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‘O
ur sea’ (Mare Nostrum) as the Romans
called the water-basin within the three
continents, Europe, Africa and Asia, was a chal-
lenging theme for a visual reinvention of the
Mediterranean with paintings, wall-ceramics
and installations, photography and video by 35
Cypriot artists.
Mare Nostrum was organised by the Cyprus
Chamber of Fine Arts (EKATE) and curated by
Dr Nadia Anaxagorou under the auspices of the
Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the Euro-
pean Union. It was held at the Famagusta Gate
from 3 to 29 October 2012. Due to a variety
of events which took place at Famagusta Gate,
Mare Nostrum was restricted to a visual nar-
rative delineated upon the stone-walls of this
Venetian monument and presented as an essen-
tial, self-contained and self-sufficient entity, a
contemplative chronicle of the Mediterranean.
The ‘encircled’ sea as the primordial cradle of
people and civilisations – the Cycladic, the Mi-
noan and the Mycenaean, the twelve Olympian
gods and Christianity – pervades the work of
Susan Vargas, Aristotelis Demetriou, Panikos
Tsangaras and Mattheos Christou.
The ‘bitter’ sea of wars and incessant conflicts,
the turmoil and the remapping of borders is tack-
led by Sakis Doritis, Andreas Ladommatos and
Charis Paspallis from a critical and humorous
perspective, while Stass Paraskos, Marianna Con-
stanti, Maria Papacharalambous and Stelios Sav-
va cast an investigative eye on mass tourism and
over-consumption, the so-called ‘degradation’
of ancient cultures and environmental pollution.
The Mediterranean of lyric poetry, the virtue of
measure, the Greek midday, the lost homelands,
the diaspora, theAegean that dazzles thinkers and
writers such as Meleagros, Camus, Seferis, Elytis
Mare Nostrum, Famagusta Gate, Nicosia
3-29 October 2012
Quartetto Prometeo