I am having my work exhibited in Cyprus: See Memory

I am delighted to have been invited to release some of my work – which is the result of my academic and artistic research in the field of one of my main interests – to take part in such symbolic and interesting exhibition in the cultural institute Apotheke, in Cyprus, curated by Demetris Taliotis and Evi Tselika.

Being given this opportunity to showcase a few results of my efforts in researching historical memory and conflict transformation in that fascinating and exciting “Eurasian” island was both a surprise and a honour - especially coming alongside the renowned artist Victor Cartagena.

Thank you very much.

SEE, MEMORY

Victor Cartagena / Aleksander Aguilar

16-25th June 2011

...As a first instalment of a programme of exchange and collaboration between APOTHEKE and The Museum of Art of El Salvador (MARTE), APOTHEKE presents 'See, Memory', an exhibition of works by the Salvadorian artist Victor Cartagena and the Brazilian-Salvadorian media artist-activist Aleksander Aguilar.

Exploring notions which have an ever-present and privileged position in Cypriot discourses, such as that of political memory, of the iconography of the traumatic, as well as that of the aesthetic and visual configuration of post-traumatic elucidations of the personal and the local, 'See, Memory', more than an exhibition is also the inauguration of an extensive research process into all the above, amongst artists, cultural agents, collective and organisations from Cyprus and El Salvador.

• Victor Cartagena, one of the most important Central American contemporary artists, was born in El Salvador but abandoned it in the late 1980's, in the midst of the country's long running civil war (1980-1992) to move to San Francisco. Through this highlighted spatial distance, Cartagena's multifaceted artistic practise has been shaped into a continuous commentary on the past, a critical re-appraisal of memory as a violent absence, of remembrance as the present relic.

• Aleksander Aguilar is a Brazilian-Salvadorian artist-activist who creatively researches and actively participates in social conflict resolution processes in both countries. At ‘See, Memory’ Aquilar presents a series of images, which are the result of his collaboration with Salvadorian ex-guerrilla fighters as well as of his research at the historical memory archive at the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI). In acute awareness of the political significance of montage, Aquilar's work exposes and juxtaposes various images that playfully probe the memory of civil war and explore how the visual narrates the procedure of conflict and remembrance. Aquilar's work has been exhibited in Brazil, Spain, the U.K. and, of course, El Salvador.

SEE, MEMORY

Victor Cartagena / Aleksander Aguilar

Opening Hours: 17:00-21:00, Monday-Saturday,17-25th June 2011 or by appointment

Info: 99764816 / www.apothekecontemporaryarts.com

APOTHEKE, 23 Kleanthis Christofides Street, Nicosia, 1011, Cyprus