CyprusTODAY Volume LIII, No 4, October - December 2015 Contents Editorial .........................................................................................2 Eight new elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage ..................4 Lefkaritiko Embroidery Lace, Modi and Modulations ............14 State Prizes for Literature ...........................................................18 Scientific Symposium in honour of Kypros Chrysanthis.........22 The Weight of the Rain ...............................................................24 Exhibition by Zenon Sierepeklis ................................................26 George Kotsonis ..........................................................................28 It was the 1st of April ...................................................................30 Congress on Censorship .............................................................33 Excavations, research, cooperation and friendship ...................34 5th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus .........................40 Echoes from Berlin .....................................................................46 Nemitsas Foundation Prize in Visual Arts .................................48 7th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival ............55 From Renaissance to 20th Century .............................................60 FemLink-Art, Cyprus..................................................................62 Skin or Gold .................................................................................64 Volume LIII, No 4, October - December 2015 A quarterly cultural review of the Ministry of Education and Editorial Assistance: Culture published and distributed by the Press and Information Elli Nicolaou Office (PIO), Ministry of Interior, Nicosia, Cyprus. [email protected] Press and Information Office Address: Ministry of Education and Culture Polly Lyssiotis Kimonos & Thoukydides Corner, 1434 Nicosia, Cyprus [email protected] Website: http://www.moec.gov.cy Design: GNORA COMMUNICATION CONSULTANTS Press and Information Office Apellis Street, 1456 Nicosia, Cyprus Printed by: Konos Ltd Website: http://www.moi.gov.cy/pio Front cover: “2015 Meeting”, mixed technique, acrylic EDITORIAL BOARD on canvas, by Anna Vasiliou (Copyright: Cyprus National Chairperson: Commission for UNESCO) - Lefkaritiko Embroidery Lace, Pavlos Paraskevas, Modi and Modulations Director of Cultural Services, Ministry of Education and Culture Chief Editor: Jacqueline Agathocleous [email protected] PIO 293/2015 – 3.500 GNORA COMMUNICATION CONSULTANTS (website: www.gnora.com) ISSN (PRINT) 0045-9429 Tel: +357 22441922 Fax: +357 22519743 ISSN (ONLINE) 1986-2547 Subscription Note: For free subscriptions please contact: [email protected]. 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Editorial e start off our quarterly issue of Cyprus Today with a truly remarkable effort by the WCyprus National Commission for UNESCO, and Cultural Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture, to preserve our beautiful island’s oral customs and traditions – with the invaluable contribution of the people still keeping these elements alive. An impressive eight new Cypriot elements have been inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, bringing our total up to eleven. Read on to find out just what it takes to get an element on the List, as well as details of our national treasures, including the dry stone technique, basketry from the Livadia community and Tsattista poetic duelling. And to prove how all the work is paying off, take a look at how well UNESCO’s training programme for Lefkaritiko embroidery lace turned out. It was that time of year again for our authors and illustrators, as the State Prizes for Literature rolled around in December to provide some well-earned recognition for their work. Speaking of recognition, it has been 100 years since the birth of the great Greek Cypriot writer, and poet, Kypros Chrysanthis, and the Council of Ministers has dedicated the year 2015 to him. Readers can find out how the Society of Cypriot Studies decided to honour him in this issue of Cyprus Today. And for our art lovers, we have art exhibitions by Zenon Sierepeklis, George Kotsonis and Constantinos Ptohopoulos, as well as an exhibition of relics from the EOKA Struggle to commemorate 60 years since the struggle began. Cinema lovers got to enjoy an array of the best local and national short film offerings in the 5th International Short Film Festival of Cyprus, with over one hundred short fiction, documentary, experimental and animated films from across the world receiving prizes in recognition of their contribution. Our current issue also takes a look at the celebrations marking 25 years of excavations conducted by members of the academic, interdepartmental Athienou Archaeological Project at the archaeological site of Malloura. The AAP is credited with rearing generations of young archaeologists, who have taken up important positions in universities and bodies abroad, promoting Cypriot archaeology to the world scientific community. And this year’s annual Nemitsas Foundation Prize was a bit closer to our hearts, as it was dedicated to Visual Arts. Artist Christodoulos Panayiotou, internationally recognised for his wide-ranging achievements in Visual Arts, and specifically the identification and uncovering of hidden narratives in visual records of time, was this year’s winner. This and much more on our island’s cultural life in this edition of Cyprus Today! 2 George Kotsonis Athienou Archaeological Project Intangible Cultural Heritage Lefkaritiko It was 1st of April 3 Eight new elements of Intangible Cultural Heritage n November 2015, the Cyprus National the existing entries of Lefkaritiko embroidery lace ICommission for UNESCO and the Cultural in 2009 (Lefkara community), the Tsiattista poetic Services of the Ministry of Education and Culture duelling in 2011 (Larnaca) and the Mediterranean announced that the National List of Intangible diet in 2013, with the community of Agros joining Cultural Heritage has been enriched with eight a multinational inscription. new elements. The Cyprus Research Centre was the first to These new elements are: “Pipilla” Lace venture into registering elements of Intangible (originating from the Kilani, Omodos and Lapithos Cultural Heritage in Cyprus, publishing the first communities); “Pittoti” Embroidery Lace of ever Register in 2012 based on the Centre’s Oral Athienou - Venise type – (originating from the Tradition Archive and relevant bibliography. Larnaca district community of Athienou); Basketry Though a commendable effort, the register was from the Livadia community; Matting of Kapouti lacking in community involvement, accessibility village; The technique of dry stone, coming and ways to safeguard the ICH. from the Pitsilia, Solea, Marathassa, Limassol This prompted the Cyprus National Commission wine-producing villages and Akamas peninsula for UNESCO to propose to the Ministry of settlements; “Arkatena” bread from the Kilani Education and Culture the establishment of a and Omodos communities; the Limassol Carnival; more holistic approach to the matter, starting and the Fair of Kataklysmos (Cataclysm, Flood), off by involving civil society in the process. By in Larnaca. These new elements are in addition to February 2015, the first call for proposals went out Pipilla workshop in Omodos 4 Mother and daughter embroider pipilla lace Grandmother teachers her grandaughter the art of matting 5 Embroiderers on the streets of Omodos to the island’s communities to help draw up a more Some 13 nomination files were submitted by comprehensive national inventory, and possibly 29 May 2015 by communities and cultural even pinpoint new nominations for the National groups interested in inscribing elements on the List of ICH. National List of ICH. The evaluation process An expert committee comprising of representatives has been completed and information about of the Ministry of Education and Culture, new inscriptions is available on the Cyprus Department of Antiquities, National Commission National Commission for UNESCO website: for UNESCO and experts on the 2003 UNESCO www.unesco.org.cy Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible The Cyprus National Commission for UNESCO Cultural Heritage, has been assigned to follow this is a part of the global network of national bodies, through. which cooperate with UNESCO to implement In order to nominate an element, communities and promote projects and activities within the must provide information such as the name of five main thematic sectors of the Organisation: the element (in Greek standard and local Greek- Education, Natural Sciences, Culture, Social Cypriot