Rome, at Colosseum Park an exhibition on Aphrodite with contemporary Italian and Cypriot artists

In Rome, the Colosseum Archaeological Park is hosting the exhibition Cyprea: The Network of Aphrodite, scheduled from Sept. 26 to Nov. 26, 2024 in the halls of the Roman Forum Museum. Curated by Giorgio Calcara, with the Art Direction of Stefania Pennacchio and the scientific direction of Fulvia Toscano, director of the Naxoslegge festival, the exhibition celebrates the figure of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, and the strong historical and cultural ties between Italy and Cyprus, through the presence of eight contemporary Italian and Cypriot artists: Stefania Pennacchio, Nicola Verlato, Rosa Mundi and Gabriels from Italy; Vassilis Vassiliades, Panikos Tembriotis, Eleni Kindini and Lefteris Tapas from Cyprus. The aim of the exhibition is to explore the concept of "kalokagathia, " or the union of beauty and goodness, and to reflect on how this ideal has inspired cultures and generations in the Mediterranean.

The exhibition itinerary, which includes stops in Rome, Naxos/Taormina, Pafos and Nicosia, symbolically reinforces the ties between Italy and Cyprus by interweaving the beauty of the past with contemporary interpretations of art. The project aims to promote a reflection on the continuity of values, traditions and creativity, looking at both the past and the future.

Another major event related to the exhibition is the September 28 study day at the Naxos Archaeological Park Museum, organized by the Naxoslegge festival. Prominent personalities such as Alfonsina Russo, Gabriella Tigano, Theodoros Mavrojannis, Giorgio Calcara, Stefania Pennacchio and Chiara Donà dalle Rose will speak in a debate that will further explore the cultural issues related to “Cyprea.”

The project is supported by a number of institutions, including the MIC-Ministry of Culture, the Embassy of Cyprus in Rome, the Region of Sicily, and the Ministry of Culture of Cyprus. The exhibition catalog, printed by Leucò Art Gallery, will include not only reproductions of the works on display, but also insights into the eternal link between archaeology, contemporary art and Mediterranean genius.

"Myths, stories, legends, attributes and iconographies of the Greco-Roman deity are interwoven in the exhibition Cyprea. The Web of Aphrodite, through works by artists from Cyprus, the island linked to the origin of the goddess, and from Italy, where in Roman times the cult of Venus, chosen by Gaius Julius Caesar as the divine ascendant of the Gens Iulia, as the mother of Aeneas, was widely spread," comments Alfonsina Russo, director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park. “And there is no better place to exalt the eternal vault of the Goddess than the Museum of the Roman Forum facing the Cella di Roma Aeterna, part of the ancient Temple of Venus and Rome, the largest and most monumental building of worship in Imperial Rome dedicated precisely to the goddess Venus Felix, bearer of good fortune and to Roma Aeterna, personification of the city.”

“This project,” says Stefania Pennacchio, artistic director of the event, “comes after a successful artistic collaboration between Italy and Cyprus (Kairos, Only Space Remembers, 2022-2023) where connections between our countries resulted in a traveling exhibition (Milan, Syracuse, Athens, Nicosia). But Aphrodite calls to a loom of network, nodes, and cultural entanglements between the two nations. The choice to tell this myth related to love is a message to a greater awareness and anchorage, to which contemporary society has disaccustomed us.”

"The choice of the title Cyprea, in addition to a reference to the birth of Aphrodite emerging from the bubbling waters (anadiomene) in front of the island of Cyprus, is linked to an archetypal and allegorical aspect,“ reveals curator Giorgio Calcara. ”More than any other shell, Cyprea is connected to life: it welcomes it, protects it and thus enhances it. All these elements necessary for the continuation of the species symbolically represent woman, as female, mother, creator and dispenser of the future,“ comments Giorgio Calcara, curator. The artists selected(Gabriels, Rosa Mundi, Nicola Verlato, Stefania Pennacchio, Vassilis Vassiliades, Panikos Tembriotis, Lefteris Tapas, Eleni Kindini)between the two nations, Italy and Cyprus, will show their works under the sign of Cyprea, an archetypal dimension in which their present sign is a transitory technical status, moving from an ideal divine parthenogenesis and tending to the infinite fetation of artwork.”

Rome, at Colosseum Park an exhibition on Aphrodite with contemporary Italian and Cypriot artists

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