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The exhibition SCREEN by Theodoulos Polyviou is the first expansive multimedia installation commissioned the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst that engages with an object from the collection from a contemporary artistic perspective. SCREEN is the latest instalment in a series of works by the artist titled Transmundane Economies. For this ongoing project, Theodoulos Polyviou has developed immersive installations that examine the cultural heritage of his native country of Cyprus from a queer perspective.
The starting point of the exhibition is an 18th-century iconostasis. The artist has created a digital 3D reproduction of the iconostasis, which he has embedded in a site-specific audiovisual installation. SCREEN unfolds as a series of animated virtual environments that engage with the known and unknown histories around the object. As a dividing element in a Christian Orthodox church in Cyprus, the iconostasis once framed depictions of saints and was positioned to conceal the sanctuary from the congregation in the nave.
In this new work, Polyviou sees the iconostasis not as a dividing element but instead as a portal which is reflected in the visual profile by the square-shaped key element: a white square as well as a cut-out according to the used media. Commissioned lidar scans of the original church building in Cyprus are used for the imagery.
Curated by Cäcilia Fluck and Daniel Milnes, assisted by María López-Fanjul y Díez del Corral
