Lets talk about Cyprus: “Tales of Snails” by Antonis Tziarrides

My dear friend Antonis Tziarrides, is presenting his, oh so creative (!), work at Diatopos Art Gallery in Nicosia, from March 3rd to March 29th, 2017.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday – 5.00 p.m. to 8 p.m., Saturdays – 11:00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m.

Antonis was born in Nicosia in 1980. He comes from Larnaca, where he now lives and creates. He brilliantly completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts of Rome.

His first solo exhibition took place in 2013 at the Cyprus Corner Gallery in Larnaca.

Since 2007 he operates with Spyros Agathou spyrA.art.studio, an educational interactive workshop for children in Larnaca.

Antonis Tziarridis portrays humans as bearing their identity just like snails carry their home. Identity is viewed as a rich and multifaceted aggregate, which puts pressure on the individual, while providing at the same time psychological and spiritual content. As we go through life, we accumulate layers of memory and oblivion, emotions, impressions, gains and losses, which all participate in a ceaseless process of identity formation. This dynamic synthesis of the self is represented by diverse materials that are deposited on the individual, leading to a visual depiction of our historicity. We were not born yesterday; we have our own personal history and this is the home which we carry as we follow our inevitable path from womb to tomb. The artist is raising crucial existential questions in a truly lighthearted spirit, inviting us to approach them with a creative and optimistic mindset. There is no doubt that the sediments of time form a heavy burden, yet they also give us our unique place in life. We are not anonymous and dispensable. We are who we are, and we are fascinating, conflicted and ephemeral. Costas Mannouris