Architect Sevina Floridou's proposal will represent Cyprus at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, which takes place from May 10 to November 23.
The Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture announced the selection of the proposal entitled "(In the stones) - We give you our breath and whisper it back to the soil" by Sevina Floridou, co-curators Nikola Mitropoulou and Clara Zinecker, assistant architect Aaron Gatt and team artist-researchers Fisherwomxn (Myriam Gat, Ioulita Toumazi, Seta Astraiu-Karydis) and the TERRACT-Salami group of artisans.
The proposal was selected through an open invitation process for the selection of a curator, which was announced by the Deputy Ministry of Culture in partnership with the Association of Architects of Cyprus (SAC). The proposals submitted in this context were examined by an 8-member committee consisting of representatives of the Deputy Ministry and the SAC (Alki Dikaios, architect, president of the SAC, Yannis Agesilao, architect, Eleonora Antoniadou, architect, Petro Dymioti, Cultural Officer of the Department of Contemporary Culture, Fano Kyriakidis, architect, Loulis Michailidou, Cultural Officer A' of the Department of Contemporary Culture, Andreas Pallalas, architect and Pavlos Feraios, architect).
The selection rationale
The Commission appreciated the intention of the proposal to bring neglected manual building practices back to the fore, reclaiming, in essence, the knowledge of primitive ways of sustainable (in today's terminology) management of natural resources. By reducing the construction process to a ritualistic rite of participation, the proposal manages to connect crucially and organically with the thematic core of Biennale Architettura 2025.
The title is inspired by the dance of the stones in Sarah Rule's Eurydice. As the curatorial team itself notes, it is a search for a way to redefine evolution, but also meta-evolution, which takes place in a future that is recovered from the past, contained in the present, and which is based on the communal synthesis of empathy. The feelings that arise, which are difficult to fit into architecture or spatial planning, can be characterized by physical elements, but can equally be thoughts, desires and even fears projected onto the landscape around us.
The exhibition negotiates the return of bodies and collective functions that resonate in drystone techniques. Through the processes of contact, (re)construction and the performative gestures that run through them, a collectively structured future is offered that is directly involved with the ethics, politics of space and its handling.
Through the repetitive rhythms of dry stone, a functional chain is determined – of collection, (re)assembly and repositioning. These gestures can lead to a shift from what a designed space can depict to what it can be or offer – that is, how these relationships reverse monumentality, decentring pre-existing 'top-down' hierarchies and approaches.
The terraces cease to be mere stones and become a meeting point with the generations that preceded us, with ours but also those of the future that are in front of us. Acting as witnesses to the participation and dedication to the built stones within the landscape, we ourselves are confronted with our own transience, which leads to different systems of valuation and vision. The stones, as well as the various traces on the landscape, are transformed into active mechanisms of knowledge, as records of centuries of collective effort, even as measuring instruments of spatial possibilities. They also acquire a poetic value, where the geological, the natural world and the human imagination meet.
The Biennale Architettura 2025, with the artistic director-curator architect and engineer Carlo Rati, will take place between May 10 – November 23, 2025 under the general title “Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective'.
According to Ratti, the title "Intelligence" is connected to the modern term "Intelligence", while also referring to a wider set of meanings. "Actually, the last syllable, 'gens,' is the Latin word for 'genus.' A new, imaginative root emerges, suggesting a Future where Intelligence is inclusive, multiple and imaginative, beyond the current, restrictive focus on Artificial Intelligence. […] The built environment is responsible for one of the largest percentages of greenhouse emissions, making Architecture one of the main culprits in the degradation of our planet. As the climate crisis accelerates, must we settle for this role or remain capable of offering substantive, non-decorative solutions that are effective and immediately implementable?”
At the Biennale Architettura 2025 the Cypriot Pavilion will once again be hosted at the Associazione Culturale Spiazzi, Castello 3865, 30124 Venezia, next to the Biennale's official exhibition spaces (Arsenale).
The full exhibition program will be announced at a later stage.
Biennale Architettura 2025 opens on 8 May 2025 for the media and accredited professionals and on 10 May for the public.
Sevina Floridou
Sevina Floridou is a Cypriot architect and cultural heritage researcher. She deals in her research project with the rapprochement between the two main communities of Cyprus, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots (Journal of Mediterranean Studies, Malta, 1998). Other publications include: Dervishes and Women's Rituals in Limassol (CVAR, 2022), 'Landscape, Interaction and Irrigation' (Glasgow University, Oxbow 2013), participatory interaction 'Meeting at Muttallos', Paphos European Capital of Culture 2017 (with Hatzisotiriou and Petrou , Routledge, 2019), "Modernity, Controversy and Resilience in the Ottoman Baths of Nicosia" (Saqi Press, 2019). He also teaches Cultural Heritage at the University of Nicosia since 2014.
The experience of historical research is channeled into her architectural practice in projects such as: Oroklini Beach Boardwalk (with Margarita Danou, State Award for Architecture, Phaidon 2004), Elaionas, an open-air space for musical performances, (2005), Restoration of the 19th century Koudounari house in Limassol (2016), Municipal Center Limassol Arts: Papadaki Warehouses (2019, participation in the Rehabilitation and Urban Planning Biennale BRAU5 2021) as well as in various projects related to restorations/maintenance within the bi-community cooperation of the United Nations Development Program in Cyprus (UNDP).
He is a member of the International Terraced Landscape Alliance (ITLA International Terraced Landscape Alliance) having published in the journal of the same name (ITLA Vo. 1, Number 1, 2021). With the support of the LAONA Foundation and ITLA, she implemented community activities throughout the countryside of Cyprus as a curator, incorporating local knowledge into educational and artistic activities aimed at the general public. In 2023 and 2024 he edited workshops within the framework of European Terraced Landscapes (ETL) documenting routes and the particular aspects of the xerolithic landscape.
Nikola Mitropoulou
Nicola Mitropoulou (born on the shores of the Mediterranean) is a Cyprus-based artist and curator whose practice is in a constant state of flux. Her work deals with the dialectic of fluidity, interweaving elements of performance and collective exercise to negotiate modern spatiotemporal perimeters. Her projects unfold in various forms such as collaborative research, exhibitions, writing and performance.
Clara Zinecker
Clara Chinecker is a researcher and participant in collaborative research projects focusing on the intersection of border studies and ecology. Her action is expressed in various forms, such as writing, activism and artistic practice. Since 2018 he has been working with activist groups and people-on-the-move. In 2021 he became an active member of the Border Violence Monitoring Network, within which he has conducted and coordinated research on the financing and forms of inherent border violence and its ever-increasing technologization. She currently studies political science and public law at Goethe University Frankfurt, where her research examines the violent involvement of human and non-human actors in border enforcement, with a spatial focus on her own locality which is, for the past two years, the Cyprus.
Aaron Gatt
Aaron Gatt is an architect at AMS Architects. He graduated with distinction (Summa Cum Laude) from the University of Cyprus in 2024. During his studies he studied for one semester at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki through the Erasmus program. He did an internship in the office of the architect Diomedes Myriantheas in 2022, contributing to the recording and recording of historical churches in Cyprus. He is particularly interested in Archaeology, with a focus on historical graffiti.
In 2022, he participated in the mapping of the sunken port of Amathus, in the framework of cooperation between the Universities of Cyprus and Aix-Marseille for the preparation of a doctoral thesis. In 2023, he did an internship at the Cyprus Institute (STARC, APAC Labs) under the coordination of Mia Gaia Trentin, he worked on the Medieval and Early Modern Graffiti in Cyprus project documenting graffiti in the 10 thatched churches of Troodos that are included in the World Cultural Heritage List Unesco. He also collaborated with the Eberhrd Karls University of Tübingen on the recording of graffiti in Moulineux Abbey in France, as part of another PhD thesis.
Fisherwomxn (Myriam Gat, Ioulita Toumazi & Seta Astraiu-Karydis)
Fisherwomxn is a group of artists and curators active in the fields of writing, publishing and performing arts to foster critical dialogue around feminist and anti-colonial thought. Through their work they explore their personal relationships with these ideas and how they manifest in their lives in Cyprus and the diaspora, aiming to deconstruct the post-colonial ideologies that push us away from Cyprus. How can we take responsibility for the flourishing of our places in our post-colonial reality? How can we find alternative spaces of existence and develop our communities beyond imperialist structures?
Underlying their practice are two pillars: publishing Fisherwomxn and curating Streams. The publication of Fisherwomxn magazine tackles the questions that concern them through various forms of creative writing and the book as an artistic project. Streams are a series of curated gatherings that extend these conversations through artistic activities such as performances, creative workshops, discussions, etc.
Source: filenews