SHE Cyprus in the feminine – ELLE Chypre au féminin

For long, archaeology had invested photography with a single mission; to document and record for study, publication and inventory purposes. Today, however, contemporary photography has broken free from the shackles imposed on it in the early 20th c. to construe its patrimonial task in a completely different light, deploying an aesthetic animated by the intensity of lyric poetry.

In this exhibition, the gaze of the photographer Stefanos Kouratzis is cast upon more than ten sculpted depictions of goddesses, divinities and female statuettes and figurines making part of the collections of Cyprus’ Department of Antiquities, on display at the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia and at the Archaeological Museum of the Lemesos (Limassol) District. The statuettes and figurines illustrate different styles of Cypriot art, from the Chalcolithic Age (4th millennium BC) to the Roman Period. The photographs therefore unveil artworks that, through the uniqueness of their form, bring out the particularity of the civilization of Cyprus.

But here, photography is no longer intended for inventory purposes. The topology differs. This is a time for contemplation. The divinities of fertility, the votive figurines of the Cypro-Archaic period but also the legendary Greek and Egyptian goddesses of the Hellenistic and Roman periods are thus revealed to the spectator as transcendent. To capture the female statue, the photographer refrains from en face shots. He approaches his subjects through the use of chiaroscuro in order to linger upon the curves of the contours. He looks at a slant, from a low angle, and from the top down, as he revolves around a still object which, however, may not be completely inert. Forms and contours emerge so swiftly that, on occasion, they disappear behind the reflection of the showcase. As though trying to probe deeper into the material to retrieve secrets from 3,000 years ago, the photographer sets out to map the volumes, expose the ephemeral shades of bodies made of white stone and reddish terracotta, bodies silent and wreathed with the dim haze of mystery. Sensuality at the corner of the mouth, a caressing light over a bare knee, and the photographer’s statues appear as though incarnate.

This exhibition is a stimulus for revery and a spurring of the imagination. Just like Cyprus’ female statues and figurines, it may also be intended to embody the most immaterial conceptions of the spirit.