Cyprus (Republic of) 2026

Title: It rests to the bones
Commissioner: Ioanna Hadjicosti
Curator: Kyle Dancewicz
Exhibitor: Marina Xenofontos

The presentation brings together diverse approaches developed over fifteen years, including motorised machines, documentary audiovisual forms, and “historical” sculptures that replicate specific sites or archival sources.

The exhibition features “Passer”, an animatronic sculpture of a sparrow, and “Threads”, an installation of rotating copper cylinders. These works foreground mechanical endurance and recursion over traditional kinetic “liveness”. Central to the exhibition is the “unconditional archive”, where Xenofontos processes interrelated objects and social conditions to address historical loss. This is exemplified by “Interior of a Nightclub”, a replica of a ceiling from a derelict venue in the sealed-off city of Famagusta, based on a 2020 photograph of the site.

The installation is scored with recordings of folk songs performed by the Ayisilaou sisters, the artist’s relatives, which have been remixed by Panagiotis Mina.