By Venia Pastaka

Art Historian

The group art exhibition Elles: Mythological Forms of Yesterday, Creators of Today was inaugurated on Saturday 15 March at the House of Cyprus and will run until 2 April. The exhibition is organized by the Press and Information Office of the Republic of Cyprus, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Greece and the House of Cyprus, while the opening ceremony was held by the First Lady of the Republic of Cyprus, Mrs. Philippa Karsera-Christodoulides.

It is an exhibition curated by Catherine Louis Nikita and featuring the artists Klitsa Antoniou, Stefanos Kouratzis, Melita Kouta, Lia Lapithi, Arriana Economou and Effie Spyrou. In it, the six participating artists are inspired by the antiquity and the rich cultural heritage of Cyprus, re-examining and presenting it through contemporary means.

In Klitsa Antoniou’s work Lost Signals, Found Traces (1999-2025), the female figure emerges as a place of constant change, bearing the weight of history in its fragile and resistant shell. Red icons-symbols of vitality and decay-intertwine with fragments of ancient female statues, recalling the cyclical course of existence between destruction and rebirth. Time here does not flow linearly; fragments of memory, history and matter coexist in a disorienting mix, dissolving the boundaries between past and present.

For Stefanos Kouratzis, the body of the island of Cyprus bears its own traces – a history full of interactions, cultural exchanges and transformations from the Bronze Age to modern times. In Melina Kouta’s performance, Clay Bodies, the artist’s body becomes a means of connecting with the earth through the act of excavating, shaping and burying clay vessels. This repetitive movement reflects the perpetual bonding of the female form with nature, the cycle of creation and return to primordial matter.

Similarly, Lia Lapithi’s Pythia, seduced by the oracle of Delphi in Cyprus, seeks her voice in a world where the past and the future collide. Her oracle resonates in a digital horizon, in an age where pigeons have been plasticized and artificial intelligence reigns supreme. Through this allegory, time dissolves, and the human body struggles to find its place in an ever-changing world.

In Ariana Economou’s performance KITION – KATHARI, the relationship between body and sanctuary is reinterpreted through a ritual of cleansing in the ancient sanctuary of Kition. Myrtle-the plant of Aphrodite-is used in a ritual aimed at connecting with the Earth and recovering the lost rhythm of time. This ritual bridges heaven and earth, past and present, through a breath that unites us all in a common pulse. Art becomes a field of confrontation with time, a journey where memory is not a static record but a living, malleable matter. Finally, Efi Spyrou marries the figures of yesterday with those of today, creating an interesting photographic set, highly artistic and characterized by an intense monumentality.

Through these artistic journeys, the figure of the woman emerges as a perpetual symbol, while her body, either as a container of history, as a means of ritual, or as a field of resistance to oblivion, becomes the canvas on which the perpetual changes of human experience are depicted.