TOULA LIASI

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? (2018)

Dedicated to the Missing Persons in Cyprus

Where Have You Been? was inspired by the story of my brother, who had been
missing since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and found in a mass grave
four decades later. A story that while it can seemingly be considered personal,
in reality, is associated with the recent tragic history of Cyprus.

I wanted to address the issue through art, thus raising people’s awareness of this
particularly striking humanitarian issue in an alternative way. Through the project,
I sought not only to embrace aesthetic ways of looking at tragic events and painful situations but also to illustrate how art has the power to deal with painful human emotions and at the same time negotiate issues of politics, history and memory.

361, decotex, aluminium frame, 170×300 cm, 2017

With Love Yiannakis, c-print, forex, 92×60 cm each, 2017

With Love Yiannakis, neon lights, 45×60 cm, 2017

Dialogues, c-print, forex, 60×45 cm each, 2017

14081974, installation photocopies, 42×60 cm each, 2017

Jump and Shout, installation, photographic banners, 210×60 cm each, 2017

The trousers my brother was wearing when he was killed and metal pieces from his belt.

661-10/01-006B, c-print, 60×60 cm, 2018

Pixelized Memorials I, double face, decotex, aluminium frame, 100×140 cm each, 2018

Pixelized Memorials II, double face, decotex, aluminium frame, 100×140 cm each, 2018

Pixelized Memorials III, double face, decotex, aluminium frame, 100×140 cm, 2018

Pixelized Memorials IV, double face, decotex, aluminium frame, 100×140 cm, 2018

Pixelized Memorials V, c-print, dibond, 30×30 cm each, 2018

Pixelized Memorials VI, c-print, dibond, 60×60 cm, 2017

No tomb, no wreaths, no funeral speeches
Under the shade of the olive-tree
I looked at your watch
silently
and I saw time ceasing.

On that eleventh day of August
your voice is fading away
under the stones of Pentadaktylos
your dreams are hiding
behind the ears of grain, the bushes, the trees.


Here,
where the landscape insists
tactfully on unravelling
its beauty,
here,
where silence
coldly imposed
cruelly,
amongst strangers
the meaning of loneliness
is once more defined.


Without hesitation
the final testimonies
cry out,
a photo in a newspaper-cutting
and an assembled skeleton
are all that is left.


Heroes,
outdated ideals
in old history books,
literary recitations
of learned orators,
idols of young students
in revolutions.


No tomb
no wreaths
no funeral speeches
anonymous medals
for those who dare
die for freedom.

Toula Liasi - A contemporary Cypriot artist based in The Hague