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Nous tenons à remercier très chaleureusement le Président du Centre Pompidou Alain Séban et toute son équipe : la directrice générale Agnès Saal, le directeur du Mnam-CCI Alfred Pacquement, Alexandre Colliex responsable des relations internationales, Sophie Duplaix Conservateur en chef aux collections contemporaines, ainsi que tout le personnel impliqué : François Stahl, Vitia Kirchner, Louis Corno, Petya Hristova, ///////////////////////
Notre gratitude va au Ministère de l’éducation et de culture de Chypre : le Ministre Andréas Démétriou, la directrice générale Olympia Stylianou, la directrice du département culture Eleni Nikita (jusqu’en 2010) ainsi que l’actuel directeur Pavlos Paraskevas.///////////////////////////
Nous remercions également :L’ambassade de Chypre à Paris : l’ambassadeur Periclés Néarkou et Stelios Makriyiannis, Charalambos Peteinos, Maria Eleftheriou Soler, Myra Athanassiou-Strouve, Chrysanthos Savva
Les organisateurs de la saison culturelle : l’ambassadeur Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, Laurent Burin de Rosiers, Carole Scipion, Patrice Marie, Michel-Louis Richard, Grégoire Harel.
Le Ministère de Défence à ChypreLe Ministère des communications et des travaux publics à Chypre, Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation, Public information office (PIO) de Chypre
Toute l’équipe de production, sous la direction de Claudia Cheilian et Fabrice Flahutez : Sylvain Bahaderian, Olivier Boulenguez, Prune Cadier, , Raoul Chatellier, Julie Cheilian, François et Angèle Cheilian, Noëlle Chesnoy, Grégoire Deschamps, Ricardo Dintimille, Sina Friffra, Arnaud Foeller, Pauline Gauthron, Marco Goncalvès, David Guitteaud, William Hamon, Valérie Labbé, Damien Lacombe, , Simon Lec’hvien, , Sarah Leres et l’association Karma Prod, Antonello Piras, Pascal Queneau, Pauline Seigland, Pierre Serne.
Anne Samson et son équipe de communication :
Nous remercions également : Laurence Bertrand-Dorléac, Marika Ioannou, Adeline Lausson, Bastien Sueur, Adèle et Hector Sueur, Anne et Paul Kozlow
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This is Hollow Airport Museum‘s special collectible edition set up by the artist Kostas Emmanouilidis with handmade inserts by the artist Dionisis Christofilogiannis. The original edition has been elaborated on the occasion of Nicos Charalambidis’exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, 2008.
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Views of the Ledra Barricade installation at the Centre Pompidou, 2008.
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THE LEDRA BARRICADE AT CENTRE POMPIDOU
In 2008, Alain Semain, the president of the Centre Pompidou, inaugurated the porch of the Hollow Airport Museion (H.A.M.) an innovative, experimental School of Fine Arts for Cyprus and the broader Middle East. The porch, a travelling replica of the Ledra Barricade, the most central Cyprus’ barricade that was dividing the island for more than 35 years, was posing in front of the Pompidou building like a Trojan Horse, hosting several happenings, workshops and other events.
Nikos Charalambidis’ work constantly focuses on the idea of a Home-based museum and its bigger version, its extension at his Homeland Cyprus. The artist suggests that the vacant building of the Nicosia International Airport, located on the Green Line, under the United Nations authorities after, is the ideal edifice to house the Museum’s activities. H.A.M. , known also as the Arab Guggenheim Museum , is a hollow museum, liberated from the obsession of accumulating exhibits, that underlines the proposal for a revival of the Greek Ancient Museion, a museum standing as a stimulating meeting place to work. H.A.M. took also its name after Nohan’s son, forefather of the nations on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean (Cyprus, Lebanon and the Middle East).
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Alain Seban, the president of the Pompidou Art Centre, looking through the lenses on the walls, a smaller replica of the Ledra Barricade.
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AM:What is the Ledra Barricade?
NC: It was part of the wall that has divided, and still divides, Cyprus since the war in 1974. Ledra Street, situated roughly in the centre of Nicosia, had been always and still is one of the most popular shopping lanes of the town. The barricade there, after almost thirty five years since it was built, has been officially knocked down this year, to be replaced by a check point, through which people from both sides can have access by showing their passports. The fall of this memorial of division was though, only a symbolic gesture and practically the political problem still remains. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nicosia is currently the only divided capital city in the world, with the north (occupied by the Turkish army) and south (still free) divided by the “Green Line”, a demilitarized zone maintained by the United Nations.
AM:Could you give us a short description of your installation?
NC:What the viewer principally sees at the “parvis de Pompidou” is a reconstruction of the Ledra Barricade; let’s say, as a temporary summer partner to the permanent reconstruction of the Atelier Brancusi…
Interview of Nicos Charalambidis by Andri Michael, August 2008
NC: That’s a first level of interpretation. Actually the barricade is only the Trojan Horse for a complex installation full of contradictory architectural and political correlations. In my installations, I often use pieces of furniture and dismantled structural elements from my home, like pieces of the walls, the floors or ceiling. Accordingly here, I use pieces from the wall of my homeland. I’m thinking that the notion of a fluid residence and the tactic of destroying and rebuilding my house again and again, function more as a subconsciously denial of the idea of possessing a house of my own and as a therapeutic exercise to the traumatic memories of the war, when my family and I were forced to leave our home…
AM:So, by rebuilding the barricade you want to remind people that the problem still exists?
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AM:That’s what you mean by architectural correlations?
NC: The fall of the barricade hopefully brings a new perspective to the communication between the two parts of the island. Within this framework, one of my objectives is to convince the authorities of the two parts and the United Nations, to give life back to the “dead zone”, as the militarized zone of the Green Line is called; an area that the visitors of the Ledra Barricade could watch, through the strip windows of the Barricade. I assume that a good starting point is to bring life back to the vacant building of the International Airport of Nicosia, which is located there, as an unapproachable building under the control of the United Nations… That’s of course very disappointing if you think that it was once the most elegant and modern airport in the Mediterranean and Middle East. My idea is to transform the building into a museum, and the reconstruction of the Ledra barricade here, in front of the Pompidou Centre and next to the Atelier Brancusi, stands as the symbolic porch of this potential museum in the dead zone.
AM:So your work here plays a complex role; obviously it is something more than an artistic installation…And how it would be possible for you as an artist to make that vision true?
NC: My artistic practice usually has as a starting point, hypothetical and fictional scenarios, which are only the cover, the Trojan horse, as I said before, for activistic projects. The visitors are called to participate in these, alongside with fellow artists and scientists from different fields, who join forces as active members in what I call “Social Gym” programmes… Following this practice, I methodically began, some years ago, to work on the airport project; presenting the activities in several exhibitions and biennales in the form of multimedia installations, with architectural studies and models of a museum under the mocking name: “Arab Guggenheim museum”….In parallel, the installations were accompanied by interdisciplinary workshops with several local university communities of the country that was hosting each of the events; while the visitors on the other hand, could also participate in a series of workshops entitled: “The Tupperware Barricade”.
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Embroided silk banner 370X140 cm, 2006 (photo in the center).
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Views of the pedestrian Turkish Cypriot Bridge at Nicosia’s buffer zone, with a blue line marking the path of the walking tour before the war. Despite the nominal independence of Northern Cyprus, Turkey’s flag is raised over the proposed border crossing.
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AM: Here, in Paris?
NC: In Paris, the process takes a particular character, since the amount of gathered plastic ware will rebuild a barricade in Rue Visconti, reminiscent of Christo’s oil drum barricade in 1962. It’s amazing that the war for oil still divides the world after so many years. Look at the current conflict in Georgia and the Caucasus for example.
AM: Yes, I also see the plastic here. Tell us more about that…
NC: During the war in 1974, plastic Tupperware used to be the most precious thing in the refugee camps; especially when it was full of food. Visitors are asked to write on a special form the description of a potential artwork that they would like to realize if they had the ability. Subsequently, students - usually from Fine Art schools or Architecture Universities- work on people’s proposals, making professional studies, drawings and small architectural models. All this stuff is sent, in photographic form, back to the visitor who had filled in the form, for them to make further remarks or alterations to his project; finally all that material is included in a Tupperware with his name on it. The series of workshops often follow different courses, depending on the specialization of the participants; like for example, at the Irish Biennale, where I collaborated with students from the Limerick School of fashion design or at the “Going Public” exhibition where the collaboration was with sergeants from the Larissa Military airport.
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NC: Yes! Petroleum, the real reason for the war, is at the same time the element that literally divides the island...In fact, these barrels have been a central reference in my work. In 2006, after so many years of working on the allegorical process of knocking down the walls of my home, I had finally managed to dismantle parts of the real wall of my homeland. After a painstaking, persistent and sometimes painful process of struggling with the authorities and bureaucracy, I had finally dismantled three parts of the dividing wall, in order to transfer the barrel barricades to the 27th Sao Paolo Biennial, of which the title was “How to Live Together”… Moreover, I had convinced the military forces to provide me with a group of volunteer soldiers to participate in this anti-militaristic action. It was a real difficult operation, which became even more complicated especially due to the fact that the operation had to be carried out during the embattled war in neighboring Lebanon and at a period when Cyprus was in the process of accepting the evacuees; thousands of Lebanese people, who were arriving on the island seeking a place of refuge.
AM: I read in one of your texts that the real reason for the war in Cyprus was because of its geopolitical position, standing as the western gate to the Arab wealth and oil, and I found it very ironic that, except from the Ledra Barricade, the rest of the dividing wall has been built out of oil drums…
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AM: The barrels had been shipped to Sao Paolo?
NC: Yes, where another group of soldiers, Brazilian this time, received the barrels in order to set them up inside the Niemeyer building. Reversing their militaristic role the Cypriot soldiers had changed their duty of protecting/guarding the wall to dismantling the wall. The barricade barrels had served as construction material for emblematic platforms with multipurpose and versatile functions, for happenings and performances. During the Sao Paolo Biennale, the platforms took the form of alternative carnival floats where the group of the Brazilian soldiers accompanied the samba dancers in their performances. During the performances, the drummers had played Samba on the dismantled barricade barrels, converting them into musical instruments. Samba, which originating from a traditional African dance, was the representative hymn to freedom for the African slaves in Brasil. In parallel, the Tupperware project with students from the architectural university of Sao Paolo, achieved a great success...
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AM: What are you planning to do with the total amount of plastic collected from all these countries all over the world?
NC: The final amount will be transported to Cyprus, to build an Art Barricade at the place where the check point of Ledra Street that still divides the island in two. This is going to be a monumental artwork of the airport museum, a rambling, transportable wall made from artworks originating from such different places; a wall that unifies instead of separating. The military role of the soldiers, who now guard the check point, is going to alter again; transforming them into museum guards, who protect a work of art…
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NC: The activist processes regarding the realization of the museum concentrate on other aspects too. The significance of the participatory character of this gigantic plastic artwork underlines the radical character of the potential museum. My perception of the museum reflects the ancient Greek model of a Museion, a meeting place, a place conducive to creative activity, a workshop, rather than the Anglo-Saxon model of an exhibition space already established in 1759, the year when the British Museum was founded. The airport museum highlights this original Ancient Greek idea of an interdisciplinary laboratory, where poets, musicians, artists and scientists could work together - under the protection of the Muses. Consistent with the Greek idea, the Airport Museum, defines its activities more as an enlarge working studio of collaboration, which follows the format of an alternative Art School.
AM: So, you have already contemplated a gigantic work for the airport museum…
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AM:How is that?
NC: This working space could function as follows: a small group of international artists could be invited each time, for a period of three months to ‘play the role’ of teachers. In fact, the artists/ teachers are invited to carry out one of their own projects, working in collaboration with their ‘students’. The students would work following the instructions of the artist in order to accomplish his/her work, while in parallel they could work on their own projects under the supervision of the artist. Of course the final artwork will belong to the artist but the documentary of the entire procedure (films, interviews, texts and the relics of the activities) will constitute a new artwork, a parallel installation- acquisition of the museum. Occasionally, a replica of the artist’s artwork (or a smaller model) could be constructed for the museum’s archive with the permission of the artist.
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AM: I noticed that the notion of the museum is constant, pervading your entire oeuvre over the years; having your own home, as starting point and eventually reaching your homeland. The dialogue from this point of view, with the Atelier Brancusi and the Centre Pompidou becomes very clear now.
NC: As I like to say, no matter how small your house may be, you should understand that a museum and a gym are essential components, and that these rooms occupy position of great importance…
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Mar
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ntoi
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’ s p
orce
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hel
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997.
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Helmets on “Democracy Service”, oil paintings 2012, Nicos Charalambidis-Dionisis Chistofilogiannis.Installation view of HAM’s activities, 2008 (image above).
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Views from the “Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009, with works by Pravdobliub Ivanov, Narda Alvarado and Nicos Charalambidis.
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57Views from the “Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009.
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“The Melnikov House”, installation view, “Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009.
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Melnikov House’s float installation view, 2009.
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Red composition on mosaics (below) and Beehive construction (above) for the Melnikov House, 2009.
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“The Melnikov House”, installation view, “Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009.
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“Wor
kers
’ Par
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ent”,
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74“Workers’ Parliament”, H.A.M’s floating working platform, “Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009.
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The Turkish Cypriot “Bridge” at Nicosiia’s buffer zone, had come in 2006 to signify separation, apartness, misunderstanding, division, and occupation. The intent of the bridge was to facilitate the interaction of Greek and Turkish Cypriots but instead it was underscoring the hand of the Turkish military and thus was creating yet another obstruction to potential interaction. Eventually the bridge was symbolic of 32 years of detachment. It’s dismantling and the reopening of Ledra Street had been anticipated by both sides as marking an important step toward reunification of the city and eventually the island. Nicosia Mayor Michael Zampelas stated “It sends a strong message of the future and I hope the politicians will see that message.” His Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Kutlay Erk, supported the reopening, noting “there is a genuine necessity to open Ledra Street and we did our best to open the street.”
The wooden remnants of the Ledra barricade and of the blue “Bridge” have served in the construction of blenchers at the White House’s garden (Exercises on Democracy series, 2011).
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“ Exercises on Democracy”
WHITE HOUSE BIENNIAL
The first house to House Domestic Biennial
One cannot simply say Democratic systems don’t work, one must work through themand demonstrate that they are flawed.
Questioning the revolutionary role of art and its power to affect sociopolitical changesthe White House Biennial (WHB) opens artists’ access to the White House!!! Promoting
artistic activism and politically charged interventional works, the WHB as the only oneongoing interactive biennial raises online its protest voices through various socialmedia outlets inviting international outstanding artists to propose the creating of a
special work to be staged at the American Abbey of Democracy.
WHB was founded in 2012 in the city of Athens, amongst dozens of demonstrationsand austerity protests. The Biennial, is being developed in the city where Democracywas born, at a time of deep financial and ethical crisis, posing the crucial question of
the redefinition and remodelling of democratic principles, interrogating the politicsembedded in our everyday way of living, in our surrounded environment and buildings
or even in the most mundane of objects and the politics of body.
At our troubled times when everyone feels the necessity to go out and shout - joiningforces with the rest of the protesters in the crowded streets - the WHB gives the
possibility to the participants, coming from a wide range of disciplines, to express eventheir very personal fears, and believes, to exchange ideas and demonstrate their
opinions and demands directly from their own houses to the house of the president ofthe American Democracy. Under these conditions the WHB could be considered as the
first DOMESTIC BIENNIAL under the title “Exercises on Democracy”. Operating as aGreek Agora the WHB instead of gathering people to the central of a town, forms
household platforms that communicate from house to House the ideas and viewpointsof the participants, drawing together an international collective- digital arena accessible
from everyone’s house simply through his/her personal computer.
The notions of House/Home and the idea that ‘revolutions’ should be initially integratedin our houses, within our everyday way of living are the fundamental topics that run theentire oeuvre of the founder and initiator of the Biennial, the artist Nicos Charalambidis.
Actually the WHB falls in a series of participatory projects, exhibitions, workshops,lectures and other cultural events organised and curated by the artist, under the title:
Design Your House and Furniture in a way that could serve the Revolution.
the White House Biennial
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“ Exercises on Democracy”
WHITE HOUSE BIENNIAL
The first house to House Domestic Biennial
One cannot simply say Democratic systems don’t work, one must work through themand demonstrate that they are flawed.
Questioning the revolutionary role of art and its power to affect sociopolitical changesthe White House Biennial (WHB) opens artists’ access to the White House!!! Promoting
artistic activism and politically charged interventional works, the WHB as the only oneongoing interactive biennial raises online its protest voices through various socialmedia outlets inviting international outstanding artists to propose the creating of a
special work to be staged at the American Abbey of Democracy.
WHB was founded in 2012 in the city of Athens, amongst dozens of demonstrationsand austerity protests. The Biennial, is being developed in the city where Democracywas born, at a time of deep financial and ethical crisis, posing the crucial question of
the redefinition and remodelling of democratic principles, interrogating the politicsembedded in our everyday way of living, in our surrounded environment and buildings
or even in the most mundane of objects and the politics of body.
At our troubled times when everyone feels the necessity to go out and shout - joiningforces with the rest of the protesters in the crowded streets - the WHB gives the
possibility to the participants, coming from a wide range of disciplines, to express eventheir very personal fears, and believes, to exchange ideas and demonstrate their
opinions and demands directly from their own houses to the house of the president ofthe American Democracy. Under these conditions the WHB could be considered as the
first DOMESTIC BIENNIAL under the title “Exercises on Democracy”. Operating as aGreek Agora the WHB instead of gathering people to the central of a town, forms
household platforms that communicate from house to House the ideas and viewpointsof the participants, drawing together an international collective- digital arena accessible
from everyone’s house simply through his/her personal computer.
The notions of House/Home and the idea that ‘revolutions’ should be initially integratedin our houses, within our everyday way of living are the fundamental topics that run theentire oeuvre of the founder and initiator of the Biennial, the artist Nicos Charalambidis.
Actually the WHB falls in a series of participatory projects, exhibitions, workshops,lectures and other cultural events organised and curated by the artist, under the title:
Design Your House and Furniture in a way that could serve the Revolution.
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Ai WeiWei is the honoured artist of Exercises on Democracy, the first edition of the White House Biennial. Exercises on Democracy is dedicated to Joseph Beuys while the Chinese artist Ai WeiWei is the honoured artist of this first edition of the White House Biennial. In dialogue with their works a selection of outstanding international artists are being invited to participate by proposing installations, sculptures, performances, videos , paintings drawings and other forms of visual art. Participants’ proposals should be sent to the working team, a group of students at the Athens School of Fine Arts in order to be rendered into 3-Dimension Graphic Designs and be installed in this form at the exhibition of 3D spaces all over the indoor and outdoor spaces of the White House. Throughout the whole procedure, the working team will be on continuous communication with the participant artists, through Skype and other electronic means, discussing, supervising and controlling the upcoming results till the final completion of the work. The configuration of this online exhibition at the White House will be completed by an additional selection of artists, out the open call process.
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The WHB Exhibition: The final outcoming participatory 3D platform of the White House biennial will be presented through a series of interactive video projections, accompanied by the actual realisation in real materials of the participant’s works, at an extended international exhibition that will be held in Athens’ Nicos Kessanlis Exhibition Hall, with the collaboration of CYCO (Cyprus Contemporary Art Museum) and other partners, such as the Embassies of the Republics of America, Cyprus and China, the Goethe Institute, international collectors and galleries. A central part of the exhibition’s space will be occupied by a replica in real dimensions of the Oval Office. The American Democracy emblem with the requisite bald eagle on the wheat-toned oval rug of the office will reinforce its Democratic notions by the perimetric installation of a Human Sized Theatre,
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a multifunctional wooden construction where the participant artist could stage performances, lectures, concerts and other spectacles.
The presentation of the WHB in museums, international exhibitions/forums/festivals and other cultural events.
During the course of developing the Exercises on democracy exhibition at the Nicos Kessanlis Exhibition Hall and of the comprehensively completion of the 3D online platform, the WHB partially could be presented, through a variety of forms or disguises in museums, galleries and a wide array of cultural events. It’s first presentation will be held in Palais de Tokyo from February 25th to April 4th 2013 at the Hell As Pavilion exhibition.
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Two replicas of the White House staged on alternative carnival floats at theairport’s runways advertising the on line biennial that takes place, at the indoorand outdoor spaces of this temple of Democracy.
Installation view of the replicas’ interior (opposite page).
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Rumbling working-platforms of the White House Biennial.
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Arcadian landscapes at the White House.
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H.A.M.’s outdoor and indoor interventions.
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The proposed participatory platform is amultifunctional wooden auditorium, whichevokes the ancient Greek Amphitheatre. Itshuman dimensions (basic diameter 180),following Le Corbusier’s modular or theVitruvian Man of Leonardo da Vinci -wherethe man has a superimposed position withhis arms and legs apart- promote thehumanist moderation and theanthropocentric character of GreekDemocracy in a critical time when Democraticprincipals have been reduced. The flexiblestructure of this symbolic domesticamphitheatre makes the installation easilyportable and available for indoor or outdoorperipateticlectures, performances,workshops and other events and activities. Itsform and diameter could be also extended by affixing additional semicircular wooden elements oraccordingly be diminished by their removal, keeping just the essential construction (photo below). The H.S.T. was conceived and designed by the artist Nicos Charalambidis for the activities of his artists’ collective (TheArab Guggenheim Museum) during the Athens Olympics in 2004. Since then it has been an instrumentappearing in different versions/forms, serving a variety of projects/artists.
Human Sized Theatre (H.S.T.):
Georgia Sagri’s performance at the Human Sized Theatre, island of Aegina 2012.
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“The great Ai Wei Wei practising on the Human Sized Theatre”, C-Print, 2012.
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Antoinette’s canopy bed: In 2006 a gym bed with guillotine was incorporated in one of the amphitheatre’s versions as a sarcastic reference to Maria Antoinette- a historic personage connected with peoples’ struggle for Democracy. The curtains of her royal canopy were replaced here by blenches minimizing the bed’s surface and giving to the audience the opportunity to watch her last nightmares before her decapitation. The Freudian character of the construction was reinforced by the collaboration of Charalambidis with Dr. Ioannis Nestoros, Professor in clinical psychology at the University of Crete and his associate Dr. Peter J. Hawkins president of the European Institute of Integrative Psychotherapy, as well as professor in hypnosis and psychotherapy at ISMAI in Portugal. Since 2008, Dr. Nestoros became the president of the Holllow Airport museum while his Hypnotherapy sessions and Neurofeedback training have been included in the project’s educational programmes as courses of ‘’Mental Gymnastics’’.
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Images of the “Human Sized Theatre” in versions of more expanded dimensions.
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The amphitheatre’s semicircular components could be easily transported for outdoor events.
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A manual with practical instructions for everyone is also in disposal for everyone to construct their own domestic theatre promoting the idea of its integration in daily life.
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“Arab woman dressed up in Oval”,2012.
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“Dakis Ioannou observing the Human Sized Theatre’s sketches, just before his lecture....”
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Another one allegoric platform of the “Exercises on Democracy” series. The wooden grandstand of the construction is coated with wheat inviting the pigeons, to gather only on the grandstand’s seats in the surprise of the passing by people.
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Nicos Charalambidis’ installation (“Exercises on Democracy” series), Nicos Pattichis’ collection.
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“Domestic fragmented amphitheater posing the necessity of its remodeling”, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 2008.
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“Domestic fragmented amphitheater posing the necessity of its remodeling”, installation views, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, 2008.
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Amphitheatre with Marie Antoinette’s canopy bed, 2006.
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Wood-stove
The woodstove is part of the heating equipment series of the school, made from barrels originated from Nicosia’s Buffer-Zone barricades. At the barrel mouth, a model of the Amphitheater, the auditorium of the School, rotates in a perpetual circular motion. In do-ing so, the amphitheater drags with it -as an integral piece- the model of the artist’s house, indicating both the public participatory character of the project, as well as its private di-mension related to the artist’s per-sonal experiences; the experience of being a refugee and the loss of the ancestral house. The amphitheatre’s heated model has been designed, to assist also in the preparation of tea, coffee or even food, while in the ad-jacent auxiliary house model coffee, sugar; salt, herbs, etc. may be stored.
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126“Dionysiac rituals in the artist’s studio”, oil painting, 2003.
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Nicos Charalambidis, “Bouboulina’s performance”, engraving 2004.
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The HAM’s Library Mental Gymnastics
“the human brain is in a constant suspended condition”
Is our brain in constant suspended condition? It is scientifically evident that the human brain is at least as complex as the Universe; and that is continuously evolving, changing towards known and unknown directions. The Cerebral Hemispheres, which are the most characteristic part of the human brain, possess 100.000 bits of information more than all the human genes together. Moreover, in contrast to the information provided by the genes which is fixed, the information of the Cerebral Hemispheres is in constant suspended condition. That is the Cerebral Hemispheres are constantly ready to incorporate any new information we may choose and discard old information, exercising our own free will to learn whatever we please. Thus the possibilities to improve human nature become unlimited.The Hollow Airport Museion proposes just that! What if we could train our brain in order to activate its sleeping areas?
Beyond the books, in the Museum’s Library, Prof. Dr. J. N. Nestoros, recommends Electrophysiological equipment to enable individuals to explore the unknown territories of their Brain. Furthermore, students of all age groups can learn about their brain activity under diverse desired conditions and to acquire skills to change (improve) their brain functions towards any desired This will be accomplished through the method of Neurobiofeedbac, the advanced mental gymnastics of the Library.
Users will be able to interact with each other in the traditional, face to face, verbal and nonverbal bodily mode. In addition, they will be able to allow the unconscious parts of their brains to interact with one another or in groups (collective unconscious) and explore their aspirations, fantasies and dreams.
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One Land Tower:The wooden bookcases A and B are fixed on the central column of the construction (which has 400cm height). Both the two pieces could rotate around the column. In order to adjust the stability of the whole construction the feet of the table could be fixed on the floor.
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The collaboration of Dr. Nestoros and Hollow AirportMuseum has been presented in international forums,festivals, conferences and symposiums such as at thePistoletto Foundation in February 2006, at CanaryIslands’ festival in July 2008, at the Maison de la Cultured’Amiens January 2010 and at the Cyprus PsychiatricAssociation’s international conference, in September2010. In the photos above and below, the professorpromoting the library units equipped with folding bedsfor his hypnotherapy sessions and neurofeedbacktraining (web link: Lidinos for Syria).
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Architectures of Division
In 1964, after intercommunal violence erupted between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities in response to constitution adjustments, a green pencil line was drawn across the map of Cyprus by the general of the peacekeeping force that preceded the formation of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). This 112 mile long zone extends from east to west coast on the island and tears directly through the walled city of Nicosia. The Green Line has two edges, one on the north side that marks the outer edge of the Turkish military zone that denotes the southern border of what is known internationally as de facto territory occupied by the Turkish military, or internally as the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The other edge marks the boundary of the United Nations-controlled Buffer Zone (within the Green Line) and the northern edge of the “government controlled area” of the Republic of Cyprus. The northern Green Line border, within Nicosia, is constructed of large concrete or metal walls that haveTurkish military signs posted on them.These permanent and imposing structures dead end streets and forewarn any visitors that you have reached the boundary of a partitioned land.
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151H.A.M.’s floating working platform, 2006.
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153A replica of the Charlie Checkpoint serves as H.A.M’s floating archive.
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A replica of the Charlie Checkpoint serves as H.A.M’s floating archive.
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Meanwhile, the southern Green Line border is constructed of sandbags and barrels that represent the armed struggle that resulted in the summer in 1974.These ragged and war torn barricades portray an open wound in the landscape and an unknown land that exists beyond the wall...”the other side”Between 1974 and 2003, crossing of the Buffer Zone between northern and southern parts of the island was extremely limited. For 30 years, the Turkish- and Greek-speaking populations of Cyprus were essentially sealed apart on their respective sides. Immediately preceding the 2003 referendum vote (also known as the Annan Plan, after UN Secretary General Kofi Annan), the Turkish Cypriot authorities eased the travel restrictions, allowing Cypriots to see the ‘other side’ of the island for the first time since the war.
Nowadays, the only crossing within the Walled City is located on Ledra Street that was opened in 2008. Situated roughly in the centre of Nicosia, Ledra Street, a pedestrianized main commercial street, has always been one of the most popular shopping points of the town, even if it was ending into the Green Line, where a wooden checkpoint structure was prohibiting the passageway. In fact, one of the practical impediments to crossing Ledra Street from one side to the other, was the presence - for more than 34 years - of that military structure, designed to pay homage to the division and the Buffer Zone, which had - over the decades- become a popular tourist attraction. The structure, consisted of a wooden platform stretching along a wall, was marking the end of the Greek side of Ledra Street. On one side of the platform the Greek Cypriot military post, painted in the blue and white stripes of the Greek flag, from which a sentry was supposed to keep watch on his counterparts on the other side. The entrance to the post could be reached via a short flight of ten metal steps that visitors were encouraged to ascend. Normally, the sentry was available to offer his services, by providing a set of binoculars through which to view the elusive “other side”. The significance of this experience was considered so important that high level politicians visiting Cyprus for the first time were also taken there, to see and feel the injustice of division. The precise reconstruction of the checkpoint in front of the Pompidou Centre, few months after the controlled opening of Ledra street, was a challenging lookout platform for the visitors, not to catch a glimpse of the buffer zone - into and across the devision - but to observe an exemplar building of modern architecture , a timeless symbol of civilization and progress...
Years ago, way back in my childhood, while walking unconcernedly across Ledra Street, tenderly holding my mother’s hand, I couldn’t imagine that Ledra would so strongly mark not only my late teens but even my practice and narratives as an artist. Only a few years later, at the age of seventeen, as a male secondary school graduate, I served my two year mandatory military service there; the unforgettable, intense memories and the strong experience of the “Green Line” have been since then radically defined my entire oeuvre.
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H.A.M.’s carnival floats series (pages 166-177).
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Nicos Charalambidis’ Carnival Pause at the 3rd Athens Biennial 2011 MONODROMOS.
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Works by Andreas Lymberatos and Artemis Potamianou, participants at the Carnival Pause-Trolley Parade, 2011.
Airport’s trolleys by Nicos Charalambidis (2006).
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Duchamp’s Boîte-en-valise was described as a portable museum yet since he spent most of his working life living between Paris and New York, the valise housing his life’s work, became more of a legendary home. Transnationalism, nomadism, migration, refugees and Arab populations, who have been travelling, ever since I can remember, through Cyprus, on their way to Europe, are notions and experiences that had a great influence on me as a person and consequently a critical impact on my work; thus, in the early nineties, I established the idea of the Rambling/Rumpling Museum in the form of a portable home that runs along by a practice of constant transformation and translocation. Consistent to these ideas, the Rambling Museum, which reveals in the proposed tableau, combines a dialogue with Duchamp’s tactic, giving another option on the concept of a portable retrospective museum in miniature. The diminutive readymades, the reproductions and replicas of his works that had been assembled into his valise, have been replaced here with familiar figures and personalities of the world of art who have been connected, over the years - in one way or another- with some of the most characteristic aspects of my oeuvre.
The itinerant troupe of these personas, appeared rather like members of a hypothetical street theatre, is depicted also in a pop-up (hardcover) book, which could be placed on a shelf near the tableau. The pop-up book and its subtle interactive technology could provide an opportunity to the audience to learn further about the objects, the images, the persons and the rest of the elements that are illustrated in the scene, besides additional information of their connection with representative phases of my work. Moreover, through an interactive projection, the visitors could preferably continue their research finding, in a playful way, even more coherent material like videos, performances, and patterns to make small reproductions of some of my constructions from projects in which the personages of the tableau are involved. Clicking, for example, the figure of Catherine David, the visitor of the web-site, could get information about the Hollow Airport Museion, the ongoing participatory project at the vacant International Airport of Nicosia at the Green Line. Catherine is deliberately
The valise from a flight that never flew
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featured in front of a relic from a Styrofoam replica of Brandenburg Gate, which actually, was another one carnival float from the alternative Hollow Airport Museion carnival procession. A video with the whole procedure of the preparation of this Styrofoam float is only one of a number of videos that the visitor could preferably watch, depending of course of the time that he would like to dedicate. One of these videos could give brief information on the political situation in Cyprus, since the presence of the Pentadaktylos Mountains at the background of the tableau, point out that the whole scene takes place at the buffer zone in Nicosia and that the depicted rambling troupe is travelling across the Green Line. One might clearly see even the Turkish flag (the largest in the world) that the Turkish troops built on one of the slopes and obviously the unexpected coexistence with Brandenburg Gate, stands more symbolically than as a surreal allusion; indicating a hope for the reunion of the two populations of the island.
Another one critical video should feature the history of the Nicosia International Airport and the H.A.M. school of Fine Arts, on which the current project is based. Within the H.A.M.’s framework, a workshop could be developed, in collaboration with Fine Art students, inviting them to play a game with each of the tableau’s personages. The students, will ask from each one of them to prepare their own ‘’valise that never flew’’. The allegorical valises correspond to projects that the personages want-ed to organize but for various reasons they never did. Mostly through an electronic correspondence with them, the students will collect the necessary description of each project and coherent material. Accordingly, the projects will be presented in the form of a conference organized by the students, while some of them are going to impersonate the personages, wearing masks.
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Green Line’s Airport, has been the lair of most of my political interventions and the Rambling Museum that I initiated there, since the late eighties, risking -in some occasions- literally my life. Studying in Florence at a time when the increasing rates of the artistic stock market, was a main anxiety in art world and the trend was focusing on topics like Transavanguardia, I turned my interest to Superstudio and Adolfo Natalini, given that the specific situation of my homeland necessarily led me from the very beginning, in the search of more activistic ways to be an artist, than just struggling with oils on canvas.
Thus, it is not strange that my first interventions in the eighties were referring the Situation-ists’ fragmented cities and the Lego-type architecture of Cendric Price. Apparently the fusion of architecture and art was not yet so popular and for the majority of artists, there was no particular reason to go over Situationists’ work (hardly known by the most of them at that time).Those auda-cious activities, which presupposed a constant and painful process of struggling with United Na-tions’ bureaucracy and the military authorities of both the two sides of the island, had an inspiring and creative impact, after some years, on many artists and groups, not only in Cyprus but in the nearby area as well. In view of these thoughts, the leading image of Catherine David in the picture, evokes her decisively role in the expansion of a political artistic language in the Middle East apart, of course, the European scene (mostly after her legendary Documenta in Kassel). Nowadays, political art became, in many cases, another trend; in my country, not only the new generation but also older artists from other directions, are now «political», putting definitely all of their fingers in the jam. Most of them, only to daub it, I’m afraid, all over their face...
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The cycling apparatus that Catherine appears to direct, It’s a combination of a gymnastic equipment and a kind of a Beuysian sled with pedals (or a Trojan horse with wings – actually one could recognize even more references, like as to Leonardo or to Tatlin). As shown in the photographs, the trainee opens and closes the wings by pedaling. The patterns in order to construct a diminutive reproduction of this device are going to be included also in the stuff of both the book and the interactive projection; a replica in real size though, could be constructed from the team of Fine Arts’ students, as a result of the workshop. Consequently, the students could proceed to a happening using the replica as a vehicle for a symbolic route through the exhibition rooms of the BOZAR, during the period of preparation of the show, at the time when the most of the works would still be at the stage of unpacking. Following the happening’s plot, the rambling course from one room to the other, should stop at a certain point, as shown in the image below, and on a fabric screen, a video of a performance (on Kurt Schwitters’ Ur- Sonate and the pedaling vehicle in use) should be projected. This persistent procedure of constant varying of images, information and layers of ideas and interpretations, challenging the visitor’s attention, comes in contrast to the small space that the tableau could occupy in the exhibition,which strictly follows the dimensions of my valise.
In fact, what I have in mind, formatting the structure of this project, is Hitler’s bunker, the notorious Fuehrerbunker. The underground complexity of this den, corresponds here to the composite capabilities and multiple possibilities that electronic media and internet provides to art;
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nowadays an interactive website gives a real perspective to Duchamp’s ark, which could be converted from a portable valise into an electronic museum, allowing to its visitors the choice to open the door and visit all or some of its rooms. Consequently, in the interactive version of the tableau, the viewer could watch online the video recording and the stages of the proposed happening, while the whole procedure could be featured, through a selection of photographs in the book that is going to accompany the tableau; surprising the spectators who, out of the blue, will find an unexpected diary of the time of preparation of the exhibition. Additionally the visitors could recognize for example, that apart from the Beuysian vehicle, the depicted uplifted banner (image in the next page) is the one that had been used as a screen at the happening at the BOZAR. Evidently, one could realise that the valise-dimensional picture it’s only the camouflage of a deceiving gate that gradually leads to the hidden paths of an elaborate labyrinth, where in each of itsroom, a pregnant babushka resides.
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The banner at the image above should be used as a screen at the happening; on its white lining backside, one could barely read the phrase Siamo Noi La Rivolutione embroidered with white on the white surface. The banner, where the performance could be projected, has been made out of remnants from clothing that, as Social Gym, I had gathered for a supporting campaign to the Palestinian people in 2010. Eventually, Israeli authorities had stopped the aid ships before their arrival to Gasa Strip, forcing them to return, under the excuse that some of the activists were Turkish undercover agents.
Going back to the protagonists of the tableau, the banner is uplifted by the architect Zaha Hadid and Androulla Michael, the curator of my exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. In the interactive version, the visitor, clicking on the figure of Zaha, will be led at the visual material, which refers to a project in progress (in collaboration with Zaha’s office) of a pigeon tower for The Freedom Square, located at the heart of Nicosia. Hadid is assigned since 2010 to renovate the historic square with the town hall at the centre, as a part of a much larger urban unification of the last divided capital in Europe. The barrel - articulated pigeon tower, it’s a project based on my earlier ‘’stylites pillars’’ series, which was alluding the Christian Pillar-Saints, including pillar-like sculptural works that were providing the necessary height for a peering over the dividing wall.
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The upraised banner and the flags hold by Henry Meyric Hughes’s figure (the red for the revo-lution and the white for piece) connote the politicized character of the rambling companions, which is reinforced by slogans like the: Human Need Not Corporate Greed, written on the farm cart or like the dollar with the massage: Occupy, which appears at Hadid’s sleeve. Clicking on that, the visitor of the interactive version could go to a documentary material related to the Occupy the Wall Street movement, reflecting the timeliness meaning of the historic phrase of Beuys Siamo Noi La Rivolutione. Clicking on the figure of Nicolas Bourriaud (inside the wagon) one could be led to the Athens Biennial 2011, while the drums on the wagon, activate material from the Sao Paolo biennial 2006, where I had transported the barrels after the dis-
mantling of three barricades in the Green Line. A short video which features the whole process, the Samba dancers and the transformation of the barrels into musical instruments could also be in-cluded.
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Clicking the character of Jonathan Messe, the visitor activates a shadow puppet show, where a group of rebels fight against social injustice and economic depression, questioning the role of European Union today. In the left picture, the shadow of Joseph Beuys comes into view among the rebels, while his drawings create a harmonic combination with the origi-nal Greek representation of the myth of Europa’s abduction by Zeus, on the hydria of the Louvre collection. The picture will appear (image below) on one of the rebel’s protesting banners (the running hare and the rest black and white scene is the original Greek drawing without any addi-tional interventions from me).
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In 1987, an ethno-religiously motivated conflict in the neighboring Syria, (not surpris-ingly today the conflicts are getting increasingly serious) was for me the first stimulation to initiate the ‘’Stylites’’ series in reference to Saint Simeon Stylites, who was a Christian ascetic saint who achieved fame because he lived for 39 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo in Syria (purposefully, the allusion to Beuys’ Tram stop gives of course multiple keys to this series’ meanings). Following the Lego–type architecture of the walls of division in Cyprus and Palestine, I invented a way to build the pillars out of modular barrels. Amongst the minarets and the rest sculptures of that period, one of the most characteristic works, was an elevated platform (Social Gym, pages 108-9) with an immigrant family set on its surface, along with their entire housekeeping (furniture and car). The height at which the platform was elevated, like all the works of that series, was corresponding to that of a Parthenon’s column, while its structure, the use of cranes and the notion of a flexible and mutable architecture had an intrigued dialogue with Situationists and Cedric Price’s practice (especially to his Fun Pal-ace project); correspondingly, the solar powered, rotating pigeon tower could be considered as another one descendant of Price’s ‘’laboratory of fun’’, as he used to call his palace; the construction of the tower though, made out from barricade barrels, eventually gives to fun, a rather bitter taste.
Dovecote made from a dismantled barrel barricade.
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In the image at the right, Alain Seban speaking with Androulla Michael and me, wearing a replica of Nicosia Airport’s uniform, during the opening of my exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. It was the uniform that the forces of allies used to wear in the 40’s, when the airport was a base against Hitler’s troops. The fact that Cedric Price’s Fun Palace (1964) was a major influ-ence on Rogers and Piano’s architecture of the Centre (1977), as the two architects often affirm, was another challenge for me, since my initial priority was to intertwine the structure of Ledra barricade’s replica with the architectural concept and elements of the museum. Accordingly, the structure of the interactive version of the tableau follows Cedric’s playful labyrinthine percep-tion and even though Hitler’s bunker is not in any case connected with fun, I’ve always wondered what Cedric could manage to invent, if he was assigned to transform that underground construction. Well, I would dare to say that, by browsing the interactive programme, the visitors, could at least, visit a virtual transformation of the bunker, made by another group of students from the Athens Architecture School.
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Technically the tableau functions like a minefield; tap-dancing through, the visitors don’t know exactly which would be the next image to explore. Even the dark cloud in the Turner-like sky is activated, connecting the visitor with material from my exhibition at the Turner Contemporary. There, the dominant construction, a replica of the Mies van der Rohe monument (1926) is just another connotation for Hitler’s atrocities since he had purposefully destroyed the monument in 1935. Actually Hitler (his lair in the right image above) and the relevant history around his persona, is the thread of Ariadne that links all the corri-dors of the tableau’s labyrinth and unexpectedly all the characters of the peripatetic theatre. In the photos above the winged apparatus is in a direct dialogue with Stalin’s Stadium float, by which Russia has been represented at the ceremonial procession of the Berlin’s Olympics in 1936. The assemblage of shoes on its surface accentuates the references to Hitler’s concentration camps, but also with the refugee camps in Cyprus. The tableau acts as an archive of memories, highlighting the unexpected bonds between the history of central Europe and a peripheral country. Correspondingly, the tableau’s characters act as communicating vessels that rebound, from different paths, to the same destination. The photos below are only some samples of the links that give to the narration an inner consistency.
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Exile, refugees, political crisis and economic collapse are no-tions reflected through another one video on Kurt Schwitters that I had presented in the Venice Bi-ennial 2003, curated by Henry M. Hughes. Schwitters’ oeuvre and his life, play a metaphoric, crucial role in my work, while his percep-tion about the fragmented collag-es, echoes, for my point of view, the Situationists’ fragmented ar-chitecture and maps; after all, it seems like the tableau references more his Merz, than the postmod-ern practice of recent years...
The cycling gymnastic equipment at a shadow puppet show of Karagiozis, 2011.
A potential appearance of the gymnastic apparatus (images above and at the op-posite page) during the tour through BOZAR’s exhibition rooms.
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Carnival Pause at the 3rd Athens Biennial
The following text was written by museologist Evangelia Pelentridou on the occasion of the 3rd Athens Biennial 2011 MONODRO-MOS, with initial source the correspondence between the artist and Catherine David, as well as texts of the Art Historians, Vasilika Sarilki and Aspassia Mastogianni.
In the 3rd Athens Biennial 2011 MONODROMOS, Nikos Charalambidis presents a large scale multimedia installation entitled Carnival Pause. It is basically another project, part of the wider creative research of the artist, which focuses on the Hollow Airport Museion, an alternative School of Fine Arts, founded at the abandoned Nicosia International Airport, inside the buffer zone in Cyprus. The UN patrolled ghostly building, which has been an exemplar in the seventies for its architecture and its innovative tech-nology, has stood disused since the war of 1974. The initials of the “Art School” H.A.M., referred to Ham, Noah’s youngest son, who, after the flood, created the Middle East, Egypt, Lebanon and Cyprus, a region, on which the School concentrates its activities. H.A.M. brings the definition of Museum back to its ancient Greek dimension of the Museion, reacting to the process of collecting and exhibiting art; emphasizing mostly on the research and laboratory character of ancient Museion, Charalambidis proposes the establishment of a dynamic space of creative congregation that engages the viewer, after inviting the public, fellow artists, art students and scientists from other fields of research, with direct involvement in social interventions. The space thus modifies to a prototype Interdisciplinary School of Fine Arts, that follows the form and structure of an open Social Gym, as Charalambidis asserts, where internationally distinguished artists could ‘teach’, not only those directly involved with art, but a wide range of students from various social groups and scientific fields.
On the Carnival Pause Float, presented at Gran Canaria Εcho Festival (Las Palmas 2011), the mystic proceedings of the Ele-usinian Mysteries were brought together with local traditional customs and furthermore with rituals, which encompassed tec-tonic symbols. Moreover, three huts, brought from different cul-tural environments and situated in central regions of the town, hosted the archives of three airports- Airport of Nicosia, Beirut and Damascusreflecting the notion of a constantly disturbed area on the edge of the Mediterranean.
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The procession of the traditional farmer hut around Theatrou Square, the most turbulent square of Athens by impoverished immigrants and drug addicts, intended to the figurative, temporal protection of homeless people, who were lying on card-boards and impromptu “beds” of every kind. Apart from symbolic interpretations, the Carnival Pause hut points out HAM’ S nomadic nature. The artist includes in various exhibitions such type of huts, as representative annexes of the “Art School”, yet coming from totally diverse locations and cultural environments. Initially, by emphasizing the unexpectedly common elements of these houses, N. Charalambidis examines the similarities of the nomadic tribes’ way of life; their religions, the ceremonies they followed, as well as their evolution over time, until today.
The installation The island of Venus investigates allegorically the genetic causes of these similarities.During the three months of the exhibition Islas at Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno, a horse, which was nside the straw house of the installation, was revealing gradually to the viewers, by eating the bales of hay, that a limestone figurine of goddess Aphrodite, was hidden in every sheaf. Although the statuettes originated from completely different areas, such as Willendorf and Lassel, they disclosed surprisingly the same characteristics. At the same time drawings of five years old children, who were asked to duplicate complicated panels of robotic circuits, were projected on the two screens of the installation.Even if the children were from various cultural environments, they all attributed these complex layouts by following a peculiar, but mutual way of drawing.
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Along with the main program of the “Art School”, Charalambidis created the Arab Guggenheim Museum 1., a group that was established in 1999 and made its first public appearance in 2006, at the Sao Paulo Biennial composed by students from schools of architecture in Brazil, representing an alternat-ing, interdisciplinary participatory platform that gives back life to the abandoned building. A selection of renowned inter- national artists, with works of intense political concerns, such as Santiago Sierra, Narda Alvarado, William Kentridge, Nedko Solakov, Mounir Fatmi, Gulsun Kara-mustafa, Prav- doliub Ivanov, Ziad Antar, Kai Schiemerz etc. was the first group of professors of the School that was presented in 2009, at the exhibition, Black Little Curly Hair (Kappatos Gallery), while the transport-able Porch of the School, as well as the pecu-liar distinguish- ing mode of its operation, were present- ed at Charalambidis’solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 2008, entitled Ledra Barricade and inaugurated by Alain Seban, the President of the centre.
Considering that the building of the airport, where many people lost their lives in the battles of ‘74, should remain an emblematic place of memory and contemplation, the artist proposes, the form of a Hol-low -from art works- Museum; a participatory cultural centre for the problematic and constantly unstable area of the Eastern Mediterranean and the middle east. The projects, produced in the ancillary buildings of the airport area, are presented at the end of each academic year with the form of floats in a parade of portable platforms, the Carnival Pause. This is an alternative form of carnival, which evolves into the city, bringing the art to the public. Of course, carnival is a ceremony that doesn’t exist in Arabic civilization, even though it is so familiar to a variety of religions and cultures in the rest of the world. However, H.A.M. doesn’t follow a colonialist strategy, attempting to impose an overseas ritual; Carnival Pause in fact, derives its inspiration from the Ancient Greek, Elefsinian Mysteries and other eastern ceremonies and rituals, while referring to the very oriental custom of transporting and displaying merchandises in the street on wagons, carts and vehicles or even on bodies of costermongers, hawkers and peddlers that are very characteristic figures of the Arab world…
The president of Centre Pompidou, Alain Sebain, looking through the transportable Porches of the School, a smaller replica of Ledra Barricade, referring to Ronchamp Church.
1. This name is often used generally for the entire project, overlapping as a kind of nick name for the official name of the Museum.
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Hitler and the Nicosia International Airport
During the framework of the transformation process of the Airport, Ch-aralambidis has conceived and presented several components of the proposed training and working spaces, such as separating walls, cei-ings, floors, tiles, doors, toilets and urinals, as well as carpets, curtains or versatile multi-furniture workbenches for the students and the needs of teaching and training. These transportable furniture of multiple func-tions enable a series of activities such as lectures, workshops and performances, while serving the needs of representation of the Hollow Airport Museion in several international forums, exhibitions and events. This is a series of, mostly, wooden constructions which follow an allegorical design, drawing its elements and inspiration from historical events, buildings or monuments, such as the famous monument of Rosa Luxembourg’s, the Mies van der Rohe, which was destroyed by Hitler’s order; or the Stalinist moving stage presented at the opening ceremony of Hitler’s Olympics Games (Berlin, 1936).
The turrets of the barricades keep reoccurring in Charalampbidis’ artworks as an upfront or confirmed reference to architectural templates. The hut at the Biennial is in fact the inner shell of a pigeon house- on the ceiling of the artist’s house, as it is revealed in the video installation: Design your house and furniture in a way that could serve the revolution…
Following this format, in the current Carnival Pause Charalam-bidis presents, beyond the Arab Guggenheim Museum, an assemble of interdisciplinary/participatory platforms, such as the Airport Trolley Car-nival and the Tupperware project, in which many artists, as well as stu-dents from the Schools of Fine Arts of Athens, Thessaloniki and Florina have been invited. Moreover, Carnival Pause, as a dynamic project, will continue developing, during the exhibition, with series of various events, such as participatory art projects, performances, documentary films, lec-tures and pedagogical workshops.
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Charalambidis’ central carnival float at the 3rd Athens Biennial.
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The Carnival Pause workbench refers to Stalin’s float at the opening ceremony of Berlin Olympic Games 1936, while it invokes the luggage runaway of Nicosia International Airport.
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Curved bunker and a wooden skeleton for a H.A.M. cave, 2008.
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Below, teaching radiuses, that follow faithfully the characteristics of the so called “bridge, the stairway that the Turkish Cypriots had placed on the wall of Nicosia. The laminated cardboards that enable the platform to float are made from photocopies of the “UN Annan Plan”, as well as posters or other printed material used in public meetings before and after the referendum in Cyprus.
Hitler is a reference that returns consistently in many works of Charalambidis and es-pecially those referred to the Hollow Museum of the Nicosia International Airport. One of the project’s associated with this is the grand, mobile library, named Jules Verne, indicating the first allied plane that took off against Hitler from this airport during the German occupation. The mobile components of the library were designed in 2009, after the art-ist had been invited to partici-pate in the Amiens’ festival, the city where Jules Verne lived and wrote his science fiction novels. The platform with this particular reference, is presented in the current exhibition, immobi-lized by a Greek traditional Peas-
Above, an aspect of one of the bookcases, referring to Jules Verne novels.
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Airport Trolley Carnival and Tupper-ware Project are two of the most success-ful projects that have been occurred in many countries, such as Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Italy and of course in Greece and Cyprus. Through these projects MONO-DROME is being redefined by delimiting the Monodrome- barricades of Nicosia wall. The participants are invited to undertake art-works on airport trolleys, in the form of miniature carnival floats, or/and in plastic household containers; related to the most valuable objects in the refugee camps in Cyprus in ‘74. The tupper was essential to storing and conserving food, since the lack of electrical appliances was inevitable. The works of art are collected by the artist, with the ultimate aim of building a wall with
ant hut, highlighting the strength and durability through the years, of this nomadic grass thatched house, in contrast to the complete collapse of totalitarian regimes that initially appear in the form of powerful and diminished sovereignty. The current political status in Europe that re-establishes a model of German sovereignty, raises dramatically inquiries on the concept of democracy, indepen-dence and free will; forcing us to reconsider the dictatorial nature that lurks in the modern democra-cies of globalization.
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The “bicycle-plane”, one of the H.A.M.’s floats is actually one of the characteristic mechanisms for gymnastics, which is, like the rest of this series, a peculiar mode of political protest. The rotating propeller, which, by being logged to the pedals, operates with the motion of the cyclist, aims to convey in wide range the protest messages that the cyclist reads through the speaker. In fact, the transmission of political texts and slogans is being cancelled after the continuous rotation of the propeller, where the speakers are based, converts the sound into an abstract, almost musical effect, without specific content. KSERO masks (which in Polish means duplicate copy, photocopy) proposed by the student group NO EGO, from Thessaloniki Art School, for the various actions of Carnival Pause, commenting on the phenomenon of massification of individual will and personality, as well as the meanings of copy and replica that intrudes in most of the artist’s projects.
The texts of the Carnival Pause were written by museologist Evangelia Pelentridou and edited by Iro Adrakta, with initial source the correspondence between the artist and Catherine David, as well as the texts of the Art Historians, Vasilika Sarilki and As-passia Mastogianni.
plastic bricks that will replace a piece of the real wall in Nicosia. In contrast with the wall that bisects, the wall of tupper unifies, expressing the desire of people from different parts of the globe to reunite the island. Moreover, the plastic wall alters the militaristic role of the soldiers who guard the existing dividing wall, to guards of an open monumental work of art. At the biennial’s exhibiting room, the Airport Trolley Carnival combined with the Tupperware Project, are placed at the perimeter of the“Stalinist float”, so as to demarcate a specified route, implying MONODROME, while simultaneously to induce the reaction and hope of overturning it.
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In the colors of the Cyprus Airways is set up the booth with the records of the Nicosia International Airport during the events of the Echo Festival (Las Palmas, 2011).
Νιcolas Bourriaud and Lisette Lagnado, watching from the porch the rehearsal of the Carnival Pause, at the Sao Paulo Biennale, 2006. The huts, the floating platforms and the transportable multi-furniture, such as the loom in Athens Bien-nial (photo next page) are some of the characteristic means of presentation recruited from H.A.M.
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Rietveld’s Red Blue Chair blocked in a traditional loomMulti functional working platform, 2007.
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Airport trolley used as H.A.M.’s info-kiosk, in the exterior area of the personal exhibition of the artist at Turner Contemporary, 2006.
The loom, one of the multi-furniture that are present-ed in Athens Biennial, is part of a group of works that draw elements from the utopian movements of mod-ernism. Bauhaus, Suprematisme and Russian Avant Garde are initiating a series of training workshops that highlight the utopian character of H.A.M.
Snapshot of students’ performance from the Art Schools of Florina (3rd drawing workshop), Thessaloniki (2nd drawingworkshop) and Athens (1st sculpture workshop) that took part in the Carnival Pause of Athens Biennial, 2011.
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Carnival Pause installation, 2007.
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235The vacant building of the Nicosia Airport
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HOLLOW AIRPORT MUSEUM
‘The ham sandwich is the most common type of sandwich’
The following text is an Abstract from the artist’s correspondence with Cathrine David
…..the Arab Guggenheim Museum, or more officially, the Hollow Airport Museum (H.A.M.), reflects the Ancient Greek model of a Museion, a meeting place and an interdisciplinary laboratory for creative activities, a kind of ceaseless workshop, rather than the Anglo-Saxon model of an exhibition space, as established since 1759 with the founding of the British Museum. Arab Guggenheim, highlights the original Ancient Greek idea of a cultural/educational meeting point, where poets, musicians, artists and scientists could work together - under the protection of the Muses, in effect, taking the form of an alternative Art School: a small selection of international artists could be invited for a period of three months to undertake the role of the teachers of the school. In fact, the artists/teachers could be invited to carry out one of their own projects, working in collaboration with their ‘students’. The students would work under the instructions of the artists in order to accomplish their projects, while in parallel doing their own work under the supervision of the artist. Of course the final products will belong to the guest artists but the documentary of the entire procedure (films, interviews, texts and the relics of the activities) accompanied with smaller models and replicas of the artists’ final work, could constitute a new artwork, a parallel installation- acquisition of the museum’s archive.
A group of Iranian women during a performance at the Hollow Airport Museum, 2008
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Scenes from the 2007 Carnival Pause.
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The initials of the Hollow Airport Museum, H.A.M refer to Nohan’s son who, according to the bible had moved southwest into the north of Africa (Egypt, Israel) and the Middle East, considered as the forefather of these nations - on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean.The vacant airport, located within the No man’s land of the Green Line, is a hollow militarized building, under the United Nations’ control, since the 1974’s war. If we search for correlations, Hollow means:
vacant, unoccupied, empty, void, unfilled, having nothing inside; bowl shaped, concave; worthless, meaningless, deep n. hole, cavity; sunken area; small valley v. excavate, dig out, make hollow
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H.A.M.’s installation for the White House Biennial.
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Scenes from the 2007 Carnival Pause.
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“ Heroic Souliot Woman committing suicide, throwing herself off the steep cliff ” performance, homage to Eugene Delacroix, 1997.
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One of the silk banners of Nicos Charalambidis’ Carnival Pause at the 3rd Athens Biennial 2011 MONODROMOS.
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A small replica of the airport’s oldest control tower (photo below) stands as a dovecot at the Saadallah Al-Jabiri square in Aleppo, claiming though its “democratic structure” that peace, freedom and democracy are urgent necessities
At the photo on the left page and at the right photo above, views of the W.H.B.’s “portable living rooms”.
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The program gives to local students and artists the opportunity to collaborate with international artists, and the possibility to get familiar with their practices and their oeuvre; consequently gives the “teachers” , beyond any other experience, an opportunity to learn as much as possible about the political situation in the Middle East, and –naively speaking- to be awarded of how many problems, the contention for oil, caused to these countries and the nearby area. One ironic and almost symbolic thing to mention here is that the dividing wall in Cyprus is constructed from empty oil containers. Petroleum, the real reason for the war, is at the same time the element that literally divides the island...
On the other hand, beyond all serious correlations, HAM in a funny way, reflecting the location of the building, is the contested, tasty delicatessen of a sandwich area, between the Turkish and Greek parts; echoing the variety of cultural mutations that English colonization caused in the everyday life of the island, given that ham, it’s one of the characteristic words that Cypriots have adopted in their local vocabulary, almost forgetting the corresponding word in Greek...Accordingly, HAM, should be the meeting point for artists preferably coming from “sandwich areas”, countries with similar political problems, contested districts and divided regions.
“Violence through Fashion”, series of 12 Paintings, variable dimensions, Channel Zero exhibition - NIMk - Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam,2004.
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The vacant Nicosia International Airport, where the visitors could still see the blood stains from the war victims, on the seats of what was once a modern departure lounge mixed with debris and copious pigeons’ droppings.
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261H.A.M.’s installation 2004.
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Carnival Pause: At the end of the activities, the outcomes of the “art-school” could be presented, before the artists/teachers’ departure, following the format of a carnival parade into the town. Emphasizing the nomadic character of the museum, the exhibits could be set up on floats and “meet” people in public spaces, streets and plazas, instead of waiting for them to visit the museum. Of course, Carnival is a ceremony that doesn’t exist in Arab culture, even though it is so familiar to a variety of religions and cultures in the rest of the world; thus, trying to impose a ‘foreign’ ritual on them, sounds like a colonialist strategy. In fact, the Museum’s Carnival parade has nothing to do with the usual procession; the real orientation here is nothing more than the very oriental custom of displaying merchandise in the streets; costermongers, hawkers and peddlers are very characteristic figures in the Arab everyday life….
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like amphorae, the glass room from which you could look down on the departure lounge and keep your loved ones in sight until the very last minute and the terrace from where you could almost catch the aircraft ... all of that stuff had transformed the airport into a magic Disney Land building for me.
Buildings as Icons
The following artist’s text has been included at the Paris/Chypre catalogue on occasion of the exhibition Waiting to hear from you soon, curated by Andri Michael, 2008
It’s interesting to take a look at the history through emblematic buildings. The war in Cyprus in the Seventies was fought against a backdrop of Modernist buildings. One of these, connected with my most intense memories is Nicosia International Airport, one of the prototype airports in the Middle East until July of 1974 when it shut down and was practically abandoned. Today its remains lie in the UN controlled Buffer Zone to the west of Nicosia. My family used to go there, very often, enjoy a nice dinner or coffee and watch the planes since the elegant terminal, boasted a high quality restaurant, cafeterias, bars and a fine viewing terrace from which you could almost touch the aircraft. There, I had my first experience of airplanes and of the first automatic escalators, which my child’s eyes imagined as slides in a playground. The round armchairs of the cafes that looked
The vacant building is the central reference in many of my projects. In 1995, a clandestine mission had been devised so as for me to have access to the building under very risky conditions and capture the photographic material and the authentic layout of the airport, necessary to produce one of my videos. The impact of the vital force of this architectural symbol of modernism was not effective enough to hide the huge blood stains from the violent battles of 1974, which can still be seen on the seats of what was once a modern departure lounge, mixed with debris and copious bird droppings.
Replica of the artists’ house at the national garden of Athens (see next pages)
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The exquisite glass façade of the airport (picture above) was the pattern for one of the glass facades of the artist;s house (picture below).
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The Arab Guggenheim Museum
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In 2004,Rauche, a seaside District, not far from the town centre, was considered, the perfect location, to host HAM’s activities. Not only be-cause of its unique location and magnificent view over Mediterranean sea, but also because of be-ing a space charged with the Lebanese historical past. During French colonialism the whole area of Rauche had been the site of a French military camp, which in 1980 had been burnt to the ground by a fire caused by a group of Lebanese partisans.
The architect’s proposal focuses on a ver-sion of the Mies van der Rohe monument, which he had designed for the city of Berlin (1926) as a memorial to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and had been dismantled by Hitler in 1933. Accord-ing to the scenario of the new version, the monu-ment is transformed into a transportable building, to house the Arab Guggenheim Museum. After a period of two year’s activities, the structure will be transported to Cyprus for another two years and subsequently to other towns in the Arab world. Due to the troubled political situation of the Middle East -and the nearby region -the founder and the share-holders of Guggenheim, have approved the archi-tect’s idea of a portable, wandering museum. The particular Lego-type design of the legendary Mies monument gave to the architect the ideal solution to carrying out the project. Inspired by the constructiv-ist outline of the monument and following its struc-tural boxes as a pattern, a radical building has been formed out of revolutionary ecological materials, which could provide an exceptionally light result to the whole structure.
The Arab Guggenheim Museum in BeirutThe storyline of a transportable museum.
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10. Propagandawagen1930.
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Apart from the top units (artists’ multimedia lab and cinema /conference -room) and some other dark rooms for video installations, the 1st, 2nd and 3d �oor are made of hemi-transparent glass. The rest of the surfaces are wooden parts. As for the various segmentations inside the museum, panels made out of compressed paper will be used so as to achieve a result as light as possible. The inner form of the museum, especially regarding the ground level, can be organized concerning its exhibitions needs. This can be achieved by using the compressed paper-panels in order to isolate works or create group of works.
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The opening of the new Guggenheim museum will take placenext summer in Beirut. Rauche, a seaside district not far fromthe town痴cen tre ,w as cons ide red as the su itab le loca tionnot only because of its rare spot and its wonderful view, butalso because of being a space chargedof the Lebanese historical past.During the French colonialism the whole area of Rauche hadcomprised the quarters of a French military camp, which in1980 had been reduced to ashes by a fire caused by a groupof Lebanese partisans.
The architect痴p roposa l focuses on a ve rs ion o f theM ies van de rR ohem onum en t,w h ich he haddesigned for the city of Berlin (1926) in memorial to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburgand had been dismantled from Hitler some years later. According to the scenario of the new version,the monument is transformed into a transportable building, to house the Arab Guggenheim Museum.After a period of two year痴ac tiv ities the s truc tu rew illbe transpo rted in Is tanbu l fo ro the r tw o yea rsand accordingly to other towns of the Arab world.Due to the troubled political situation of the Middle East -of the Arab region in general- the foundersand shareholders of Guggenheim, conceived the idea of a portable, rambling museum.Thus, the particular Lego-type design of the Mies monument gave them the ideal solution in orderto carry out their project. Inspired from the constructivist outline of the monument and following itsstructural boxes as pattern, a radical building has been formed out of revolutionary materials,which could provide an exceptionally light result to the whole structure. In case of war, the boxesof the museum can be deconstructed and transported to another Arab country.Following a premeditated rearrangement of the boxes the museum can easily be rebuilt at asignificant location, preferably incorporating remnants of the past of each country, buildings,monuments, antiquities etc.In Beirut, for case in point, the main building of the museum has been surrounded by a group ofassistant buildings which have been built, following the original plans of the demolished quartersof the French military camp; bringing back to life memories of an era that left its indelible traces onLebanese people. The long central buildings of the camp that in the past had housedthe administration and the command痴o ffices have been conve rted in to a se r ies o fve rsa tileworkshops for local and invited artists while the soldiers cham be rs have beenconverted into artists s tud ios .
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Thanks to the portability of the museum the structure will be able to rumble throught the arab states rising it’s cultural in�uence and protecting the exhibits in case of con�ict.
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The opening of the new Guggenheim museum will take place next summer in Beirut. Rauche, a seaside district not far from the town痴 cen tre , w as cons ide red as the su itab le loca tion not only because of its rare spot and its wonderful view, but also because of being a space charged of the Lebanese historical past. During the French colonialism the whole area of Rauche had comprised the quarters of a French military camp, which in 1980 had been reduced to ashes by a fire caused by a group of Lebanese partisans.
The architect痴 p roposa l focuses on a ve rs ion o f the M ies van de r R ohe m onum en t, w h ich he had designed for the city of Berlin (1926) in memorial to Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg and had been dismantled from Hitler some years later. According to the scenario of the new version, the monument is transformed into a transportable building, to house the Arab Guggenheim Museum. After a period of two year痴 ac tiv ities the s truc tu re w ill be transpo rted in Is tanbu l fo r o the r tw o yea rs and accordingly to other towns of the Arab world. Due to the troubled political situation of the Middle East -of the Arab region in general- the founders and shareholders of Guggenheim, conceived the idea of a portable, rambling museum. Thus, the particular Lego-type design of the Mies monument gave them the ideal solution in order to carry out their project. Inspired from the constructivist outline of the monument and following its structural boxes as pattern, a radical building has been formed out of revolutionary materials, which could provide an exceptionally light result to the whole structure. In case of war, the boxes of the museum can be deconstructed and transported to another Arab country. Following a premeditated rearrangement of the boxes the museum can easily be rebuilt at a significant location, preferably incorporating remnants of the past of each country, buildings, monuments, antiquities etc. In Beirut, for case in point, the main building of the museum has been surrounded by a group of assistant buildings which have been built, following the original plans of the demolished quarters of the French military camp; bringing back to life memories of an era that left its indelible traces on Lebanese people. The long central buildings of the camp that in the past had housed the administration and the command痴 o ffices have been conve rted in to a se r ies o f ve rsa tile workshops for local and invited artists while the soldiers cham be rs have been converted into artists s tud ios .
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5.The Mies Van der Rohe Monument in Berlin
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The Arab Guggenheim design 6.Floors schetches.
The Mies lego-type model was selected for the museum structure
The construction of the museum had to be such, which could be easily dismantled and carried. It had to be light and easy to reconstruct in any case. The architect thought of using raw materials that could be found in the local area and ended up in using sun-dried cow’s remnants along with mud, for the external cover of the museum. These brick-textured panels will be set on metal unfolding structures bound with each other and based on metal columns.
Interdisciplinary Project. A parallel workshop could begin along with the opening of the biennial and run till the conclusion of the exhibition. The prospective of inviting the students from the school of Fine Arts to get involved in the project is of great importance. Having the original Mies monument as pattern they could propose ways/solutions of trans-forming this emblematic structure into a museum. As artists, they could present particular architectural models made out of various material, making also sketches, drawings and 3D plans. Creating 3D visit-ing plans of the interiors of the museum, they could organise an entire exhibition displaying their own artworks in the museum’s imaginary spaces. Their artworks/proposals, following the political concept of the museum most probably within a relevant political framework . Thus, we could have a portable “portfolio” of their works that functions as a political statement, a kind of a political traveling manifesto.
We live in an information society. All manner of data can be collected transmitted and relocated and this data can be used to create animated surfaces within a structure, while also forming the fundamental building blocks. Cyberspace, virtuality, biotechnology and even nanotechnology all have a potential impact on the architecture of today. The Arab Guggenheim suggests an alternative way of approaching…
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7.wooden model
8.light sun-dried brick
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The construction of the museum had to be such that it could be easily dismantled and transported. It had to be light and easy to reconstruct in any case. The architect thought of using raw mterials that could be found in the local area and ended up using sun-dried cow dung along with mud, for the outer skin of the museum. These brick textured panels will be set on metal unfolding structures bound together and based on metal columns and sun dried brick.
In case of war in the host country, the boxes of the museum can be deconstructed and transported to another Arab country allow-ing the Arab Guggenheim to continue its activi-ties. Following a premeditated rearrangement of the boxes, the museum can easily be rebuilt at a significant location, preferably incorporating remnants of the past from each country, build-ings, monuments, antiquities etc. In Beirut, for a case in point, the main building of the museum has been surrounded by a group of out buildings which have been built following the original plans of the demolished quarters of the French military camp; bringing back to life memories of an era that left its indelible mark on Lebanese people. The long central buildings of the camp that in the past had housed the administration and the com-mandants offices have been converted into a se-ries of versatile workshops for local and invited artists, while the soldiers barracks have been converted into artists’ studios.
H.A.M’s carnival floats.
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The row of long central buildings in the camp that served as administration and commander’s offices in the past, have been converted into a series of versatile workshops for local and invited foreign artists, while the soldiers’ barracks have been converted into a block of studios for the artists. The architect has played upon the former French ruins by creating baths, a swimming pool, changing rooms and an Arabic hammam by excavating the ground, with the guidance of a geologist about the composition of the strata.
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This series of constructions rest on foundations of local history and of course on the daily routine of Arab life. All the excavations and erections that have taken place within the site have been supervised by a special geologist; in direct collaboration with the architect they have confronted the complexity of creating dykes wending through a sea of rocks and connecting with one another through a path made of concrete. The composition inevitably immerses itself in the sea. The galleries of the museum have been camouflaged behind a ramp and a mesh-rope glass façade. The latter dispels the direct penetration of sunlight, whilst the ramp bridges the path of the procedure from the inception of the concept and its creations within the workshops, to the final phase of its display in the museum, a refreshment café both for the visitors and the artists has been molded to follow the site’s contour lines.
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Thanks to the portability of the museum the structure will be able to perigrinate through the Arab states, raising its cultural influence and protecting the exhibits in case of conflict.
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19. Khalil Gibran.
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cinema/conference-room.
Artists’s workshops entrance
ground �oor exhibition ,Malevich unit(café,children workshops,library,shop)
1° �oor
2° �oor exhibition boxes
3° �oor
Museum Units
printing press.
store room.
rest area
multimedia lab.
upper level bedroom.
Artist’s worskhop room.
On top of the building there are two main units of great importance. The Guggenheim Foundation, apart from having the group of the assistant buildings surrounding the museum, functioning as workshops or studios for artists, thought of having a similar unit incorporated in the main building. This unit’s differen-tiation is based upon the focus on multimedia practices and computer lab facilities’ usage. Apart from the equipment offered by the museum, educational programs/seminars on new technology techniques and program use are also going to take place. This happens so as to stimulate local artists’ interest concerning contemporary mediums for art production and encourage them to produce artworks under this new aspect, maintaining though their own distinct local character a point of view. The second unit on top is a cinema/conference-room. It has a capacity of four-hundred people and it is expected to host movie and video festivals, as well as conferences and speeches. It is also going to be used within the framework of educational programs that the museum organizes for schools and universi-ties.
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According to the mission statement , the Arab Guggenheim will try to o�er the Arab audience the opportunity of being informed on subjects concerning visual arts and also communicate them the modern and global contemporary art through well-organized exhibitions and educational programs. One of the main concerns for Arab Guggenheim is to inform people in the Middle East about cultural issues, especially young children, and engage the Arab world intensively into the global production and distribution of art, by encouraging global production. Thus, the Arab Guggenheim Foundation will give the opportunity to native artists to participate in its exhibition program with works that represent the era of the local cultural signals. The Foundation imagines an intervention of East and West culture that will bring along very interesting results.
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On the back side of the museum a glass-frame construction has been set on parts of the surface and also anoth-er one on the top of the museum.
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”ميهناجوغ“ يبرعلا فحتملا
. ةشورلا-توريب يف مداقلا فيصلا يف ماقيس ”ميهناجوغ “ ديدجلا فحتملا حاتتفإ نا سيل ًايلاثم ًاعقوم ربتعت تناك.ةنيدملا طسو نع ةديعب ريغ ةيلحاس ةقطنم يه ةشورلا
ةيضرأ ةعقب اهنوكل لب، طسوتملا ضيبالا رحبلا ىلع رحاسلا اهرظنم ببسب طقف.يخيراتلا نانبل يضامب ةلقثم
يذلا يسنرفلا ركسعملل لقعم ةشورلا ةقطنم لك تناك ، نانبلل يسنرفلا بادتنالا ناّبأ ةّوق يف ءاضعأ)راصنألا نيينانبللا نم ةعومجم نع مجن يذلا قيرحلا ببسب 1980 ماع رمد
(هيلع ةرّركتملا تاراغلا نشبودعلا جاعزإ اهتمهم ةّيماظن ريغ
يذلا حرصلا صخي امب «شور راد ناف سيم » ةيرظن ىلعزكرت يرامعملا سدنهملا ضرع نا يذلاو«غروبمسكول ازور «و » تشنبيل لراك» ىركذ يف 1926 ماع نيلرب ةنيدمل هممّص
.1933 ماع رلته نع ىّلخت فحتملا ءاِويال لقنتم ىنبم ىلا لّوح حرصلا ، ةديدجلا ةيرظنلا ويرانيس بسحبو
(بّكرملا ءانبلا ) ةبيكرتلا هذه ، طاشنلا نم نيتنس ةرتف دعبو . «ميهناجوغ » يبرعلا.يبرعلا ملاعلا يف ىرخأ ندم ىلا كلذكو نيتيفاضإ نيتنس ةدمل صربق ىلا لقنتس
نإ – ةرواجملا ةقطنملاو – طسوألا قرشلا ةقطنم يف يسايسلا عضولا بارطضإل ارظن.القنتم ًافحتم ءاشنإل هتركف اورقأ «ميهناجوغ » فحتملا اذهب نيمهاسملاو سّسؤملا
، يراكذتلا «سيم» يروطسألا ىنبملا اذهل «وغيل» لا لكش ىلع صاخلا ميمصتلا اذه ةيرامعملا ةضيرعلا طوطخلا نم ارثأتم. هعورشم ذفني يكل يلاثملا لحلا سدنهملل ىطعأ
ايرذج فلتخملا ىنبملا نا ،تابعكملا ىلع ةينبملا ةيسدنهلا ةبيكرتلل ًاعبت حرصلل فيفخ يئانثتسإ نزو يطعت تناك ةثدحتسم ةيئيب داوم نم مّمص، ىرخألا ينابملا نع
.هلمكأب ىنبملل ىلا لقنتو كّكفتت نا نكمم فحتملل ةّيبيكرتلا تابعكملا نا ، برح بوشن لاح يف
عم رخآ عقومب فحتملا اذه ءانب ةداعاو تابعكملا هذه بيكرت ةداعا لّهستو .رخآ يبرع دلب ،ينابم ، ةّيخيرات حرص ءانب ىتح وأ ميمرت عم ، دلب لك يضام نم اياقب لاخدا ةّيلضفأ
.خلا....تايرثأ ىلع تينب ةّيفاضا ينابم ةعومجمب طيحأ فحتملل يساسألا ىنبملا ،الثم توريب يف
تفّلخ ةّيخيرات ةبقح تايركذ ايحأ يذلا يسنرفلا ركسعملل ةّيساسألا تاميمصتلا زارط. لازت ال راثآ ينانبللا بعشلل
بتاكم ةمدخو ةرادإلا رودب موقت تناك يتلا ركسعملل ةيساسألا ينابملل ليوطلا فّصلا نا نييلحم نييفرحل بناوجلا ةدّدعتملا لغاشملا نم ةلسلس ىلا تلّوح ، يضاملا يف ةدايقلا
ىلا تلّوح ركاسعلا فرغ امنيب . بناجأ نييفرح نم نيوعدمو
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The “Malevich construction”, located at the center of the museum, incorporates versatile functions.It is a portable multi-store unit of buildings includes a library, a retail store, a workspace for the students’ educational programs (tables, audio-visual equipment etc.), a Starbucks coffee store*, an internet room, toilets and a lift. All this multifunctional area has come out of a painting by Kazimir Malevich and the visitor will have the opportunity to see this”painting”from the upper levels of the museum.
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1° floor
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entrance starabucks café library
Cinema/projection room.
Computer Room.
*Starbucks company, as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), offered to build a coffee shop into the museum and offer its products at cost prices. Also, in collaboration with the museum, Starbucks is collecting, through its stores all over the world, Eng-lish ]books in order to provide local students with such an edu-cational material (literature, art, philosophy, English).
Apart from the top units (artists’ multimedia lab and cinema/conference-room) and some other dark rooms for video installations, the remaining 1st, 2nd and 3d floors are made of semi-transparent glass. The rest of the surfaces consist of wooden components. As for the various divisions inside the museum, partitions made out of compressed paper will be used to achieve as light a result as possible. The inner spaces of the museum, particularly the ground level, can be organized to suit specific exhibitions using the compressed paper partitions to create spaces for individual exhibits or group of works.
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The “Malevich construction” is made mainly out of glass and metal frames. The several levels of the museum are based on metal col-umns. It is a portable multi-store unit.
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3D studies of the Mies van de Rohe Monument
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ohe
mul
ti fu
rnitu
re p
latfo
rm, A
then
s Fa
ir ,2
008.
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The
Car
niva
l Pau
se a
t “W
hat R
emai
ns is
Fut
ure”
exh
ibiti
on, P
atra
s, C
ultu
ral C
apita
l, cu
rate
d by
Nad
ja A
rgyr
opou
lou,
Pat
ras,
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ece
2006
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The Carnival Pause at “What Remains is Future” exhibition, Patras, Cultural Capital, curated by Nadja Argyropoulou, Patras, Greece 2006.
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The
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.A.M
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de fr
om th
e ho
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“Tra
nsex
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nces
” at 7
98 A
rt Zo
ne in
Bei
jing,
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na 2
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Replica of the Barcelona pavillon’s glass facade, transported from the art-ist’s home and restructured at the international exhibition, Outlook, during the Olympic Games 2004.
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”ميهناجوغ“ يبرعلا فحتملا
. ةشورلا-توريب يف مداقلا فيصلا يف ماقيس ”ميهناجوغ “ ديدجلا فحتملا حاتتفإ نا اهرظنم ببسب طقف سيل ًايلاثم ًاعقوم ربتعت تناك.ةنيدملا طسو نع ةديعب ريغ ةيلحاس ةقطنم يه ةشورلا
.يخيراتلا نانبل يضامب ةلقثم ةيضرأ ةعقب اهنوكل لب، طسوتملا ضيبالا رحبلا ىلع رحاسلا ببسب 1980 ماع رمد يذلا يسنرفلا ركسعملل لقعم ةشورلا ةقطنم لك تناك ، نانبلل يسنرفلا بادتنالا ناّبأ تاراغلا نشبودعلا جاعزإ اهتمهم ةّيماظن ريغ ةّوق يف ءاضعأ)راصنألا نيينانبللا نم ةعومجم نع مجن يذلا قيرحلا
(هيلع ةرّركتملا
نيلرب ةنيدمل هممّص يذلا حرصلا صخي امب «شور راد ناف سيم » ةيرظن ىلعزكرت يرامعملا سدنهملا ضرع نا.1933 ماع رلته نع ىّلخت يذلاو«غروبمسكول ازور «و » تشنبيل لراك» ىركذ يف 1926 ماع
دعبو . «ميهناجوغ » يبرعلا فحتملا ءاِويال لقنتم ىنبم ىلا لّوح حرصلا ، ةديدجلا ةيرظنلا ويرانيس بسحبو نيتيفاضإ نيتنس ةدمل صربق ىلا لقنتس (بّكرملا ءانبلا ) ةبيكرتلا هذه ، طاشنلا نم نيتنس ةرتف
.يبرعلا ملاعلا يف ىرخأ ندم ىلا كلذكو اذهب نيمهاسملاو سّسؤملا نإ – ةرواجملا ةقطنملاو – طسوألا قرشلا ةقطنم يف يسايسلا عضولا بارطضإل ارظن
.القنتم ًافحتم ءاشنإل هتركف اورقأ «ميهناجوغ » فحتملا
لحلا سدنهملل ىطعأ ، يراكذتلا «سيم» يروطسألا ىنبملا اذهل «وغيل» لا لكش ىلع صاخلا ميمصتلا اذه ةيسدنهلا ةبيكرتلل ًاعبت حرصلل ةيرامعملا ةضيرعلا طوطخلا نم ارثأتم. هعورشم ذفني يكل يلاثملا
تناك ةثدحتسم ةيئيب داوم نم مّمص، ىرخألا ينابملا نع ايرذج فلتخملا ىنبملا نا ،تابعكملا ىلع ةينبملا.هلمكأب ىنبملل فيفخ يئانثتسإ نزو يطعت
لّهستو .رخآ يبرع دلب ىلا لقنتو كّكفتت نا نكمم فحتملل ةّيبيكرتلا تابعكملا نا ، برح بوشن لاح يف عم ، دلب لك يضام نم اياقب لاخدا ةّيلضفأ عم رخآ عقومب فحتملا اذه ءانب ةداعاو تابعكملا هذه بيكرت ةداعا
.خلا....تايرثأ ،ينابم ، ةّيخيرات حرص ءانب ىتح وأ ميمرت تاميمصتلا زارط ىلع تينب ةّيفاضا ينابم ةعومجمب طيحأ فحتملل يساسألا ىنبملا ،الثم توريب يف
. لازت ال راثآ ينانبللا بعشلل تفّلخ ةّيخيرات ةبقح تايركذ ايحأ يذلا يسنرفلا ركسعملل ةّيساسألا
يضاملا يف ةدايقلا بتاكم ةمدخو ةرادإلا رودب موقت تناك يتلا ركسعملل ةيساسألا ينابملل ليوطلا فّصلا نا فرغ امنيب . بناجأ نييفرح نم نيوعدمو نييلحم نييفرحل بناوجلا ةدّدعتملا لغاشملا نم ةلسلس ىلا تلّوح ،
.نييفرحلل تاهويدتسا ىلا تلّوح ركاسعلا ليدبتل فرغ ،ةحابس ةكرب ،تامامح ءانب ةركف هنم طبنتساو ،قباسلا يسنرفلا ماطحلا ىلع زكترا سدنهملا نا
.نداعملا ةبيكرت ةساردل يجولويج ملاع فارشاب ضرألا بيقنت لالخ نم يبرعلا مامحلاو ، سبالملا
.يبرعلا ناسنإلا تايموي ىلع عبطلابو يلحملا خيراتلا يضارأ ىلع عقت ال ينابملا نم ةلسلسلا هذه رشابملا نواعتلاب صّصختم ّيجولويج اهيلع فرشأ ، عقوملا يف تلصح يتلا تادييشتلاو تابيقنتلا لك نم ضعبلا اهضعب عم ةطبارتمو رخصلا نم رحب يف ةرومغم ةينقأ ءاشنإ ةدقع ًاعم اوهجاوو ّيرامعملا سدنهملا عم
.تنمسإلا نم عونصم رمم لالخ لكشب سمشلا ةعشأ لوخد نم فّفخت ةّيجاجزلا ةهجاولا نإ – ةّيجاجز ةهجاوو نوزبارد فلخ تأّبخ فحتملا ضراعم نإ
لغشملا يف هلمع ةجيتنو ناّنفلل ةّيساسألا ةركفلا نيب لصولا ةّيلمعب موقي نوزباردلا امنيب ، رشابم.ضرعملا يف اهضرعب ةّيئاهنلا ةلحرملا ىلإ ًالوصو
.عقوملازارط ىلع ةّيرامعملا ىلحلاو توحنلاب نّيزم نيناّنفلاو نيرئازلل ىهقم دوجوو
نع ةرابع وه ،ينانويلا فحتملل ميدقلا زارطلا سكعي ، فحتملا يكلام ىدل ّيسحلا كاردإلا نإ . ةّينف ةسردم-يزيلكنإلا زارطلا عم ةنراقملاب لغاشملل ميدتسم لكشب ةعدبملا تاطاشنلل ًايلخاد مّظنم ربتخمو تاءاقل ةحاس
.(يناطيربلا فحتملا هب سسأت يذلا ماعلا)1759 ماع ميقأ يذلا ضرعملا نم ّينوسكسلا يفاقثلا لكيهلا ّصخب امب ةميدقلا ةّينانويلا ةركفلا ىلع ءوضلا طّلسي «ميهناغوج» يبرعلا فحتملا نإ
تاهالإلا )تايزؤملا ةيامح تحت اّيوس اولمعي نا اوعاطتسإ ءاملعو نييقيسومو نيناّنفو ءارعش ثيح،يراضحلاو ًايلعف ةذختم(ةّيقيرغإلا ايجولوثيملا يف مولعلاو نونفلاو رعشلاو ءانغلا نيمحي يتاوللا تاقيقشلا عستلا
ةّدمل ةّرم لك يف اهتوعد ناكمإلاب ناك دارفأ 6-5) نيناّنفلا نم ةريغص ةعومجم : ةّينفلا – ةسردملل لّدعم لكش.ةسردملا يمّلعم رود ليثمتب موقتل رهشأ ةثالث
ىلع ناك . ةبلطلا عم نينواعتم، ةصاخلا مهعيراشم ىدحإ اوضرعي يكل اويعد نوسرّدملا– نوناّنفلا ،عقاولا يف ةليصح ًاعبط . ناّنفلا فارشإ تحت ةصاخلا ةّينفلا مهعيراشم مامتإل نيناّنفلا تاميلعت اوعبتي نا ةبلطلا
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Installation with H.A.M’s carnival float, 2006.
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نكل ، فويضلا – بناجألا نيناّنفلل بسنتس هجئاتنو لمعلا رئاخذو صوصن ،تالباقم ، مالفأ)لمعلا ريسل ّيلكلا قيثوتلا
ديدج ّينف لمع لكشيس ( ةّيراكذت تاطقلو جئاتن نم تاطاشنلا.(باستكإ -بيكرت ) فحتملل ًايزاوم نوكي
ناّنفلل ةّينفلا لامعألا نع ةلوقنملا ةخسنلا ، نايحألا ضعب يف ةقفاومب فحتملا ةعومجمل اهؤانب نكمي (اهنع ةرّغصم ةخسن وأ )
.ناّنفلا
. لافنركلا دنع ةفقو لبق ةّينفلا ةسردملا جئاتن ضرعت تناك ، تاطاشنلا ةياهن يف
يف يلافنرك ضارعتسإ لالخ نم نيسّردملا -نيناّنفلا ةرداغم. ةنيدملا
ناكو ، فحتملل ّيودبلا عباطلا ىلع دّكؤت تناك تاضورعملا نإ نكامألا يف سانلا ةلباقمل ةمئاع تاّصنم ىلع عضوت نا نكمم ةرايزل سانلا مودق راظتنإ نم ًالدب تاحاسلاو تاقرطلاو ةماعلا
. فحتملا ، ةّيبرعلا ةراضجلا يف دوجوم ريغ ديلقت وه لافنركلا ، عبطلاب
. ملاعلا يقاب يف تاراضحلاو نايدألا نم ديدعلل فورعم هنا عم ةباثمب نوكي ، مهيلع بيرغ ديلقت ضرف ةلواحم نإ ،كلذل
يلافنركلا ضارعتسإلا نإ لعفلاب . ةّيرامعتسإ ةّيجيتارتسإ انه زمّرلا نا ةقيقحلاب ، ةريسملاب ةّيلعف ةقالع هل سيل فجتملل
نيعئاب عراشلا يف عئاضبلا ضرعب ةّيقرشلا ةداعلا ّالإ سيل ملاعلا يف ةصاخ زومر مه ، هتعاضب ىلع يداني مهنم لك نيلّوجتم
.يبرعلا
رضخألا طخلا ىلع ّيلودلا ايسوقين راطمل يلايخلا ىنبملا نإ تاطاشن ةفاضتسإل (توريب ةّطحم دعب )يلاثملا عقوملا وه ،
يذلا ديحولا ىنبملا وه راطملا نا عم «ميهناجوغ » يبرعلا فحتملا ، رضخألا طخلا ىلع دوجوملا يكرتلا شيجلا هيلع رطيسي ال
. ةدحتمملا ممألا تاوق ةيامح تحت ، ةّيركسع ةقطنم ةرورضو ، ةليمجلا نونفلل ةّيلود ةسردم دوجو ىلع ًاديكأتو يدّدعتم نيناّنف نم ةعومجم ،ةقطنملا يف رصاعم فحتم دوجو
نوسلوغ» و «يناروح افو«و «يمطف رينم«ك ةّيسنجلا ةذتاسألا نم اونوكيل اويعد دق «ثيلاف كيرإ«و«ىفطصماراك
.فحتملا– ةسردملا يف لئاوألا تفيضأ يتلا نيناّنفلا نم ةعومجم ًاضيأ يه «سلطأ» ةعومجم نإ
ضرعملا عم 2009 مداقلا عيبرلل فحتملا جمانرب ىلإ.اهسفن ةلحرملل هل دّدجم «زيوب فيزوج«ل يداعتسإلا
ةلباقمل ةصرفلا نييلحملا نيناّنفلاو بّالطلل يطعي أدبملا اذه ةصرفلا مهيطعتو ملاعلا ءاحنأ لك نم اوتأي نيمهلم نيناّنف
ةذتاسألل يطعت ساسألا اذه ىلع. مهعم ءارآلا لدابتو ةكراشملاب ، يبرعلا بعشلا صخي امب عاطتسملا ردق اوسرديل ةصرفلا
( ةفيخس رهظت ام ردقب)و طسوألا قرشلا يف يسايسلا عضولا هذه ىلع لورتبلا ىلع عازنلا اهبّبسي يتلا لكاشملا ىدم سردت
.ةرواجملا ةقطنملاو دالبلا طئاحلا نا انه هركذ ريدجلا ، ًاّيزمر ودبي يذلاو رخاسلا ءيشلا نإ
. ةغراف لورتب جيراهص نم ينبم صربق يف لصافلا لماعلا وه تقولا سفنبو برحلل يقيقحلا ببسلا وه لورتبلا نا
لماعلا اذه ىلع زّكرأ ببسلا اذهلو . ةريزجلا ميسقتل يلعفلا.«ولواب ناس» يف لافنركل ةمئاعلا تاّصنملا ءانبل
امو تناع صربق ، (تاونس ّتس هرمع) يل ريغص بيرق لاق امكو.ّيبرعلا ىنغلاو لورتبلل ةّيبرغلا ةباوبلا اهنوك ،يناعت تلاز
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Com
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Nic
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attih
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View
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.A.M
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Inst
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.M’s
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Installation view, “Innocent peasants missing their chance to modernity”, Lola Nicolaou gallery, Thessaloniki 2009.
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345H.A.M. Protesting Banner, 2006.
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347Charalambidis’ installation with carpets, Gounaropoulos Museum Athens,2006.
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Charalambidis’ installation with carpets and a video projection by the artist Gülsün Karamustafa , 2005.
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“Exercises on Democracy”, carpet from Nicos Pattichis’ collection, 1997.
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Installation view with carpets, Black Little Curly Hair” exhibition, 2009. Kappatos Gallery.
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Detail from a carpet depicting a Palestinian family, 2009.
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Carnival Pause, it’s prehistory specifies its perspectivesA text by the Art Historian Dr. Aspassia Mastrogianni.
In the biennial at Sao Paulo in 2006, Charalambidis’ dominant piece was a versatile, multiple-use platform, floating with the help of four helicopter propellers and some helium filled barrels. The barrels came from three barricades on the “Green Line” in Cyprus. Following a painstaking, persistent and often painful process of struggling with United Nations’ authorities and the local bureaucracy, he had eventually permission to disassembling three barricades of the dividing wall, in order to transfer the barrels to the biennial, of which the title was “How to Live Together”. Moreover, he had convinced the military forces to provide him with a squad of soldiers to participate in this process of dismantling the barricades. It was a really difficult plan, which became even more complicated, especially due to the fact that the whole operation had to be carried out during the war in neighboring Lebanon, and in a period when Cyprus was in the process of accepting ever greater numbers of evacuees; thousands of Lebanese people, who were arriving at the island seeking refuge. In Sao Paulo, another group of Brazilian soldiers received the barrels in order to set them up inside the emblematic Niemeyer’s biennale building. Exchanging their military role, the Cypriot soldiers had reversed their duty of protecting/guarding the wall to dismantling it. The floating platform served as a stage for a series of happenings and Performances, playing the role of an alternative carnival float. In one of these performances the group of Brazilian soldiers accompanied a team of samba girls as they danced, while Brazilian drummers played Samba on the barrels from the dismantled barricade, converting them into musical instruments. Samba, which originated from traditional African dances, was adopted as their hymn to freedom by African slaves in Brazil…The fancy costumes of the dancers were made out of Byzantine clerical vestments, like those that Archbishop Makarios, the first elected president of the Cypriot Democracy, used to wear.
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Carnival floats made from dismantled barrel barricades, at the 27th Sao Paolo Biennial, 2006.
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367One of the H.A.M’s carnival floats at the Sao Paolo Biennial, 2006.
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His participation in the “How to Live Together” biennial earned the admiration of his fellow artists, visitors and art critics from the first day of the event. It’s not an easy thing for an artist from a country outside the contemporary “artistic map” participating in the biennale completely on his own resources, without the support of a gallery, a commissioner or a curator. However, his success doesn’t personally surprise me or any of those who know the radical character of his activities. In fact, I’m among those who strongly believe that he would surely have been one of the best known pioneer figures of the nineties if he hadn’t repeatedly refused to play the game of the art system, believing that political art should find alternative ways to act. Even if, in at a very young age, he had got close to the international establishment and gained recognition through his participations in significant exhibitions, he had never accepted collaborating with powerful private galleries. Thus, when the Dakis Ioannou collection, presented his work (soon after his first participation in the Venice Biennale in 1997) in the sophisticated “Global Vision” five artists show, with Chris Offili, Kcho, Kara Walker and Yinka Shonibare, Charalambidis was somewhere across the Irish borders, sticking up anonymous posters with nothing written on them-just Queen Elisabeth’s portrait (photo below), as “unlucky advertise traces” for his project, the “Arab Guggenheim Museum”. Actually another version of his Social Gym or the Rumbling/Rambling Museum, the Arab Guggenheim Museum stands as a nickname of “Hollow Airport Museum” a beyond borders-traveling Art School for the Middle East. As the artist claims, the school’s strategy of appearing under a variety of pseudo names depending the program or the country that hosts occasionally its activities, underlines the connection with the notions of identity, displacement and emigration.
Charalambidis envisaged his “Arab Guggenheim Museum” as an itinerant group of floats that could alternatively intervene in carnival processions around the world. As a peripatetic archive, this carnival ark, could also distribute, information about everyday life and the culture of the Middle East countries, functioning as a political manifesto or an “autonomous protesting machine”. In Sao Paulo, the museum took the form of a large prison following the outline of Mies van der Rohe Monument to the November Revolution, on which a team of architecture students were participating in a series of workshops.
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Since the very beginning of his career, Charalambidis’ multi-media practice has been motivated by an intense sense of politicized space, drawing strongly on his experi-ences as a child, when he and his family were forced to leave their home in the north of Cyprus by the invasion of the Turkish army. Reflecting on aspects of his position as a refugee and an emigrant, he employs, through his par-ticular vocabulary, issues of residence and anti-residence, nomadism, place and “non-place”. Even from his very first participations in international exhibitions, he had set up an interactive artistic idiom, conducting performances, par-ticipatory workshops and situations that encouraged the spectators to “use” his works, actually transferring private emotion into the public arena. From 1984 (at the age of
seventeen) to 1986 he served his military service at the Green Line, the buffer zone between Greeks and Turks in Cyprus, during a very hard period for their relationships; at that time, even a long soldier’s gaze over the dividing wall could be a dangerous gesture and the artist himself was indeed a witness of the kill-ing of two of his comrade during his military service.
Volunteer soldiers during the dismantling of three barell barricades at the Green Line in Cyprus in order to set up Charalambidis’ carnival platforms in Sao Paolo.
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Under very risky conditions, his first interventional events at the Green Line (1989–1993), transcending usual artistic procedures, were certainly more than just a subtle and rather allegorical series of projects in reference to the movement of the Situationist International. Ahead of the artistic tendencies of that time, Charalambidis realized very early that Nicosia’s Buffer Zone should be an activated area, a participatory platform for artistic activities against violence and bloody conflicts; providing a representative, exemplary model for other contested areas as well, like in Lebanon, Ireland and the Gaza strip. Of course in practice the authorities were bound to obstruct him, and quite soon it was quite clear to him that if his will was to carry on this vision it would be certainly a lonely procedure. Nowadays, twenty years later, political art is “trendy”. Soon after Cyprus had been given the organization and hosting of Manifesta 6, many Cypriot artists, became “political artists” and almost every single one now has at least one project related to the Green Line…
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Over the years, Charalambidis’ activities in buffer zones and contested areas have be-come a benchmark. Initiating a research around different approaches to social and political engagement in art, he formed the “Social Gym”, a corpus of “exercises”, which articulate his school’s program. Through this idiosyncratic, interdisciplinary program that involves, local com-munities, universities, elementary schools and scientists or even soldiers and military camps, he established an influential way of bringing art in dialogue with important monuments and milestones; questioning the formal, social and cultural implications of modernist architecture, in conjunction with the strategies in modern politics. In Charalambidis’ proposal for a progressive carnival procession, the “Arab Guggen-heim Museum” takes the form of a nomadic convoy of idiosyncratic participatory carnival floats, through which a variety of crucial socio political and cultural information about the Arab world could be conveyed, presenting a challenging new perspective for the critical reinterpretation of the complex relationships between the Western and Eastern civilizations.
Aspassia Mastrojianni
Art historian, professor at the Aigean University
In 2003, Charalambidis represented Cyprus, at the famous Aria Scarpa - palazzo Querini, showing a variety of works within the framework of his “Rambling Museum” as he called the participatory platform of projects that have his home in Athens, as a starting point of action and eventually extend at the Green Line of his homeland. The president of Manifesta, Henry Meyric Hughes was the curator of his show and the excellent collaboration between the two men, was apparently one of the factors leading the committee to have Manifesta 6 in Cyprus. The perspective of an international event like that, stimulated the political feelings, not only of many artists but also of a number of curators who, unexpectedly, became sensitive about the Cyprus issue. The most vociferous example was the “Leaps of Faith” international exhibition, the curators of which had apparently followed in Charalambidis’ footsteps, not yet having understood much of his revolutionary ideas, his courageous process of working and his intense, selflessness and genuine devotion. “Leaps of Faith”, veiled behind pseudo-political banalities, and safely supported by numerous international corporations, was actually an opportunity for the invited international artists to experience an exotic weekend at a particular location like Cyprus. Protected from any dangers and risk, the exhibition had been widely advertised (especially to people who had never been to Cyprus) as a perilous and innovative project, although in 2005 even the circulation between Greek and Turkish communities through the dividing wall was officially permitted! Of course, at the period when Charalambidis had first inspired the artistic activation of the Green Line, the conditions were completely different. In the late eighties, the interruption of his interventions and performances and occasionally his capture, was not a surprising circumstance, since the whole activities were inverting the status quo of the Green Line putting the artist’s life in real danger. Growing up among Lebanese emigrants in Cyprus, he has always been very concerned about the political situation in the nearby countries and the Middle East problem. “Arab Guggenheim Museum” as a long-term participatory project, actually reflects these concerns, addressing issues such as cultural identity, multiculturalism, the implications of globalization and capitalism. Combining physical presence and activism with advanced technology, his research poses questions and ideas on the issues of nation or nationality and the emergence of post-national identities, the legacy of colonialism or the impact of consumer culture and Western materialism.
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Architectural models made by the students during the performances in Sao Paolo.Architectural models made by the students during the performances in Sao Paolo.
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403Tiles composition from a series with Palestinian themes (left), a work by Kai Schiemenz (above), Kappatos Gallery 2009.
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In this series of workshops/exhibitions, Cyprus is both the departure point and the destination point for the activities. The first show was held at the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre with pupils coming from elementary schools from both the southern and northern sections of the island; subsequently, the activities followed a different trajectory in Greece, at the Larissa Contempo-rary Art Centre, in collaboration with sergeants from the Military Airport base near the town and subsequently, taking various forms and following a different working plan each time, it traveled to various locations and venues including: the Mu-nicipal Museum of the island of Hydra, the Averof Art foundation, Greece, the Architektursommer-City Nord, Hamburg, Germany, the La Santa Proyectos Culturals, Barcelona, Spain, the Irish Biennial in Limerick, Ireland and the Turner Con-temporary in London, while presentations and lectures of the activities have been put on at numerous universities and foundations, such as the Aegean University and the Michelangelo Pis-toletto Foundation.
The Tupperware Show
The participatory process of the “Tupperware show” is going to continue its route at various locations and venues, in collaboration with museums, organisations, universities and foundations, taking various forms and following a different working plan each time. The final goal of the activities is the construction of a mock-up wall, using all the Tupperware container-works produced at the Green Line in Cyprus. The Tupperware Plastic Monument, as a collective political gesture, is a fragile and ephemeral construction, a wall that unites, striking a dramatic and thought provoking contrast with the walls that separate and divide.
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The following conversation between Claudia zanfi and the artist, occurred before the project was launched at the ‘’Going Public’’ international exhibition (Greece, 2006).:
Claudia Zanfi: With which community would you like to collaborate?
Nikos Charalambidis: My first choice would be to work with a team of volunteer-sergeants, from the Larissa military airport Base. I would need at least twelve sergeants. Yo0u see, the plan of activities puts special emphasis on motivating people from the town, outside of the world of art, to act in artistic terms. Why you did you choose this particular domestic utensil? Tupperware is very familiar in so many countries around the world. Many Cypriot refugees (from the 1970’s) have vivid memories of this ‘nomadic’ accessory they carried with them in those days, the Tupperware container; it was the most useful storage utensil in the refugee-camp, since a refrigerator was beyond their wildest dreams. It was a luxury article for each tent, and it certainly was the most desirable, provided of course that it wasn’t empty…
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CZ:Could you describe the main focus of your project?
NC: The sergeants have to activate their latent sensibility and interest in artistic activities. Mili-tary personnel are encouraged to construct an anti-military monument at the dividing wall in Cyprus (with the prospect of rebuilding the monument in other countries with similar political problems, such as Israel, Palestine or Ireland). As a collective peaceful gesture, the total num-ber of Tupperware containers, from bases all over the world, will be collected in order to create a mock-up wall at three parts of the real one that crosses the town. It’s high time to remove the rusting drums that form the existing wall which has divided Nicosia, for more than thirty years. At any rate, seeing the current political situation and our inability to liberate the city, the ul-tra Tupperware art-works aim at replacing, at least, these makeshift barricade-drums. These utensils, familiar to everyone, will be transported there from the kitchens of citizens of the en-tire world, emphasizing their will to contribute to the collapse of the wall. Concurrently, the barrels from the dismantled barricade will be transported to Berlin, to cover the façade of the Brandenburg Gate. What I wish to avoid in the Tupperware Monument is making yet an-other sophisticated work to be appreciated (or not) by the restricted community of art. What I have in mind is a public work, made by un-known citizens of the international community, which is going to remain at the Buffer zone for as long as the problem exists. The guards who are now defending the existing wall will unconsciously modify their mission; standing in front of the Plastic Tupper-Wall, they will involuntarily be acting like museum-guards, protecting a work of art. A work of art made by a protesting, awakened mass, underlining the urgent need for a fair solution and the demand
CZ:Could you describe the program of Activi-ties in Larissa?
NC: The sergeants of Larissa Military Airport Base will be installed at Larissa Contemporary Art Centre, carrying not only their personal be-longings military kit-bags, but also with their bunk-beds and their weapons. In line with the hybrid style of Larissa’s local architecture (the building pictured is merely a typical ex-ample)the sergeants will have to construct bunk-beds for their new billets. Using mostly waste wooden materials (such as relics and remnants from windows/doors or old pieces of furniture), which will be found in town, and with the assistance of a carpenter, the hybrid construction will follow a combination of forms, being a mock-up of both the Domino House and a Chinese Pagoda. The new bunk-beds emphasize the Domino-House’s capacity for being adaptable through thick and thin, in any kind of geographical or weather conditions. Due to its flexibility cheapness, this prefabricated habitation proliferated internationally, spreading out the western capitalistic way of life, over cultures with different morals and ethics and certainly, with different economical standards. On the other hand, paradoxically enough, the new bunk-bed makes a tongue-in-cheek comment on the widespread rumors about the upcoming worldwide domination of China.
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CZ: How do you intend to motivate the local community so as to get people involved?
NC: According to the Greek Orthodox rite, the sergeants will decorate the construction with flowers, so as to look like an epitaph ta-
The particular feature of both archetypes, the Domino and the Pagoda, is their ease of further extension, by adding successive levels, in the same manner and logic that you could make a tall tower with Lego blocks, or even with Tupperware containers. (P.S.: Since the Rambling Museum’s practice consists in the use of pieces of furniture and structural elements that have been transferred from its base, e.g. my apartment, the dimen-sions of the construction have to be patterned after those of my bed, as a symbolic gesture towards joining together private and public life).
CZ: Could we manipulate the model in various ways?
NC: That’s the idea. The poetic/enigmatic and contradictory structure could also be a multifunctional, useful and flexible apparatus. Apart from serving as a bunk-bed with a closet, the structure could be easily modified into a working bench with gym equipment, a ping pong table, an epitaph table, a weapon case, a mobile plat-
form for outdoor use. The architect Katerina Filopoulou will be bringing a small model of it in a Tupperware container, to help the ser-geants conceive the picture and the idea of the final construction; the whole documenta-tion of the works, step by step, will accompa-ny the model in the Tupperware by the end of the activities. This variety of uses defines the vast range of activities during opening night and the following days as well.
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ble, starting at noon, one day before the opening. The flowers will be picked from the gardens of Larissa’s houses as an offering of the city’s inhabitants. The morning of the opening, the construction, covered in flowers, finds its way out, into the streets of the town, as a mobile platform, carrying several Tupperware containers for public use. The soldiers have to distribute the Tupperware containers to passers-by, urging them to prepare even an elementary ‘artwork’ and to bring it back to Larissa Contemporary Art Centre. The night of the opening, each participant will be coming with his own ‘artwork’ in the Tupperware container (it could be any kind of object, or anything else deemed appropriate to be put in a Tupperware container). In exchange, the soldiers take the objects and give back the bowls full of food, from that day’s military menu. The day after the opening, the construction will serve as a trading bench, so that the soldiers may use in order sell the Tupperware containers with the ‘artworks’ that they collected the night before. The passers-by can buy the products, offering other products or Tupperware containers with their own things in exchange. Thus,a sort of mini-market is created, in which the possessions are on offer off the beaten track,circulating in a non-conventional monetary code, and the city’s inhabitants build their own (do-it-yourself ) Rambling Museum, promoting their artworks…
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CZ: What is the final stage of the activities?
NC: Traveling abroad…The bunk-bed will be the conjunction between a small local Art Centre and an International Biennial. The construction will be dismantled in order to be reinstalled on a gondola in Venice, along with a number of colorful Tupper-ware containers. The overall duration of the tour, along with the events in town, will be no more than a day. Certain stopovers at various locations along the canals will be also in the schedule. During these stops, the bunk-bed will get out of the gondola and the “products” in the Tupperware containers will be at public disposal, while an information sheet about the political status of Cyprus and the concept of the project will be distributed to pass-ers-by, encouraging their active involvement. It’s a rather jocular and playful way to protest and an out of the ordinary way to stimulate public aware-ness about a certain political issue…Playing is not always so innocent, sometimes it becomes a Ma-chiavellian process.
CZ: And what about the sergeants them-selves, are they going to create their ownTupperware?
NC: One day before the end of the ac-tivities, the group of sergeants will be relocated once again, also transporting the symbolic construction: this time, to the nearby countryside. A makeshift camp, having the Domino-Pagoda in the centre of the tents, will be installed there for at least one night. The sergeants, far from the Contemporary Art Centre, will have to concentrate, writing down their thoughts/experiences regarding this out of the ordinary mission, comparing their feelings and reactions at the beginning/during/end of the activities. Each one of them will have to add in his personal Tupperware container, besides his writ-ings, one (or more) of his own artworks.
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Plastic Architecture Manifesto
1. Form. Elimination of all concept of form in the sense of a fixed type is essential to the healthy development of architecture and art as a whole. Instead of using earlier styles as models and imitating them, the problem of architecture must be posed entirely afresh.
2. The new architecture is elemental; that is to say, it develops out of the elements of building in the widest sense. These ele-ments - such as function, mass, surface, time, space, light, colour, material, etc. - are plastic.
3. The new architecture is economic; that is to say, it employs its elemental means as ef-fectively and thriftily as possible and squan-ders neither these means nor the material.
4. The new architecture is functional; that is to say, it develops out of the exact deter-mination of the practical demands, which it contains within clear outlines.
5. The new architecture is formless and yet exactly defined; that is to say, it is not subject to any fixed aesthetic formal type. It has no mould (such as confectioners use) in which it produces the functional surfaces arising out of practical, living demands.
In contradistinction to all earlier styles the new architectural methods know no closed type, no basic type.
The functional space is strictly divided into rectangular surfaces having no individuality of their own. Although each one is fixed on the basis of the others, they may be visual-ized as extending infinitely. Thus they form a coordinated system in which all points cor-respond to the same number of points in the universe. It follows from this that the surfac-es have a direct connexion to infinite space.
6. The new architecture has rendered the concept monumental independent of large and s mall (since the word ‘ monumental ‘ has become hackneyed it is replaced by the word ‘plastic’). It has shown that everything exists on the basis of interrelationships.
7. The new architecture possesses no single passive factor. It has overcome the opening (in the wall). With its openness the window plays an active role in opposition to the closedness of the wall surface. Nowhere does an opening or a gap occupy the foreground; everything is strictly determined by contrast. Compare the various counter- constructions in which the elements that architecture consists of (surface, line, and mass) are placed without constraint in a three- dimensional relationship.
8. The ground- plan. The new architecture has opened the walls and so done away with the separation of inside and outside. The walls themselves no longer support; they merely pro-vide supporting points. The result is a new, open ground- plan entirely different from the classical one, since inside and outside now pass over into one another.
9. The new architecture is open. The whole structure consists of a space that is divided in ac-cordance with the various functional demands. This division is carried out by means of dividing surfaces (in the interior) or protective surfaces (externally). The former, which separate the var-ious functional spaces, may be movable; that is to say, the dividing surfaces (formerly the interior walls) may be replaced by movable intermedi-ate surfaces or panels (the same method may be employed for doors). In architecture’s next phase of development the ground- plan must disappear completely. The two- dimensional spatial composition fixed in a ground- plan will be replaced by an exact constructional calcula-tion - a calculation by means of which the sup-porting capacity is restricted to the simplest but strongest supporting points. For this purpose Euclidean mathematics will be of no further use - but with the aid of calculation that is non- Eu-clidean and takes into account the four dimen-sions everything will be very easy.
10. Space and time. The new architecture takes account not only of space but also of the magni-tude time. Through the unity of space and time the architectural exterior will acquire a new and completely plastic aspect. (Fourdimensional space- time aspects.)
11. The new architecture is anti- cubic; that is to say, it does not attempt to fit all the functional space cells together into a closed cube, but proj-
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ects functional space- cells (as well as overhang-ing surfaces, balconies, etc.) centrifugally from the centre of the cube outwards. Thus height, breadth, and depth plus time gain an entirely new plastic expression. In this way architecture achieves a more or less floating aspect (in so far as this is possible from the constructional stand-point - this is a problem for the engineer!) which operates, as it were, in opposition to natural grav-ity.
12. Symmetry and repetition. The new architec-ture has eliminated both monotonous repetition and the stiffequality of two halves - the mirror im-age, symmetry. There is no repetition in time, no street front, no standardization.
A block of how is just as much a whole as the indi-vidual house. The laws that apply to the individual house also apply to the block of houses and to the city. In place of symmetry the new architecture offers a balanced relationship of unequal parts; that is to say, of parts that differ from each oth-er by virtue of their functional characteristics as regards position, size, proportion and situation. The equality of these parts rests upon the bal-ance of their dissimilarity, not upon their similarity. Furthermore, the new architecture has rendered front, back, right, left, top, and bottom, factors of equal value.
13. In contrast to frontalism, which had its origin in a rigid, static way of life, the new architecture offers the plastic richness of an all- sided devel-opment in space and time.
14. Colour. The new architecture has done away with painting as a separate and imaginary ex-pression of harmony, secondarily as representa-tion, primarily as coloured surface.
The new architecture permits colour organically as a direct means of expressing its relationships within space and time. Without colour these rela-tionships are not real, but invisible. The balance of organic relationships acquires visible reality only by means of colour. The modern painter’s task consists in creating with the aid of colour
a harmonious whole in the new fourdimensional realm of space- time - not a surface in two dimen-sions. In a further phase of development colour may also be replaced by a denaturalized material possessing its own specific colour (a problem for the chemist) - but only if practical needs demand this material.
15. The new architecture is anti- decorative. Co-lour (and this is something the colour- shy must try to grasp) is not a decorative part of architecture, but its organic medium of expression.
16. Architecture as a synthesis of Neo- Plasticism. Building is a part of the new architecture which, by combining together all the arts in their elemental manifestation, discloses their true nature.
A prerequisite is the ability to think in four dimen-sions - that is to say: the architects of Plasticism, among whom I also number the painters, must construct within the new realm of space and time.
Since the new architecture permits no images (such as paintings or sculptures as separate el-ements) its purpose of creating a harmonious whole with all essential means is evident from the outset. In this way, every architectural element contributes to the attainment on a practical and logical basis of a maximum of plastic expression, without any disregard of the practical demands.Theo van Doesburg: Towards a plastic architecture, 1924. Originally published in De Stijl, XII, 6/7, Rotter-dam 1924.
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“The Tupperware Project” outdoor intervention, Omonoia square, 2004.
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H.A.M.’s portable archive, 2009.
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433“Domestic Barricade”from the “Frankfurt Kitchen” series, 2008.
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441Artists’ archive, Barell booth at the Athens’ Art Fair, 2010.
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H.A.M. outdoor activities, 2008
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“The Frangfurt Kitchen”, 2008.
H.A.M’s working platform in service to the White House Biennial, 2012.
449Artists’ archive, Barell booth at the Athens’ Art Fair, 2010.
“Rotating musical house”, 1999.
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