The Lesbian Space of Contemporary Greek-Cypriot Art

Abstract

This paper traces the ways Greek-Cypriot self-confessed lesbian artist Charitini Kyriakou takes up space in her visual work. It examines the sexual and spatial orientation in Kyriakou’s artistic and curatorial practices by focusing on four of her solo exhibitions from the last decade: ‘Months Stay’ («Μήνες Μείνε») (2010), ‘My Personal Persons’ («Προσωπικά μου Πρόσωπα») (2011), ‘Rooms’ («Δωμάτια») (2016) and ‘Desire’s Erebus’ («Του Πόθου το Ερεβώδες») (2018). As will be shown, the lesbian space of Kyriakou agrees with lesbian assembling practices, highlights the everyday as a site of creativity, delight, and protection, privileges the inner world, assumes a lesbian habitus through deportment, disposition, and attire, as well as transgresses heteronormativity’s spatial, sexual, and national boundaries.