By Heidi Trautmann
On June 30 we were invited to Conversations on Culture in Kyrenia No 11 with celebrated poet, critic, editor and Professor Ravi Shankar. Please read more details in my website under Cyprus Cultural Events, May 30.
It was a special event as the poet was reading from his own poetry and transliterations from the Sanskrit. He was a visiting faculty member at EMU for Spring 2010 and many of his students had come to listen to him, obviously fans of his. Poems where we could discover the situations a poet, though born in America but brought up with the traditions of his country India, was faced all along.
This event was the last one in a row for the “lecture season of Sidestreets in Kyrenia” and will reopen after the hot summer season in September. Over the last eleven months a faithful audience has formed to attend the very interesting lectures on art, architecture, literature and poetry, film and special themes.
There are so many more interesting events taking place at Sidestreets in Nicosia (opposite the court), I remember the series of art films, Dervis Zaim included, lectures and art exhibitions that you should get all informations for you to choose from. You may go there one day and get the programme or you leave your address to be informed automatically by email.
Lately there was the first exhibition of Exlibris art in Cyprus from private collections and the exciting results of a competition organized by the Department of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, Eastern Mediterranean University. There is a catalogue available at Sidestreets.
Right at the moment, from June 15 to July 17 there is a sculpture exhibition by Baki Bogaç who has his studio in Famagusta. I have seen many of his exhibitions and am still amazed of the ideas he develops. It was an art happening what we saw in Sidestreets, moving in the dark among reflective insects and become reflective ourselves. I am a regular visitor in his studio and art gallery Pygmalion, just to see what he is up to next.
For each single event Dr. Johann Pillai and his wife and artist Anber Onar have created an individual poster and all of them are exhibited in Sidestreets when there is no other exhibition on.
I am positive that we shall see a lot more events, both in Kyrenia and in Nicosia.