Objective

This action looked to organize and exhibit a selection of paintings by Greek Cypriot and other artists, as well as a selection of audio-visual material from CyBC archives related to the Turkish Cypriots. A catalogue was published to accompany the event. Following the decision of the two leaders, during their meeting on 26 February 2019 as part of confidence building measures, the paintings had been returned to the Greek Cypriot community by the Turkish Cypriot community, and the audio-visual archives to the Turkish Cypriot community by the Greek Cypriot community.

Results

After an examination of 220 paintings, 50 artworks were identified with needs for emergency repair and preventative maintenance. The conservator of artworks performed preventative maintenance work on 50 artworks selected for the exhibition. Dry-cleaning was performed on all artworks for photographic and cataloguing purposes. Following this process, all 220 artworks were photographed by a professional catalogue photographer.

A trilingual (Greek, Turkish and English) exhibition catalogue was designed and published, in both electronic and printed format. The catalogue was vital for documentation of artworks and archives. 1000 printed copies were distributed to various stakeholders both in the Greek Cypriot community and the Turkish Cypriot community, while the digital publication, ensues wide public access to the collection of these artworks and archive materials.

The exhibition was held by invitation only on February 3-4, 2020 at Ledra Palace Hotel, and attracted approximately 650 guests over the two-day period. The opening reception on February 3, 2020, during which the Leaders delivered a speech, was widely attended by various guests including religious leaders, officials, representatives from art communities, NGOs and the Technical Committees. The exhibition received a wide media coverage in both communities.

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