BOUND TRACES

Part one of Mapping the Cypriot Photobook Landscape

Duration: 30 October 2024 - 9 November 2024

Photographs by Constantinos Constantinou

In the framework of the 7th International Conference on Photography and Theory (ICPT2024), the International Association of Photography and Theory (IAPT) and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, associated with the Pierides Foundation (NiMAC) are organising the photobook presentation titled Bound Traces. Bound Traces is the first part of a larger project by IAPT titled Mapping the Cypriot Photobook Landscape, aiming to explore, map and showcase the production of photobooks by photographers in Cyprus.

Since its invention, photography has been used in the service and legitimization of various old and newfound discourses and sciences. It performed various functions and roles, appearing systematically and in abundance, in all kinds of books as a means of providing evidence, documentation and classification. Yet, the artistic photobook, invested with creative/conceptual intent, operates as an autonomous artwork rather than a by-product of something else. A relatively new artistic vehicle and genre, the photobook is able to communicate ideas, concepts, narratives and (hi)stories in its entirety. It becomes a space of many functions; of exhibition, interaction, performance, where significant issues have been debated over time, through its book-specific attributes, such as narrative structure, sequence, rhythm, format, layout, design and materiality.

The photobooks in Bound Traces were either selected following an open call or were part of the IAPT collection/archive and include photographic works by artists from or based in Cyprus. The photobooks serve as an entry-point into the Cypriot photographic zeitgeist, expressing the concerns and sensibilities of the island’s creators. Their subject matter is extensive, touching on aspects of the quotidian and the surreal, the sociopolitical and the cultural, the personal and the private.

Finally, Bound Traces pays tribute to the significant photographic and publishing work of Menelaos Pittas (1958-2022), which took the form of the photobook already in the ’90s. Photobooks were the main output of his creative work and he is therefore considered as one of the initiators of the art of photobooks in the island.

Curatorial team: Ioulita Toumazi, Artemis Eleftheriadou, Damianos Zisimou, Constantinos S. Constantinou.

Participating Artists:

Klavdia Balampanidou, Emma Louise Charalambous, Marianna Constanti, Kyriaki Costa, Natasha Georgiou, Tereza Kleovoulou, Katerina Kountourioti, Christakis Ktoris, Nicolas Lambouris, Christina Lambrou, Panagiotis Mina, Chris Neopyhtou, Omiros Panayides, Nicos Philippou, Iris Pissaride, Menelaos Pittas, Simon Pruciak, Silvio Augusto Rusmigo, Efi Savvides, Sessions (Dimitris Chimonas, Lex Gregoriou, Demetris Shammas, Nicola Mitropoulou, Loizos Olympios, Clio Hadjigeorgiou a.o.), Kyriaki Siopacha, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Demetris Vattis, Marilena Zackheos.

Location: NiMAC

19, Palias Ilektrikis, 1016 Nicosia

Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10:00 – 21:00

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