This article was on the official forum (which was closed yesterday) - an intersting background for further discussions.

When modern art meets Greek tragedy’

As taken from column ‘Tales from the Coffee shop’ by Patroclos
Sunday Mail, June 4, 2006, p. 23

Who could have predicted that Manifesta 6, the European contemporary art
biennale to be held in Nicosia from September to December would be axed
three months before it was due to start? In the end, instead of
contemporary art, all we got, was a classical Greek tragedy, with two
tragic heroes instead of one, and neither able to attain the catharsis
which is an essential feature of such plays.

It would probably be more accurate to describe it as a post-modern,
Greek tragedy, in keeping with the contemporary nature of Manifesta 6,
with Nicosia mayor Mike Zampelas, in his role as president of Nicosia
for Art (NFA which was handling the project on behalf of Nicosia
Municipality) and the general co-ordinator Yiannis Toumazis as the
tragic heroes. Neither fell on his sword or blinded himself as a true,
tragic hero would have done, after the mega-humiliation of cancelling
the event, but we are living in noughties Nicosia and not BC Athens.

But why did our tragic heroes pull the plug on such a prestigious, high
profile event that would have put our cultural desert of a capital on
the European arts map, albeit for three months? The zany Zampelas will
be standing for re-election in December and a triumphantly successful
Manifesta 6 would have boosted his chances of a second term big time.

After all, both he and Toumazis are pretty open-minded and liberal in
their attitudes towards our Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters which
made the hard-line they took about operating an art school in the
north-the main point of dispute between the foreign curators and NFA- a
bit difficult to understand. Initially, neither had a problem with the
much-trumpeted Manifesta art school operating on both sides of the Green
Line, but overnight they decided that they were totally against it.

Had they been drinking water spiked with basic-patriotic poison or is
Zampelas hoping to win the backing of hard-line parties, Rusfek, Niko
and Eurocock in the municipal elections? And why did Toumazis, a
champion of rapprochment, who is not standing for election turn into
Zacharias Koullias character, considering Manifesta would have been his
finest hour as an arts organiser?

NOTHING is what it seems on our plantation. Zampelas and Toumazis are
not tragic heroes but fall-guys straight out of Hollywood B-movie,
talking the fall for the actions of others. Neither would have taken the
responsibility of pulling the plug on Manifesta of their own accord-they
just took the blame as fall-guys in film noir invatiably do.

The men who were taking all the decisions and issuing the instructions
to NFA, over how to deal with the curators’ demands and the
International Foundation Manifesta (IFM) were none other than the two
demolition artists – Tasso Tzionis and Tassos Papadopoulos. Once the
pair became involved it was only a matter of time before the whole
project would collapse under the weight of legalistic and political
platitudes.

Tzionis was issuing the instructions to the NFA after the consultations
with the Ethnarch, who, at times, was directly involved in the efforts
to safeguard the status of the Republic of Cyprus. In fact, it was the
Ethnarch who personally savaged the lawyer, who had negotiated the
contract for Manifesta 6, on behalf of the NFA with the
Netherlands-based IFM.

The lawyer, a successful and experienced barrister, received an
Ethnarchic dressing down, for omitting provisions from the contract that
would have strengthened our bargaining position if a dispute arose. But
the big-shot lawyer’s failure did not stop our resourceful Ethnarch and
his sidekick from turning the arts event into a legal dispute and
eventually into an aborted arts project. If the Manifesta guys were a
little more open-minded they would have applauded this example of
subversive, cutting edge, poststructuralist, deconstruction by two of
Derrida’s finest students.

Tzionis and the Ethnarch may have been right in objecting to any part of
Manifesta being held in the occupied north. Our government was picking
up the tab so why should it have to finance an art school in the north,
forcing Greek Cypriot artists to show their passports to the occupier in
order to attend. This point was repeatedly raised by one such artist in
the columns of Simerini.

And our Turkish Cypriot brothers and sisters had a nerve, demanding a
piece of the action for their part of the town, when they were not
paying nothing towards the costs. Now if the pseudo government had
offered to go Dutch I am sure our Ethnarch would have had no objections
to an art school being set up in the north. But using taxpayer’s money
to finance an art school in the north was going to far.

The foreign curators obviously not understanding this point, arrogantly
insisting that both parts of the capital should be used for the art
school and were fully backed by their boss in the Netherland IFM
executive director Hedwig Fijen. All these foreigners buy into the
‘poor, isolated Turkish Cypriots’ myth and always expect us show good will.

They did not realize that they were not really dealing with the easy
going and affable Zampelas, but with an uncompromising hard nut. Our
Ethnarc gave the two finger salute to the head honchos of the UN and the
EU and was never going to have any qualms about doing the same to a
bunch of over-sensitive right-on, effeminate arty types.

THE LETTER sent by Zampelas to the three curators, informing them that
they were being sacked and the project abandoned was pretty nasty, aimed
at intimidating them into silence. The aim was to stop them from saying
anything- threatening them with legal action if they did- so that only
the NFA version of events could be heard. The letter warned:

‘We therefore draw your attention that any unauthorised use by
yourselves personally and/or jointly as the Curatorial Team of any
information, materials and documents that pertain to the Manifesta 6
project by virtue of your contractual relationship with NFA will be met
with immediate legal measures instigated against you by NFA”

I have mentioned the letter was not obtained from any of the curators
but a draft was found by a Coffeeshop customer, who likes to look
through rubbish bins, in the rubbish bins of the Nicosia Municipality.

It also claims the curators had a legal obligation to maintain
confidentiality even if the NFA lawyers forgot to include such a clause
in the contracts. “ A duty of confidentiality is implied by law by
virtue of the nature of the contract and the relationship of the
contracting parties” wrote Zampelas. But with the most sublimely ironic
bit of the letter, zany Mike laments the fact that the curators are
undermining efforts to bring the two communities together. “At the same
time without any apparent reason and for motives only known to you, you
have attempted to create a political situation out of a purely legal
issue namely the establishment and operation of part of the school in
the north thus creating fictitious division lines between two
communities, You seem to constantly ignore that the goal of Manifesta 6
is to unite and bring together the two communities in a spirit of
culture and understanding away from politics.” There is only one lawyer
in Cyprus who could have written this letter, but we are not mentioning
names in case we create fictitious division lines between the two
communities.