The Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works announces the opening of the contemporary art exhibition HAPPY FEW by Andreas Kalli at the Archaeological Site of Amathous, on Saturday the 16th of April 2022 at 19:30. The exhibition is part of a series of events organized for the celebrations of the International Day for Monuments and Sites 2022.
The Archaeological Site of Amathous hosts for the first time a most interesting exhibition of contemporary art in terms of artistic conception. By using a natural material (the bush), Andreas Kalli transcribes the ancient columns of the site to the present day. By having as a driving force the search for the indissoluble relationship of the human — creator with the social environment and having as its core the artistic and conceptual searches, the concepts of evolution, life, consciousness, collective memory and the trace, Andreas Kalli creates the sculptural installation HAPPY FEW.
The encounter of contemporary art with Antiquity in the public sphere, activates and highlights the eternal and rich dialogue concerning the issues of history, memory, identity, culture and the environment. The exhibition brings to the forefront matters of communication and self-reflection. The viewer is invited to a new encounter with ancient civilization, which urges us all to reconnect with the past in order to rediscover our relationship with time and the space that surrounds us.
The exhibition is held by the Department of Antiquities, in collaboration with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) — Cyprus and will be accompanied by a catalogue in both Greek and English.
On the opening night, the musician Freedom Candlemaker will present the musical version of the thoughts and reflections that led to the sculptural installation of Andreas Kalli with his compositions and songs.
Professional biography:
Andreas Kalli was born in Larnaka in 1987 He studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2007-2012), while also attending the Central Saint Martin School of Art and Design in London (2010-2011).
In October 2021 he presented his third solo exhibition, The Story of a Secret at "the O gallery" in Larnaka. In 2015 he was the first artist to inaugurate the series of exhibitions at the A.G. Leventis Gallery in Lefkosia entitled Young Cypriot Artists. In the same year he represented Cyprus at the Biennale of Young Artists in Milan, entitled No Food’s Land. He has participated in many group exhibitions in Greece, France, Italy, England and elsewhere. He lives and works in Cyprus.
We had a chance to talk to the artist during the opening event.
- When and how did the idea of this project first come to you? What inspired you?
- I was dealing with this idea for about three years, I was working with the tumbleweed as an object since then and organically went in that direction for this project. A very important inspiration was the tumbleweed itself, its own identity. The way it is growing as a plant, at the teenage period the shackles are cut off from Mother Earth, and then its own journey starts, spreading its seeds while traveling to the unknown. At the end of this journey somehow it stops and returns to the soil that came from.
- How much time did it take to create these sculptures?
- I've been working on these sculptures for 3 months.
- What was the hardest part and what did you love the most in this process?
- The hardest part was the installation with the various weather conditions that we had to deal with, unexpected wind and rain were the hardest ones, but they moved us to make a very good structure as a base of the whole composition. And for sure, what I love most is the feeling of creating something significant from an insignificant object.
- Please tell us a bit more about the collaboration with Freedom Candlemaker for this project?
- This collaboration started about a year ago when I told him that I was going to work on this project and I wanted his art to be a part of it as well, to embrace this project in a sense of a text, but also music. We had a creative time together, choosing the songs and the whole appearance.
- How different is the final result from the first idea? What's going to happen to the sculptures after the exhibition ends?
- It wasn’t different, as I had visualized it and worked out the final look in my head, and later with my architecture mockup, so it was really close. Yet, I believe, the final result happens to be far beyond my expectations. As for the destiny of the sculptures, they will return to the earth that they belong to, that will be their journey, as is my own.
- Do you have any ideas on what’s going to be your next project?
- The next big project will take place in Athens, it will be an interactive installation of a group of artificial birds and the audience will be part of this project.
