Scars of Art – Cyprus

Motivations

The project «Scars of Art» started in 2014 during a journey to Cyprus, following our first meeting with Efthymios Symeou, a contemporary artist living in Larnaka who specialises in ceramic works.

Listening to him talking about himself and his background was illuminating. Although our questions focused predominantly on his artistic works, his answers constantly referred back to Cyprus’ history and the conflict that still divides it today, separating the Greek part from the Turkish.

During that meeting, we realised that there is an indissoluble bond between every artist and his or her own background, especially when it has been marked by traumatic events such as war.

Therefore, we decided to invest resources in the research and analysis of the existing relationship between war and contemporary art, as we sensed that art could be interpreted as the reworking of a collective trauma.

The power of an artistic expression, often wrongly considered as a simple individual gesture, is really the synthesis of the whole community experience, expressed through the artist.

We wondered how deep is the impact of a civil war or a military invasion on an artist’s life? What kind of scars do these dramatic events leave in the imagination?

How are they then conveyed and interpreted through the artistic gesture, years after the violent events took place?

We felt that such important and involving questions merited in-depth exploration in a documentary.

The work done so far

The idea of making this kind of documentary immediately thrilled everybody within our group. It prompted us to record a short interview with Efthymios Symeou the very next day after our first meeting with him, in order to make a preliminary ’study’ on the film realisation.

This ’study’ (which can be viewed in the attached link) is a 10-minute interview interspersed with modern-day footage of Cyprus and old archived images. Towards the end, there are shots of ceramic works made by Efthymios himself, statues and shapes dating back to the origins of Indo-European art, when East and West weren’t two separate worlds and the Mediterranean was a place in which many different peoples were discovering their identities.

Why we need your help?

We want to raise money to tell this story to the world, we want to tell how art is an intimate and personal expression that seeks to bring to light the cultural and social problems unsolved, a powerful tool which breaks down social and political barriers.

Art as a tool to build bridges that transcend barriers, to reunite with Beauty peoples who were divided by violence. To do this serve CHF 20’000.

The sponsors and foundations who support this project will provide to finance the project with CHF 10’000, while Akra Studios will invest a further CHF 5’000.

We hope to receive the missing money (about CHF 5’000) from your contributions, for which we have prepared great rewards!

Rewards

Nous voulons recueillir de l’argent pour raconter cette histoire au monde, nous voulons dire comment l’art est une expression intime et personnelle qui veut mettre en lumière les problèmes culturels et sociaux non résolus, un outil puissant qui brise les barrières sociales et politiques.

L’art comme un outil pour construire des ponts qui transcendent les barrières. Pour rejoindre les gens, qui ont été divisés par la violence, en utilisant la Beauté. Pour ce faire nous avons besoin de CHF 20’000. Les sponsors et les fondations qui soutiennent ce projet fourniront CHF 10’000, tandis que Akra Studios investira une autre CHF 5’000. Nous espérons recevoir de l’argent manquant (CHF 5’000) de vos contributions, pour lesquelles nous avons préparé de grandes contreparties!

Contreparties