This Sunday the art scene takes a poignant turn as Lenia Georgiou presents a collection of art work produced by asylum seekers from the Kofinou Reception and Accommodation Centre in Larnaca, as part of her post graduate thesis in art therapy.
Georgiou, who was born in South Africa to Cypriot parents, has studied Fine Art at Kingston University in London and is currently studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Italy.
Poxias is the result of an experiential art therapy workshop which Georgiou performed with the aim of helping asylum seekers to express themselves and their experiences by creating art.
Georgiou felt compelled to steer her thesis in this direction because of her previous experience with immigrants and displaced people, not least in her won divided island.
The work, on display until January 5, is a bundle or a Poxia (in the Cypriot dialect), symbolising the act of moving, or travelling, from one place to another and what happens when you can’t carry all your belongings with you and the only thing you can carry is yourself.
Georgiou explains it as “a mental bundle full of emotions, a container of thoughts and memories of people who are always on the go. The body is the only thing man always carries with him.”
“His first container of thoughts, feelings and emotions meets painting along with fabric and together they give birth to a large scale Poxia, acting not only as a collective work of art, but also as a collective skin and heart.”
Poxia
Exhibition arranged by Lenia Georgiou. Opens December 28, until January 5. Polichoros Apothikes, Larnaca. Opening hours: 4pm-8pm. Tel: +357 24 657745
