Cyprus Pavilion 2026: It rests to the bones

The Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture announces that at the 61st Venice Biennale, Cyprus will be represented by visual artist Marina Xenofontos, curator Kyle Dancewicz, and a team of collaborators. The project is titled“It rests to the bones”. About The proposal has been selected by the Deputy Ministry’s Advisory Committee for the Selection of Artists and Works (Louli Michaelidou, Gabriel Koureas, Catherine Nikita, Nikos Pattichis and Polys Peslikas), among a total of 21 proposals submitted in response to an Open Call last March. The Open Call invited complete participation proposals which included a unified artistic and curatorial concept. The installation of sculptures, video and sound delves into issues of personal and cultural memory with special emphasis on the power of folk traditions and heritage, to challenge established social norms, structures and conventions. Xenofontos recontextualises various cultural memorabilia, bringing to light the layers embedded within them. In doing so, she resurfaces social and anthropological dimensions that dominant historical narratives had either obscured or entirely erased over time. Through this process, she interrogates memory’s reliability and stability while simultaneously exposing its fluid – and at times deceptive – nature. Through the installation, established cultural symbols and representation in itself are questioned. Cypriot culture is unpicked to reveal the unique history of the place, devoid of utopian narratives, through the voices of women usually positioned outside the social, familial and religious norms they have been confined in for centuries. Finally, the artist engages with the rapidly changing technologies of our time and their impact on our society, through revisiting the Industrial Revolution and the utopian world it had promised us. Read more Toggle Installation Film / Video Audio / Sound