The Cyprus in UK – Culture in partnership with the Hellenic Institute, the Centre for Greek Diaspora Studies, and the Centre for the GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the Fitzwilliam Museum – University of Cambridge, present the exhibition Creating Diasporic Worlds at the Cyprus House, 5- 19 July 2022.
The Greek word ‘diaspora’ indicates the dispersal of a group of people from one original country to other countries, or the act of spreading in this way. Embedded in its etymology (dia ‘across’ + speirein ‘sow seed’, ‘scatter like seed’) is a centrifugal movement away from a shared place of origin. This physical movement is usually balanced by a centripetal imaginary movement towards a longed-for homeland, which often translates into nostalgia (nostos ‘return home’ + algos ‘pain’) – the yearning for return home, or to an irrecoverable past condition. Lingering between past and present, and crossing geographical and political boundaries, diasporas are nonetheless deeply rooted in territorial imaginations and in a sense of place. They at once transcend and rest on the map. Diasporas are thus commonly defined by their geographical, social, political and spiritual liminality. Yet diasporas are also culturally expressed, creatively practiced and continually performed. In scattering seeds across the world, they create their own worlds and fertilize others.
CREATING DIASPORIC WORLDS brings together the three projects that were selected as a result of the competition call Creative Commissions, inviting creative collaborations between academics and artists that explore diasporic identities, cultures, politics and ways of being:
THE GREEN LINE IN LONDON’S GREEN LANES
by Olivia Melkonian, Anoushka Berberian and Dr Rebecca Jinks.
LIQUID NARRATIVES
by Anastasia Mina and Dr Konstantinos Argianas.
APHRODITE’S SISTERS
by Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, Antigone Heraclidou, Giorgos Papantoniou and Christine E. Morris.
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CREATING DIASPORIC WORLDS
Cyprus House, 13 St. James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LB
Private viewing: 5 JULY 2022, 6-9pm
book via Eventbrite
Opening times: 5 – 19 JULY 2022, 10am – 4pm
(book via email: info@culturalchc.co.uk)
The exhibition is organised by the Cultural Section of the Cyprus High Commission in partnership with the Hellenic Institute, the Centre for Greek Diaspora Studies and the Centre for the GeoHumanities at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and supported by HARI and the School of Humanities at RHUL.