With the goal of providing practical and timeless support to the artistic community of Cyprus, Almyra Ηotel, in collaboration with isnotgallery, hosts the group exhibition of contemporary art "In Paradise, I have marked an island," from July 26 to September 6, 2025.
The director of the Severis Museum, Maria Efstathiou, shares her thoughts on the exhibition:
«Notes on the Incomplete. On a breakup and/or on art. Or neither. They say that we are capable of falling in love infinitely. With people; places; ideas. I fell in love with all the— fleeting— ideas on the horizon. Because I could. Because I was being reborn.
I fell in love with feeling the fine, burning gravel slipping between my toes; with staring at his grandfather’s eucalyptus leaning over the waves, while the fata morgana shimmered on the horizon; on a second-floor balcony while looking straight out to sea with the small harbour, visible to my right.
Always by the sea.
But, in the end, I learnt that dying on this island is different. I
n various Paradises- be it romantic, imaginary, artistic, existential- we daydream over what we think to be an ideal. Something containing all that we desire: intelligence, clarity, immediacy. A room full of letters, lines, forms; filled with hovering fertile thoughts, emanating a (familial) feeling of warmth, with a view to an endless sea (the illusion that all is possible).
These Paradises (artworks or lovers, whichever you prefer) feel like narratives of which you believe you could be part. But, in the end, they prove to be either too shortcoming or, even, barren. These Paradises’ promises, these contracts, were never meant to be fulfilled. What they truly offered was nothing more than ideas of desire and pleasure.
After many deaths we learn to pay attention to our echo again, our inner voice. The one we had silenced for the sake of understanding- or creating- an artwork. The same voice we had hastily sacrificed to the current and other ideals. When that echo returns, it simply reminds us of what we have lost, what never truly existed, what merely needed to be part of our narrative, and what is- ultimately- worth salvaging.
Love and art are congruent notions: offerings that rarely meet with reciprocity. Those who have not learnt to wait, suffer more.
Love is the persistence of the fool: to plant again and again, knowing nothing will grow. To stay there, to observe. To try once more. As though one is incapable of learning. An irrational, almost absurd, obsession. And at the same time, the only act that confirms one is still alive.
Art, in turn, is also a form of persistence (of the fool?). While it is the most heroic of practices, art- like love- operates without assurances. It is a process of exposure with no guarantee that anyone is looking, or that anyone even understands. And still—we continue to nourish it and to put it out there. Without asking for gestures or counterparts in return.
They say there is the possibility of falling in love infinite times. Until the moment someone, something- or even you yourself- eliminates that possibility. There truly is a solemn time. And then, without warning and without ceremony, a part of you stops insisting. In art, however, creation can transform and return anew.
This text is a farewell. Not to something or someone, but to that possibility we are no longer capable of. It is not a declaration of pessimism. It is a record.
The collaboration between Almyra and isnotgallery confirms once again, the continuous and unwavering support of the hotel towards the artistic community of Cyprus, as well as the desire of the organizers to promote the artists they represent, creating a broader, constructive, and direct channel of communication with society. It is noted that throughout the years, the hotel transforms its facilities into a space for hosting artists and contemporary art works, playing an active role in the cultural scene of Paphos. Besides being a place for hospitality, it also serves as a meeting and communication center for all its guests.
Exhibition Curator: Andros Efstathiou
Opening: July 26 at 20:00
Duration: July 26 – September 6, 2025