A Visual Fusion of Cultures

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Maria Photiou has a conversation with artist Haris Epaminonda

Haris Epaminonda (b.1980) is a Cypriot artist who, since 2007, has been based in Berlin. Epaminonda’s work was recently shown at MoMA, New York (2011), Tate Modern, London (2010), and the Cyprus Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007.   When I first saw Epaminonda’s work at Tate Modern I was impressed by the construction of the space and the variety of objects juxtaposed together as a visual fusion of different cultures. It is only recently (within the last two decades) that Cypriot women artists have emerged into the international art community and since then have continued to operate in an international art market. The exhibition made me want to find out more about her career (at the age 32 Epaminonda has already shown in many prominent international venues), the conception of her work, her motivations, her decision to stay outside Cyprus and the influence of a Cypriot context in her work.     

Maria Photiou: Why do you choose to be based in Berlin? Why not in Cyprus or somewhere else?

Haris Epaminonda:I was doing a residency at the Kunstlerhaus Bethanien in 2007, for a year, and decided to stay after. It is a place I like to live and work, however, I am not yet ready to settle here.

MP:From your exhibitions, was the Venice Biennale the one that introduced you to the international audience?

HE:In many ways, yes.

MP:How did your career progress after the Venice Biennale? Did you have more opportunities to exhibit or get funding to do projects? Did galleries begin to approach you?

HE:Yes more opportunities came up so that I could develop work in different directions.

MP:When an exhibition is proposed, do you visit the location in advance to see the space? Do you have ideas or you develop them after you see the space?

HE:It is necessary to visit the space and get a feel for it, be inspired and look at its potential and surrounding. In one way or another it is the first impression that stays. I often like to intervene directly on the existing architecture, depending on what kind of space it is and the possibilities it offers.

MP:Do you think there are opportunities for artists in Cyprus to collaborate with galleries? What about production, financial and distribution aspects?

HE: I wouldn't be able to say much as I am away for so long. I would like to believe that there are more opportunities now than some years ago. It is a small circle of people, and it is quite easy to get to know each other and get together. From my experience and from what I know, Cypriot artists are often given more opportunities to fund projects through public support or even private initiatives, something which in other places is not always the case. However, and although there exists the capacity and will from public and private bodies to subsidize art production, the gallery scene is very small and the exposure provided to artists remains minimal on the international level.

MP: What material or sources do you use in your videos and installations?

HE:I have worked with found footage taken from sources such as broadcast television and movies from the 1960s as well as a lot of material shot over the years with my super-8 film camera.  In my installations, I mainly use found images and objects, as well as constructed forms and support structures that all become interconnected to create rhythmical movement and pauses.

MP:Do you think your work is influenced by Cyprus? Is there a Cypriot context or reference? 

HE:I am deeply affected by the way the sunlight heats surfaces, and the colours and tones the landscape radiates. Many of the images captured in my films come from my trips around the island. These can be scenes and moments I come across by chance, or places I visit which have previously left a deep impression on me. For me Cyprus is my home and I will always carry it with me. It is also a place for reflection, somehow the distance brings me closer to my roots and the memories I have from my childhood.

MP:Are there any particular artists or filmmakers you are looking at or whose work has influenced you?

HE:Georgian filmmaker Sergei Paradjanov [1924–90]; Italian photographer Luigi Guirri [1943–92], French filmmaker Robert Bresson [1901–99], Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu [1903–63], and Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray [1921–92] amongst others.

MP:Lets talk about your recent exhibition Projects 96: Haris Epaminonda at The Museum of Modern Art, New York.  How did you construct the project for such an important venue and what sources/images did you use?

HE:With this exhibition, I wanted to create a kind of maze-like space, including a large niche (a kind of negative sculpture) and a little window inside the fabricated wall, reminiscent of similar forms and shapes found in images that were part of the exhibition. Such images are taken from pages of existing books which I then frame and place on the wall, alone or juxtaposed with one another, often in relation to an object, or a group of objects and constructed structures arranged together to then form spatial compositions and relations.

There is a subtle narrative that follows from one image to the next and throughout the exhibition, from one constellation to another, but which is not linear, rather fragmented and loose, leaving space for interpretation and reflection.

The last room includes a three-channel video installation that is part of ‘Chronicles’ series, a project I started in 2010, and which slowly develops into an archive of sequences and images. The sound that has been composed by ‘Part Wild Horses Mane On Both Sides’, a music duo based in Manchester, reverberates throughout the video room, leaking into the rest of the spaces and setting the mood. 

In a way what I tried to create was a type of mental journey into an imaginary landscape, in which occasionally one encounters, amongst ruins and interiors, people isolated, being lost in time and space, seemingly disconnected from each other, and yet they relate on another level to one another through colour, form and gesture.

MP:What are you working on now?

HE: I am preparing to shoot a 16mm film in Cyprus in several locations all around the island and which will be most probably loosely related to Dante’s ‘The Divine Comedy’.

This interview took place at Haris Epaminonda’s studio in Berlin, January 2012.