Christoforos Savva (1924 – 1968) was born in Marathovounos village, Cyprus, the second of six children in a peasant family. After serving in the Cypriot Regiment of the British Army during World War II, he moved to London for studies at St. Martin’s School of Art and the Central School of Art, before enrolling at Heatherley’s School of Art where he studied until 1953. During the next two years, he spent time in Cyprus where he presented his first solo exhibitions and became involved in the local artistic milieu, while being one of the founders of the Pancyprian Union of Art Votaries. In 1956, he returned to London and later moved to Paris for further studies at the Académie Montparnasse, under André Lhote. The end of the decade found Savva settling in Nicosia, where he quickly established himself as one of the leading artists in a vibrant art scene, both through his own art practice and through the activities of “Apophasis” [Decision] Gallery, Nicosia. “Apophasis” which he founded in 1960 in collaboration with Welsh artist Glyn Hughes, was the first independent cultural centre of the newly founded Republic of Cyprus. As a space where creative synergy and exchange could take place, the gallery was soon to become the epicentre of intellectual and cultural activity on the island, hosting numerous exhibitions, lectures, plays and film screenings. In 1968, Savva was among the six artists invited to represent Cyprus in its first official participation in the Venice Biennale of Art. Shortly after, he died suddenly in Sheffield.

Jacopo Crivelli Visconti is a free-lance critic and curator, based in São Paulo, Brazil. Born in Naples, Italy, in 1973, he holds a degree in Humanities from the University of Naples and a PhD from the University of São Paulo, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. His book Novas Derivas [New Drifts], on walking artists and the meaning of drifting in contemporary art, was published in Portuguese by WMF Martins Fontes (Brazil) in 2014, and in Spanish by Ediciones Metales Pesados (Chile) in 2016. His texts and essays have appeared on contemporary art, architecture and design magazines worldwide, in addition to exhibition catalogues and artists’ monographs. Recently he has been appointed curator of the 34th edition of the Bienal de São Paulo, which will take place in 2020. Some of his previous projects include: Brasile – Il coltello nella carne, PAC – Padiglione d’arte contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2018); Matriz do tempo real, Museu de Arte Contemporânea, São Paulo, Brazil (2018); Memórias del subdesarrollo, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, USA (2017); Hector Zamora – Dinâmica não linear, Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo, Brazil (2016); Completely Something Else, Point Centre for Contemporary Art, Nicosia, Cyprus (2016); Sean Scully, Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo, Brazil (2015); 12 Bienal de Cuenca, Equador (2014 – chief curator); Liberdade em movimento, Fundação Iberê Camargo, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2014); Alimentário, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2014).

Point Centre for Contemporary Art is a not-for–profit organisation in Nicosia, funded in 2012, and dedicated to the creative support and promotion of contemporary cultural production. It aims to foster a multi-disciplinary and critical engagement with new tendencies in art, architecture, film, music and sound, performance, discourse and thought. Since 2013, Point has commissioned and hosted solo shows of Cypriot artists, among those Haris Epaminonda (2013); Michael Anastassiades (2014); Christodoulos Panayiotou (2015); Phanos Kyriacou (2017); Stelios Kallinikou (2017); Lito Kattou (2018) and Maria Hassabi (2018 upcoming). Within the framework of its annual residency programme, Point has invited to Cyprus a number of international artists such as Rosa Barba, Pawel Althamer and Victor Costales & Julia Rometti, as well as acclaimed curators and theorists including Hans Urlich Obrist, Donald Albrecht and Susanne Pfeffer.

 

In order to determine the most suitable framework for the operation and management of the Museum, a study is being conducted in collaboration with the Visual Sociology and Museum Studies Lab of the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts of the Cyprus University of Technology. In the context of this radical institutional reform, the existing exhibition spaces – the two branches of the State Gallery of Contemporary Art (Majestic and SPEL) in Nicosia and the Costas Argyrou Museum in Mazotos – are expected to operate under the new organisational structure and legal statute of MOCA Cyprus.

Until the establishment of the Museum, the newly renovated building of the State Gallery of Contemporary Art – SPEL will be hosting a series of events, starting with a major survey exhibition devoted to the historical Cypriot artist Christoforos Savva (1924–1968).