Transmundane Economies: A Palace In Exile at Fondazione Elpis, Milan (IT)
10.04.2024 - 07.06.2024
Architectural design in collaboration with Loukis Menelaou.
Supoported by
Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Cyprus
[...] In this series, Polyviou deploys digital technologies like virtual reality and CGI filmmaking to study, reconstruct, and fill in historical gaps of Cypriot cultural heritage. His speculative approach circumvents nationalist agendas by offering alternative ways to revisit the historical complexities of the island and to imagine its future. The central site-responsive video installation consists entirely of computer- generated images, which jump between two places and time periods: the Fondazione Elpis in the present and Cyprus in the 1950s, a decade characterized by ethnic and nationalist tensions in the process of gaining independence from British colonial rule. The video’s narrative concentrates on the first architectural competition in the region launched in the 1950s for the construction of a new Archbishop’s Palace for the Church of Cyprus. This was hotly debated in the press, showing the role architecture played in shaping the island’s national identity. [...]