This catalogue brings together a series of contributions taking as
inspiration Polys Peslikas's painting at the Cyprus Pavilion at
the 57th Venice Biennale, in 2017.
Faint on stage? Umm Kulthum never did. It was the people who swooned when
she sang. What if, overcome by the power of her song, the singer herself had
passed out? What would have ensued during the sudden silence? Umm
Kulthum faints on stage is the title Polys Peslikas coined for one of
the paintings in his exhibition “The future of colour” at the Cyprus
Pavilion during the 57th Venice Biennale in 2017. In this book, the title
opens the stage for words to silently resound in the place of the work:
stories and thoughts invited by Peslikas's paintings.
A retrospective meditation on the exhibition, this book aims to weave
together the experience, motion, and feeling of what took place in the
Cyprus Pavilion and the city spaces it occupied over the course of the
project—Nicosia, Venice, Berlin, Oslo, London, Limassol. Initial versions of
the interview, story, and poem reproduced in this volume were presented as
part of the Cyprus Pavilion exhibition in the form of a broadsheet newspaper
designed by Nienke Terpsma: a piece of punk existentialist poetry by the
artist group Neoterismoi Toumazou; an interview of celebrated ceramist
Valentinos Charalambous by pavilion curator Jan
Verwoert, conducted during a visit to Nefertiti's bust at the Neues
Museum in Berlin; and a short story by New York–based artist-writer Mirene
Arsanios echoing the 1980s childhood experience of temporarily living in
Cyprus with her family while fleeing conflict in her home country of
Lebanon. Verwoert provides a contextual essay about the work of Peslikas.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition “The future of colour”,
Cyprus Pavilion at the 57th International Exhibition of visual arts – La
Biennale di Venezia, from May 13 to November 26, 2017.
The artistic practice of Polys Peslikas (born 1973 in Limassol, Cyprus,
lives and works in London) centres on painting,
proposing a meticulous relationship with the medium. Peslikas views the
canvas as a space to negotiate the concept of time
and often works with fragments of images and pre-existing elements within
the realm of human activity and the history
of art. In this context, he invents new relationships with existing
narratives and incorporates these in his painting through references to
other visual means. To understand painting, he often turns to other
disciplines: he has collaborated with dance
performers, taught in public schools, and formed part of the creative core
of an art and culture publication, Ysterografo magazine, while
curating solo and group shows of other artists. His most recent solo
exhibitions have been held at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, and VOLKS,
Nicosia. He has participated in numerous group shows, among others at Halle
14, Leipzig, NiMAC and Point Center for Contemporary Art, Nicosia. Peslikas
represented Cyprus at the 57th Venice Biennale of Art.
Edited by Polys Peslikas and Jan Verwoert.
Contributions By Mirene Arsanios, Valentinos Charalambous, Louli
Michaelidou, Neoterismoi Toumazou, Jan Verwoert.
Graphic design: Nienke Terpsma.
Published with the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture.
