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T
he Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EuropeanUnion in the second half of 2012 features strongly
in this issue of
Cyprus Today
, starting off with the
KYPRIA2012 International Festival
, which pre-
sented music, theatre and dance events of considerable renown throughout the island. The Festival started
off with a concert,
Towards a Europe of Peace
, by the
Cyprus Youth Symphony
.
The easternmost member of the EU, Cyprus, has always been strategically important to foreign powers
wishing to influence or control the Eastern Mediterranean. The exhibition
Mapping Cyprus: 1191-2012
Crusaders, Traders and Explorers
, held at the
BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts
in Brussels, examined a long
period in the turbulent history of the island.
Lovers of antiquities will enjoy reading about the
Maniera Cypria
exhibition in Limassol, which presented
archaeological findings unearthed in the district and its vicinity displayed side by side in a fascinating dis-
course with contemporary art at the
Evagoras Lanitis Centre
.
This issue also takes a look at the 4
th
Cypriot Film Directors Festival
, which presented works by seven
acclaimed film directors. For the first time ever, the screenings took place “under the stars” at the
Constantia
Open Air Cinema
. The
4
th
International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival
was dedicated to the
promotion of new music, both the established masterpieces of the contemporary music literature of the 20
th
century and a great number of premieres by leading young composers from all over the world who were
commissioned by the
Pharos Arts Foundation
to write new works especially for the Festival.
In July, theatre lovers from around the world attended the
16
th
International Festival of Ancient Greek
Drama 2012.
The Festival opened with a production of
Agamemnon’s Children
by the Hessian State Thea-
tre of Wiesbaden, Germany, while other works included
Electra
and Orestes
,
The Trial
;
The Eumenides
,
and
Antigone
. Also taking pride of place in this issue is the
Cyprus Medical Museum
, a venture which
few people took seriously some 25 years ago when the Committee of the Limassol Medical Association
announced its decision to collect and exhibit antique medical equipment. Thanks to a number of valuable
donations from doctors and their families, photographs of which are included in this issue, the museum is
now a reality, bringing an enormous collection of valuable medical artefacts to the people of Cyprus and to
visitors to the island with an interest in medicine.
The
14
th
Pafos Aphrodite Festival
raised its curtain this year on the Slovak National Theatre’s
perform-
ance of Verdi’s
Otello
, at the Medieval Castle of Pafos in Pafos Harbour. The adaptation of William Shake-
speare’s tragedy was set at the Castle of Famagusta in the 15
th
century, with Otello serving as the recently
appointed governor of Cyprus.
Also featured in this issue is the contemporary art program
TerraMediterranea–In Crisis
, which included
a second contemporary art exhibition, [at Maroudia’s], curated by the ReAphrodite
team at the
Ethnological
Museum–House of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios
.
The Armenian Representative, Vartkes Mahdessian, organised a unique exhibition within the framework
of the Cyprus Presidency featuring works by nineArmenian painters and sixArmenian photographers. The
Painting and Photography Exhibition by Cypriot ArmenianArtists
is also featured in this issue.
Do you feel European? Does Mr O’Keeffe in Ireland feel more or less European than Mrs Stylianou in
Cyprus? And if so, why? The
United States of Europe
(U.S.E) project, presented outdoors at
Pharos Arts
Foundation
, offered various reflections on such questions. In another exhibition related to borders, painter
Christos Bokoros attempted direct conversation with spaces, buildings and roads which are adjacent to or
which lead to the Green Line in Nicosia with a series of paintings titled “Odos Eleftherias”
.
Finally, for the first time ever in Cyprus, we got the chance to enjoy concerts by the
World Youth Choir
.
The choir performed three a cappella concerts, in Pedoulas, in Pafos and inAyia Napa.
Editorial