Nicosia 2030, candidate city for European Capital of Culture, presents the series of public interventions "OTHONI", conceived and curated by visual artist PASHIAS, as part of the Parallel Program of the Nicosia International Festival 2024. For six consecutive weekends, the Smart Nicosia screens, located centrally at the capital’s streets and avenues, will be taken over by video artworks, exhibited in common space and time, making them accessible to all. "OTHONI" aims at connecting citizens and visitors with the city they inhabit, utilizing pre-existing means of visual communication to provide a window into the passerby’s daily life.

Each video proposes a moving image, unfolds into an environment and takes the form of a poetic gesture, of a personal statement or public interference. Motivated by the urgent necessity for social inclusion, the selected artists reexamine their relationship with the urban environment and their social surroundings, in dialogue or in confrontation with the dominant modes of utilizing public space and perceiving individual differences. From performative images, to animated landscapes, object installation to text-based research, "OTHONI" presents diverse mediums of video art, in order to provide windows for understanding and evaluating our relationship to current social settings.

Public Intervention #1: "Patience" by Lefki Savvidou

Weekend 23 & 24 November 2024

The statement in Lefki Savvidou’s artwork is clear, "we are running out of patience". In this case, 'we' refers to all individuals whose formulation is liquid, flexible and everchanging. Water, the fundamental element of life, can take any form and shape it wants, never rigid and fixed. Contained only by a plastic bag, a thin and damaged membrane, the image parallels a societal framework attempting to enclose individuals into a specific mass. Molecules break out into droplets, advocating for systemic change, demanding space for all versions and variations of singularity.

Public Intervention #2: "The Wanderer Above the EU Borders" by Yiannis Pappas

Weekend 30 November & 1 December 2024

Providing a window into the sea landscape, Yiannis Pappa’s moving image is centered upon a dark still figure, reminiscent of folklore wise men, holding onto a cane. This 'wanderer' is tasked with the quest of life, of displacement, the search of home, away from home. Gazing forward, the waves move unnaturally backwards into an unseen horizon, or, in this case, into the endless possibilities of an uncertain future. The figure contemplates all frustrations and pain transcribed upon the sea, borderless by nature, forcefully fixed into limits and edges by countries and governing authorities.

Public Intervention #3: "To each other, we are everything" by Raafat Majzoub

Weekend 7 & 8 December 2024

Raafat Majzoub puts in text a kind of fictional realism about "an Arab world where me and my friends can live and thrive", void of borders, centered on proximity, safety and care. Being forced into diaspora, Majzoub’s narrative is anchored by the figure of the grandmother, as a form of tender power, the one who prays, the one who envisions a living future. Combined with animated architectural plans of Tripoli’s Hammam Al-Nouri, his home city in Lebanon, the artist documents destruction and abandonment, in need of 'renovating' the notion of home, family, of togetherness.

Public Intervention #4: "The dance of the receptors" by BBB Johannes Deimling

Weekend 14 & 15 December 2024

BBB Johannes Deimling constructs performative images through a multilayered language of visuals and senses, calling for attention to the 'mundane' and the 'bizarre'. A collage of body parts and daily objects, diverse in shape and in function, bringing forth infinite sets of combinations and connections. In his words, "it’s not about what we see, but rather what we do not see". Deimling’s sensory dance challenges the receiver’s preconceived limits of perception, what we allow ourselves to experience, to be stimulated by. If a key can unlock a pomegranate, then we can also unlock our understanding of the world.

Public Intervention #5: "Pixels & Perspectives: Unraveling Identity & Connection in the Digital Age" by Erifili Doukeli 

Weekend 21 & 22 December 2024

Engaging with new technology software and AI programs, Erifili Doukeli creates 3D digital landscapes, in order to navigate the abundance of data, information and imagery that overwhelms our screens. Expanding into the main human interface, the screen dictates our relationships - to one’s self, to others, to our surrounding environment. Yet, Doukeli allows for the creation of microcosmoi, in which hybrid figures, gangs of colorful friends, can exercise, dance and interact with each other. This puzzle of complexities simulates our societal framework, asking for space and time for all versions of one’s avatar.

Public Intervention #6: "Triumph" by Tales Frey

Weekend 28 & 29 December 2024

Tales Frey displays a subverted boxing match, a ritual dance of violence that starts and ends with futility, as the two opponents are connected by their gloves. The main vehicle of force transforms into a compulsory parameter of unity. As a commentary on 'toxic masculinity' enforcing a patriarchal order of society, a rooster fight of dominance, this performative gesture showcases an alternative relationship of proximity. Frey redefines this competitive sport into an act of joining hands, creating a bond, in which the necessity of partnership and solidarity overcomes the desire for victory.