Fluid Persistence

Maria Loizidou

Fluid Persistence brings together nineteen contemporary artists whose work responds, directly or indirectly, to the above ideas. More specifically, their work explores urgent questions relating to ecological destruction, water’s role in storytelling and mythmaking, its defining power in geopolitics, its dark and haunting nature, as well as its magical and transformative potential ingrained in the simple truth that we are all bodies of water.

Rooted in Cyprus yet resonating beyond it, the exhibition places local histories of rivers, seas, wetlands, wells, dams and waterways in dialogue with broader environmental and geopolitical contexts. From ancient myths to colonial infrastructures and hidden waterways, water emerges as both a conduit of power and a bearer of memories, whispers, and lost lives. The participating artists trace dormant rivers and fountains in Nicosia, document oral histories, photograph eroded stone surfaces, and map wetland ecosystems and coastlines marked by territorial control and ecological change. Others deploy water symbolically to address grief, desire, freedom, and the act of catharsis.

Ultimately Fluid Persistence foregrounds fluidity as both method and metaphor: the exhibition unfolds as a liquid space where stories expand, memories surface, and submerged tensions rise through real and imagined narratives that unsettle familiar geographies. Visitors are invited to engage with these layered, often overlooked histories, highlighting fluidity not only as a natural condition, but as a form of storytelling that shifts and shapes how we perceive, inhabit and understand the world.

Artists: Elena Adamou, Alev Adil, Ioannis Aristotelous, Charalambos Artemis, Marianna Christofides, Kyriaki Costa, Pavlos Ioannides, Stelios Kallinikou, Nurtane Karagil, Marina Kassianidou, Nicolas Lambouris, Maria Loizidou, Eleni Mouzourou, PASHIAS, Alexandros Pissourios, Mikella Psara, Socratis Socratous, Constantinos Taliotis, Damianos Zisimou