A Short Video; “Best Look West - A Geography of Melancholia”.
Copyright Lia Lapithi, 2023 [6min and 30 sec.]
Director of photography and editing Coby Reynolds
Below this is the geographic neighbourhood of the artist's from Cyprus:
North is occupied, [Cyprus by Turkish army ]
East is unrest, [MENA Middle East Northern Africa; Syria and Lebanon, and the 2023 open war between Israel-Palestine]
South is unstable, [AFRICA…Libya and Egypt]
West is an ageing Europe.
Filmed exclusively with a drone at the House of Hadjigeoghakis, Museum which now belongs to the department of Archaeology, Cyprus. Music by: “Glow Slowly-Polish Embassy”, and entitled: “When the sun comes up”.
The plot:
The artist enters the “Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios” museum with a compass in hand, searching for the true West.
She finds West in the dining area, in which there is an installation on the table: it is plate set for one person. Written on the plate is Ippokratis’ recipe on how to cure melancholia, and a large black stain.
She moves towards the South window. which has an open atlas, with Cyprus traced out pointing to West of Cyprus i.e. towards Europe.
She takes off her shoes and climbs the window stile.
The film jumps to her body lying dead on the road below.
Did she jump out of window? Was she served an overdose of mandrake, the ‘medicine of sorrow’? Perhaps pushed to her death? Cursed? Haunted?
Was it suicide or murder?
The large black blood of bile (melancholia) is seen on plate, with the medicine of sorrow recipe of Ippokratis’ 400 BC: extract from mandragora, olive oil and figs in rosewater.
The title dada-rhythms and its title/concept is derived from
“reductio ad absurdum”, often used by Aristotle, Euklidis and Plato.
The film is composed of a series of short sharp clips of flashbacks which happen as the artist keeps searching in different directions for West.
A Geography of Melancholia,
Performing into Drawing.
An over 12 meter long, A4 hardcover, 64 page panoramic/leporello book/object [30x1200cm, 2023]
The concept:
Marked by the Melancholy of the Geography due to Cyprus geopolitical location in which looking towards North is occupied, [Cyprus by Turkish army ]
East is unrest, [MENA Middle East Northern Africa;Syria and Lebanon, and nowadays the open war between Israel-Palestine]
South is unstable, [AFRICA…Libya and Egypt] and
West is an aging Europe.
The panoramic/leporello was the outcome of;
A Live performance at The House of Hadjigeorgakis Ethnological Museum, Nicosia, Cyprus.
25/11/2023, from 19:30-21:00
Artist’s procedure:
1. Lay the printed papers of the geographical neighbourhood map of Cyprus flat on the table (as if writing a poem). Time spend on making every drawing must not exceed 1minute and 13seconds.
2. Let the black bile ink droplets/splatter/bleed on the page/paper. Use any drawing media available including fingers.
3. Rotate page/paper so that it drips in different angles/directions N-SE-W to establish the geopolitical areas of convergence
4. Hang the Drawings on the clothesline wrapped around the Ethnological museum’s fountain. REPEAT
5. Book-bind: Number all 64 Drawings and bind into a panoramic/ leporello “Best Look West”one-off edition.
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Exhibition organizer; BPArts.
Supporters; Department of Antiquities Cyprus
Main Sponsors; Deputy Ministry of Culture
Sponsers; British High Commission Cyprus + Institut Français Cyprus.