Cyprus Mail 06/06/2006

Heavy-handed tactics that sunk Manifesta

MANIFESTA 6, by far the most prestigious and highest-profile art festival ever to be held in Cyprus, was officially cancelled last week as the eagerly-awaited project disintegrated into an acrimonious legal dispute, with a variety of threats and accusations flying around. The 2006 European biennale of contemporary art was finally laid to rest by a sternly-worded letter – dated June 1 and signed by Nicosia Mayor Michael Zampelas – terminating the contracts of the three curators working in Cyprus on behalf of the organisers, International Foundation Manifesta (IFM).

The mayor was writing as president of Nicosia for Art (NFA), the private company set up to deal with the project on behalf of the municipality, which has been at loggerheads with the curatorial team for several months now over the latter’s insistence on locating the art school that would be set up in both parts of Nicosia. Although the NFA initially had no objections to such an arrangement, it later made an about-turn, claiming that for legal reasons no part of the art school could be located in north Nicosia.

Among the reasons cited were that it could not guarantee health and safety in the north and that it could not legally make payments, from funds provided by the Cyprus government, to companies or individuals in the occupied north. This about-turn signified the point at which the government, with its trademark legalistic approach to things, had taken charge, behind the scenes, of the negotiations with the curators. Political pressure was also applied on NFA and the government by Greek Cypriot artists, who publicly stated that they were not prepared to show passports at the checkpoint in order to attend the art school in the north.

Even if the concerns of the government and the NFA were perfectly legitimate, the heavy-handed tactics they employed in dealing with the curators and the IFM were guaranteed to lead to a fiasco and yet another international embarrassment for Cyprus. As for the way the NFA tried to silence the curators, threatening them with legal action if they attempted to talk publicly about the project, it merely underlined this unnecessary heavy-handedness.

The overriding impression is that there never is any generosity or goodwill shown in this government’s dealings with the north, direct or indirect. The option of finding ways around the problems that surfaced was not even explored – the funding of the school in the north could have come from abroad, while liability for health and safety at the venue in the north could have been taken by IFM – the NFA preferring to dig in its heels in the hope that the curators would eventually give in.

But what did the government and the NFA achieve with their uncompromising stance? The cancellation of the biggest and most prestigious art project Cyprus would ever have staged and the prospect of costly legal battles with the organisers. Then there is the negative publicity we will receive, because outside Cyprus the cancellation will be seen, rightly or wrongly, as yet another example of government’s insistence on keeping the Turkish Cypriots isolated at all costs. The conclusion all outsiders will arrive at will be that the government was prepared to sacrifice Manifesta 6 rather than allow the Turkish Cypriot side to play an active part in it.

This may be wrong, but it is what everyone will be thinking as a result of the appalling handling by the government and NFA.