Marianna Christofides: "Here Let Me Stand", 2013

"Marianna Christofides uses in her work material from the State Archives in London where an extraordinary volume of 1881, entitled 'Cyprus Antiquities - Excavated by Major Alexander Palma di Cesnola' is kept, with photos of extreme precision and clarity. These are the findings of excavations Cesnola did in Cyprus from 1876 to 1879, covering a range of 3000 years, destined to become the subject of discussion and uncompromising criticism from the archaeological community, and not only for the scientific collection’s importance and data accuracy.

If somebody looks at these pictures today that reflect a subjective 'disorderly' chronological and topographical classification, they realize all the fiction depicted on the photographic paper, which now has acquired its own historicity.

In the video 'Here Let Me Stand', these static shots consolidate in a slow, continuous, endless horizontal shot. Harmonies and proportions shift, as details magnify. Collage and montage combine seamlessly into a film that aims for the poetic translation of a fictional construction. Findings become evidence of the personally seen and the experienced."

—Marianna Christofides

Duration: 29 min. 42 sec.