Cyprus Amber | Ilina Chervonnaya & Serj Tubash

Today traveling seems to be the most natural free time activity. But mass tourism is a development of a not so distant past. It emerged after the Second World War and quickly became a striking symbol of post-war recovery when tourism was associated with economic growth. Flows of tourists have generated the worlds’ most popular destinations within the Mediterranean basin, Cyprus being among the most attractive touristic places. The consequences of the liberation of travel followed soon. We are now living in the era of excess when further extensive tourist practices threat to cause serious environmental danger and social changes. Places of touristic attraction have become hostages of travel industry. The nonattached fluent superficial gaze of a tourist sweeps through landscapes and cities blurring their distinctive features and leaving them blank to compete against each other.

-‘What kind of society we might have, If a stone could act?’

Cyprus Amber’ is a speculative project at the space of a real tourist agency. It is an artist’s reflection on a probable scenario of unconscious touristic consumption of places where an object acts as an agent of influence. Exploring the paradigm of touristic mentality artists are playing, on the one hand, with its rapacious fantasies, hopes and beliefs, and on the other, with its phobias, anxieties and fears. 

The project is a part of the 3rd installation festival EFE (Larnaca Biennale parallel programm) curated by Loucas Ioannou and Christina Michaelidis.

Place: 
Inside the space of the tourist agency 'Ideal Way'
Zinonos Kitieos & Zenonos Pierides, office 1, Larnaca, Cyprus, http://www.idealwayltd.com/

Days/Hours: 
Everyday /10 a.m. - 7 p.m. / opening hours of the agency / tel: 95789746
By appointment with the artists / messenger/ Ilina Chervonnaya, Serj Tubash
 

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Ilina Chervonnaya is an artist/ graduated from the UNIC Program for Contemporary Art Critics and Curators/ the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art/ participated in the Exchange Program for artists at Goldsmiths University of London/ co-founder of Triangle Curatorial Studio/ organized several collaborative events and interventions/ the subject of her interest is the phenomenon of tourism as a self-perpetuating value of contemporaneity and its associated effects and syndromes/ winner of the 3d residency program by Gogova foundation in Special Astrophysical Observatory at Nizhniy Arkhyz (2018), where she presented ‘The Pearl Path Route’ project, speculating on tourist attractions/ winner of the Brewhowse Art Prize in nomination “environment” (2016)

Serj Tubash is an interdisciplinary artist/ graduated from Moscow State
Institute of Radiotechnics/Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art/ British Higher School of Art and Design/ HSE Art and Design School/ participated in the Exchange Program for artists at Goldsmiths University of London/ the subject of interest of the artist is a city as a stratum of cultural, historical, visual and social layers, their nonlinearity, ambiguity and boundaries/ 

Selected exhibitions for both artists include Borderline Conditions at MERES space, Nicosia, CY (2017), Something has gone wrong at Solyanka VPA, Moscow, RU (2017); Between the lines at Grad Gallery, London, UK (2016); Rituals of sincerity at Mayakovsky’s Centre of Art and Music, Saint Petersburg, RU (2015); Horizons of Events, parallel program of the 6th Moscow Biennale, RU (2015)
 

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Artists express gratitude to curator Maria Stepkina for editing texts and her friendly assistance in preparation of the exhibition. Special thanks are given to ‘Ideal Way’ tourist agency, personally to the director and founder Darina Nikolina for her kind support. Many thanks are given to Paul Mira for his helpful assistance in sound production and to Makariou Papadopoulos for professional advices.