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Topic: For the archives: Cyprus Mail Letter to the editor (K. Saoulli)

Cyprus Mail
Letters to the editor

Art embararrasment

Sir,
It seems a shame that Manifesta 6 could be cancelled. An event that would have placed Cyprus on the map within the world of the ‘Arts’; an event that would have created a learning environment unparalleled in the world at large; an event that is now in danger of never existing.

Manifesta 6 or M6 planned to open a school and to invite selected ‘students’ from around the world to partake in an inter-disciplinary school. The students have applied and already been selected by the curatorial team; yet the school was not to be exclusive. It would also incorporate larger events were people from the public could come to learn, listen and enjoy. It was hoped to be an event that would push boundaries and perhaps even create an interest in Cyprus other than politics and tourism.

Yet once again we seem to have been left with egg on our face. Is it that no one understood the possibilities this entailed? The chances it gave to Cypriot artists? Or perhaps the bigger picture was not big enough? The fact that this event has been organised on a global scale that people (outside our “little world”) belonging to the art world at large have known about it, talked about it and advertised it – does no one see the embarrassment this causes? Future Cypriot art students and artists can have the pleasure of being from the country where Manifesta was cancelled. Manifesta’s history will continue whereas contemporary Cypriot art will have to struggle even harder to get recognised as worth something.
Katina Saoulli, Nicosia

– 2 – June 4, 2006