Sewing the Line – Printing the Thread: The Embroideries and Printed Scarves Collections of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia in Dialogue with Artworks by the Printmaker–artist Evgenia Vasiloude
20 October 2015 – 31 December 2015
The Embroideries and Printed Scarves Collections of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, in the context of a small art intervention, create a dialogue with artworks by the printmaker–artist Evgenia Vasiloude in the Museum’s Artisans of Nicosia Gallery. Four printmaking installations by Vasiloude, inspired by the art of embroidery and printed scarves, meet authentic pittoti lace, pipilla lace and printed scarves. This non-accidental meeting sets in motion an uninterrupted active dialogue between traditional and contemporary art. This art intervention deals with the conceptual relationship between the art of embroidery as ‘handiwork’ and the engraving as a ‘work of art’.
The handiwork item exhibited in a museum’s display cases acquires the status of a ‘museum item’, causing a visual and ideological clash with the ‘work of art’ concept. By means of prints on trivial material – paper – and exhibited without the frame’s protection, the work of art loses its immortality. It is a semiotic juxtaposition that casts doubt upon the work of art, stripping it of theoretical exaggerations and letting it claim its place in a humble, conventional manner as handiwork.
The delicate nature of the weaving of threads, which requires the skill of hand embroidery, chronicles for the artist the innermost thoughts of the embroiderer. This merging upon the work of art, between the ‘engraved word’ of Vasiloude and the ‘word’ of the embroiderer, represents the dialogue between traditional and contemporary art. There are memories and unuttered daily concerns trapped within the embroideries / works of art.
Through the history of the handiwork items and Evgenia Vasiloude’s engraved artworks, inspired by the history of tradition, the Museum offers the public a different meaning and approach to its exhibits.
The art intervention will be inaugurated on 20 October 2015 at 19.30 and will remain open for viewing until 31 December 2015.
About Evgenia Vasiloude
Evgenia Vasiloude is an engraver. From 1981 to 1988 she studied at the Kiev State School of Fine Arts in Ukraine. She graduated with the title of Masters in Fine Arts, having studied drawing, painting, engraving techniques on wood, lino, lithography and etching. At the same time, she studied illustration, graphic design, calligraphy and the history of art in the Department of Engraving and Graphic Design. From 1992 on she has exhibited her work in five solo shows and has taken part in numerous group shows in Cyprus. She has also taken part in biennales and engraving exhibitions abroad: Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Switzerland, England, France, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the USA and elsewhere. At the 9th Cairo International Biennale in 2003, she was awarded the second jury prize for her work Ode to Demetra, while her works belong to the State Collection of Contemporary Art in Cyprus, as well as to bank collections and private collectors.
The Embroideries and Printed Scarves Collections of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia
The Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia has in its Collections more than 500 embroideries, some of which are displayed in the Artisans of Nicosia Gallery. Cypriot pittoti lace, pipilla lace, printed scarves and Lefkara traditional embroidery are some of the categories that are testimony to our cultural heritage. In addition, a large variety of printed scarves from the Museum was exhibited in the recent temporary exhibition Printed Scarves and the Last Scarf Maker.
The Museum has managed to enrich its Collections mainly due to purchases and donations from the A. G. Leventis Foundation, in collaboration with the Association of the Friends of the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, and many private collectors who support its cultural work.
