The House of Cyprus | Cultural Center of the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus in Athens and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus, in collaboration with the Michael Cacoyannis Foundation, as part of Cyprus Days 2025, present the exhibition “Where Have You Been?” by artist Toula Liasi, dedicated to the missing persons of Cyprus. The exhibition was first presented at the “ANNA@KV2” exhibition space in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2018 and at “NiMAC” in Nicosia in 2019.

Opening Night: Thursday 2 October 2025 | 19:00

Venue: Michael Cavoyannis Foundation

Pireos 206, Tavros 177 78

Τ | 210 3418550

Exhibition Duration: 2 – 18 October 2025

Days and Times: Monday– Saturday: 18.00-22.00

Curatorship: Catherine Louis Nikita, Art Consulant

Moderated by: Maria Ragia, The House of Cyprus

At the start of the inauguration, Dutch trombonist Jörgen van Rijen will perform Jacob Ter Veldhuis’s “I was like WOW.”

“Where Have You Been?” is an art project inspired by the personal story of Cypriot artist Toula Liasis, who has been living and working in The Hague for almost four decades. Her only brother, who went missing during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, was found forty years later in a mass grave and identified through DNA testing. This overwhelming, emotional experience sparked a wealth of ideas for a series of works that would highlight the problem of missing persons in Cyprus. In creating this project, the artist seeks to adopt visual means to examine tragic events and painful situations, but also to show how art has the power to deal with painful questions, to unravel human emotions and, at the same time, to address issues of history, memory, and politics.

The artist emphatically states that “normally, when the remains of missing persons are found, identified, and buried, their relatives can put an end to a long period of anguish and uncertainty. For me, after receiving a call from the Committee on Missing Persons informing me that my brother had been found in a mass grave and identified, the case was not closed. On the contrary, it had only just begun. I wanted to know everything. I wanted to get as close to him as possible. Until his last moment.”

Toula Liasi was born in Agia Triada, Karpasia, in 1957, where she lived until 1975. She began her studies in drawing and painting at the Veloudakis School in Athens (1975-1980). She continued at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, Netherlands (1980-1984) and later studied Fine Arts in Education at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam (2004-2006) and at the Piet Zwart Institute (postgraduate) in Rotterdam (2013-2015). Toula Liasi has held solo exhibitions in the Netherlands, Greece, and Cyprus and has participated in numerous group exhibitions in various European countries. Since 1980, she has lived and worked in The Hague, Netherlands, as an artist and art educator.[www.toulaliasi.nl]