Light House

Klitsa Antoniou’s...rendezvous with History occurs within the annual artistic event “Meeting of ancient and contemporary Cypriot art”. Called upon to create, inspired by the museum collections, the artist insists neither on the artifacts’ historical significance nor on their esthetic value, but rather she contemplates on the emotional burden of each and every one. “As I face the exhibits, I do not see archaeological finds, but the personal belongings of a human being who once lived and died on this earth.” The archaeological find is then automatically transfigured, from a valuable source of information on a nation’s History, also into a bearer of a person’s private story; the museum is transformed, from an archive of collective memory, also into an archive of personal recollections.

To this immense archive of collective as well as individual memory, Klitsa Antoniou adds her own testimony in the form of her new artistic proposal Recent acquisitions. […]

Before the ambitious three-dimensional assemblage Lighthouse the spectator is transferred back, to the Pharos of Alexandria, the spiritual light of which shines still, centuries after its destruction, reminiscent of the grandeur, but also of the tragedy of the human condition. Ever since its creation, the world’s oldest and greatest lighthouse had been doomed someday to be overthrown by its technologically superior descendants. In the same way that generations inevitably succeed one another, competing with each other in the name of humanity’s progress.

As it rotates, the Lighthouse – personal monument to its creator – enlightens somber aspects of the psyche, making them visible firstly to one’s Self and then to the Other. Its light seems to emanate from the depths of History and from the bowels of a universal being. As was the case with the previous work, the psychological landscapes are encoded and documented in a labyrinthine black-and-white collage – personal in(script)ion and trademark of the artist. “I chose not to use color, because I wanted to give the impression of a primitive alphabet.”

(Andrea Costantinou, Klitsa Antoniou: rendezvous with History…, Recent Acquisitions Catalogue, Pierides Foundation)