An inaugural art fair in Cyprus offers new home for Arab artists

For thousands of years Cyprus, an island nation in the eastern mediterranean, has been a crossroads for the trade between Europe, Asia and Africa. Last week, its unique geographic positioning brought together artists, galleries and art collectors from the Middle East, Europe, the Caucasus, the United Kingdom and the United States for the inaugural Vima Art Fair.

Staged between May 15 and 18 in a derelict industrial complex along the Mediterranean Sea, the inaugural fair presented 27 commercial and non-profit galleries, featuring around 100 artists from over 20 countries, including three galleries from Beirut—Marfa’, Galerie Tanit and Takeover—and two from Dubai—Nika Project Space and The Third Line.

The fair’s organizers said around 4,000 visitors came while sales were consistently positive throughout the fair, with works selling for between €800 (Dhs3,340) to €80,000 (Dhs334,035). Three of the 27 galleries sold out their booths.

The fair was co-founded by Cyprus-based Edgar Gadzhiev, Lara Kotreleva and Nadezhda Zinovskaya who decided to come together on the island two years ago and launch an art project that could benefit the community in Cyprus as well as lure art enthusiasts from abroad to the nation.

“Cyprus, positioned at the crossroads of Mediterranean routes, is a natural gathering place,” Kotreleva. “While people continue to travel, meeting here with neighbors and guests who are interested in the region feels particularly significant and timely.”

“We have all experienced a constant flow of new art spaces, galleries, and foundations opening in Limassol particularly since living here,” said Gadzhiev. “While the majority of artists live and work in Nicosia, the country’s capital, Limassol has emerged as a vibrant hub for both cultural and commercial activities, offering a dynamic setting for an art fair. We really hope VIMA will amplify these efforts and contribute to the broader growth of the art market and cultural infrastructure in Cyprus.”

The co-founders saw the potential that an art fair could bring to Cyprus. Moreover, it was a way to bring together Eastern and Western cultures through art on an island nation that has long served as a place for trade and cultural exchange.

Additional references to the Middle East came from the exhibition The Posterity of the Sun, a group show stationed within a roofless nearby warehouse presenting 16 artists and Palestinian writer Karim Kattan who created work for the show while conducting a residency in Nicosia, Cyprus. The title of the show stems from Rene Char and Albert Camus’s 1950s novel, La Posterite du Soleil, which explores ideas of friendship that take place under the summer sun, referencing the uniting force of art to overcome politics and national borders. On view were works by Monia Ben Hamouda, Younes Ben Slimane, Valentino Charalambous, Simone Fattal, Adrian Pepe and Leontios Toumpouris

Dubai’s The Third Line showed works by a mix of emerging and established artists from the region, including Hassan Hajjaj, Rana Begum, Sara Naim, Bady Dalloul and artist duo Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

“I wondered when we were invited why there wasn’t already a fair in Cyprus and it makes so much sense,” said Sunny Rahbar, the gallery’s co-founder. “It’s the perfect location, geographically positioned between the east and the west, with audiences close on both sides. The location of the fair was beautiful and staged at a perfect time of year with a receptive audience.”

Maria Varnava, founder and director Tiwani Gallery based in London and Lagos, originally from Cyprus, presented a booth featured works by Paula Do Prado, Virginia Chihota, Dawit L. Petros, Miranda Forrester and Joy Labinjo, all from Africa and the Arican diaspora.

“A country like Cyprus would really benefit from a more dedicated arts ecosystem that is rooted in the local but is able to foster global conversations and VIMA is a good initiative towards this,” added Varnava.

To stage the fair during a period of intense market instability in a country that doesn’t have yet a strong collector base said Varnava, is a feat.

“There fair has the potential to be commercial success by selling to more local and regional collectors around the Mediterranean,” she added. “I am Greek Cypriot, and I have personal connection to the island. I also work with artists from Africa and the diaspora. Cyprus is a crossroads for the three continents of Africa, Europe and the Middle East, and I would love for my artists to be seen within a platform that is so rich geographically and culturally.”