Krista Papista, “Fucklore: Bellringers”, performance

Krista Papista kicks off the program with her latest performance “Fucklore: Bellringers”. The Cypriot peasant women were depicted in drawings and photographs as figures of asexual motherhood, placed against unspoilt landscapes which speak of their purity, pain and sacrifice, unsophisticated. Researcher Elena Parpa describes that the Cypriot peasant woman was one of the most prominent figures to be depicted from the series of photographic portraits by Scottish photographer John Thomson upon the arrival of the British in 1878. All emphasis is placed on the figure’s gracefulness, prosaicness, and non-sophistication, attributes aimed to parallel at once the protectorate’s noble heritage and its backwardness, offering thus justification to the colonizers arrival. Papista’s performance examines a history of the visual encoding of Cypriot women as peasants which symbolizes the island’s cultural identity while calling to queer and decolonise the gaze.

Costume Director and Styling: Charlotte Gindreau. Handmade Jewellery: Ffarji. Performers: Jan Verwoert, Kanella Petropoulou.