive what these people are going through. If you want to know, then you must visit this exhibition, an artificial scenery of war, chaos and crisis which might become true if……we are not changing. That is the message. Among the thoughtful, critical artworks there are some cynical black humour works, thoughts materialized. There was one work, which I liked very much, not so loud and dominant, and no explanation was needed, that was the installation of broken up earth partly covered with the shells of freshly hatched cicadas. Don’t you worry about the craters, life will continue, somehow.

A special issue of the critical magazine The Cyprus Dossier was released as a collateral participation. The theme is that of crisis, and includes texts by eminent academics and researchers from Cyprus and abroad. According to the rationale of the editors (Peter Eramian, Marios Menelaou and Entafianos A.Entafianos) in issuing an open call for cooperation: Crisis has come to define the post 9/11 era. It has become so central to our thinking and language that we hear it uttered in the media almost every day. But what does it mean? From politics and the economy to identity and consciousness, crisis has become an everyday existential historical reality that we often take for granted. There is an urgency to understand crisis more critically. When is it used to oppress, when is it a device for legitimisation and when can it provoke resistance?

PS: The remarks to the pictures are my own.

I have not mentioned any artists' names because I feel that the exhibition represents a cooperation, they all worked on the project to present a message. The message has arrived!