Archive Poetics: Working with Artists’ Archives and Estates
Symposium within the framework of the exhibition ‘Life Like a Horizon’: Nature and Wandering in the Work of Nicos Nicolaides
Sunday, 16 March at 11.00
Minerva Hotel, 36 Spyrou Kyprianou, Pano Platres, 4820, Cyprus
Celadon Center for the Arts & Ecologies presents the symposium Archive Poetics: Working with Artists’ Archives and Estates. The symposium is part of the exhibition and parallel programme ‘Life Like a Horizon’: Nature and Wandering in the Work of Nicos Nicolaides curated by Dr. Gabriel Koureas and Dr. Elena Parpa.
A considerable number of works by Nicos Nicolaides are today considered lost or untraceable, raising significant questions about preserving the tangible and intangible heritage of artists— especially within the context of Cypriot visual art, where institutions for studying and promoting cultural production, such as a state museum of contemporary art, have yet to be established.
What remains of an artist’s vision and influence when much of their work is no longer accessible? What research and curatorial approaches can be developed in response? What historical knowledge is produced when based on discontinuity and gaps?
These and other questions will be explored in the symposium Archive Poetics: Working with Artists’ Archives and Estates, where researchers, curators, and artists will discuss practices and tools for managing, preserving, and promoting artistic archives and legacies. Language: English With the participation of Elena Papadopoulos, Nadia von Maltzahn, Anna Schäffler, Valentinos Charalambous, Ioulita Toumazi and AnnaMaria Charalambous.
Attendance is free but registration is necessary.
Programme
10.30 – 11.00 Registration and Coffee
11.00 – 11.15 Welcome by the curators of the exhibition
11.15 – 11.35 Dr. Anna Schäffler Collaborating Through Times: The Intergenerational Dialogue with Posthumous Artistic Legacies
11.40 – 12.00 Valentinos Charalambous in conversation with Gabriel Koureas
12.05 – 12.25 Helena Papadopoulos Dreams are no longer summoned with closed eyes: notes on a voyage in the archives of Bia Davou, Pantelis Xagoraris, George Tourkovasilis, and Christos Tzivelos.
12.30 – 12.50 AnnaMaria Charalambous and Ioulita Toumazi the fragments in our hands: the responsibility, challenges and beauty of working with cypriot artists’ archives [sic]
12.55 – 13.15 Dr. Nadia von Maltzahn Documenting Lebanon’s Art World at Home and Abroad: Challenges, approaches and tools
13.15 – 13.45 Discussion
Biographies
AnnaMaria Charalambous (Nicosia, 1990) is a visual artist. She studied Fine Arts at Kingston University in London and continued her Master degree at Frederick University in Nicosia. Since 2017, she has been running garage art space in Nicosia, aiming to provide a space for young Cypriot artists. She also participates in curatorial collectives of exhibitions organized by the Lefteris Economou Cultural Foundation. She is a founding member of the annual map Use-It Nicosia and co-founder of the library AZINEΣ, the first fanzine library in Cyprus. Since 2014, she has been working as a main assistant at the studio of the artist Maria Loizidou and has contributed to the preparation of artworks for the artist’s participation in significant international exhibitions. For over a decade, she has been active in the field of arts education and for the past eight years, she is teaching children aged 6-12 at the educational center for children at the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NiMAC).
Valentinos Charalambous was born in 1929 into a family of traditional potters of Famagusta, Cyprus, Valentinos studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. After he obtained the Central School’s diploma (with Distinction), he worked there as a technical assistant. In 1952 he returned to Cyprus to work with his father, and in 1957 was asked by the Ministry of Education of Iraq to undertake the establishment of the Department of Ceramics of the Institute of Fine Arts in Baghdad. In 1960 he was assigned to establish a similar department at the ‘Tahrir’ Girls College, Baghdad, and in 1967 he joined the newly established Academy of Fine Arts of the University of Baghdad where he became the head of the Department of Ceramics, a position he held until his retirement in 1983, when he returned to Cyprus. He exhibited his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout Europe and the Middle East, and in the United States. In 1987 the Iraqi Government honoured him for his contribution to the development of Iraqi art both as a teacher and an artist. In 1992, his work was awarded at the Cairo Triennale for Ceramics. In 2001 he was included in the Lifetime Achievement Award list of the IBC, in Cambridge, UK and in 2005 in their list of “100 Top Artists”. His works are included in many private and public collections in Cyprus, Greece, the UK, IRAQ, Egypt, Lebanon and the USA.
Nadia von Maltzahn is the principal investigator of the ERC-funded project “Lebanon’s Art World at Home and Abroad: Trajectories of artists and artworks in/from Lebanon since 1943” (LAWHA), based at the Orient-Institut Beirut (OIB). She holds a DPhil in Modern Middle Eastern Studies from St Antony’s College, Oxford. Her research interests include cultural politics, artistic practices and the circulation of knowledge. LAWHA examines the forces that have shaped the emergence of a professional field of art in Lebanon in local, regional and global contexts. Nadia is currently a fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Global dis:connect in Munich.
Helena Papadopoulos is a curator and writer, founder of Radio Athènes institute for the advancement of contemporary visual culture, and more recently of RECORDS, a collaborative project dedicated to historical artists. She thinks a lot about what her contemporaries make but she is also interested in flashbacks and eclipses, and in approaching exhibitions as unfinished projects, in the sense that everything is “to be continued” and take another form: a book, a record, a conversation, a trip, a friendship, another text. She is based in Athens.
Anna Schäffler is an art historian, author, and curator specializing in the preservation of contemporary art. Her work bridges art history, conservation, and curatorial practices, addressing both theoretical and practical challenges. Collaborating with media conservator Andreas Weisser, she advises artists as well as public and private institutions on long-term preservation strategies.In recent years, she has initiated and led projects that explore the current paradigm shifts in contemporary art preservation, such as Art Doc Archive, a prototype for archiving social media and websites of artists, and Networks of Care, which examined decentralized preservation strategies. For more information visit www.annaschaeffler.info
Ioulita Toumazi is a curator and writer from Cyprus. She holds an MA in History of Art from UCL and a BA in Liberal Arts from the University of Kent. Her current research revolves around postcolonialism, memory and language, especially in the Cypriot context. She has curated and co-curated various exhibitions and projects with art spaces like Thkio Ppalies, Garage Art Space and NiMAC. She is currently part of the team that will represent Cyprus at the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Nadia von Maltzahn (March 15, 2025). Archive Poetics: Working with Artists’ Archives and Estates. LAWHA Lebanon's Art World at Home and Abroad. Retrieved May 20, 2025 from https://lawha.hypotheses.org/2031