‘What on earth was going through your head?’
By Jean Christou
The president of the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts (EKATE) wants to meet Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister Nicos Rolandis for an explanation as to why he decided to consider building a giant statue of Aphrodite.
“We want to hear first hand about this idea and what inspired him and what on earth was going through his head,” Andreas Pharmakas said.
On Wednesday EKATE came out strongly against building a gigantic Aphrodite near Paphos as a tourist attraction to rival the pyramids and the Colosseum.
It said the idea was “base, barbaric, morbid, bizarre, provocative, flashy, grotesque, monstrous, out of proportion, over the top, cheap, pointless, offensive and kitsch”.
“This is Hollywood thinking, the sort of thing you would only see in America where they don’t have anything else to show,” Pharmakas said yesterday.
“Putting up a huge statue of doubtful aesthetic value is dangerous thinking for the traditions of Cyprus.”
Rolandis said on Wednesday he would ignore the detractors and already had artists and architects abroad looking at possible designs. They were working on it free of charge, he added.
But Pharmakas said instead of creating a new scar on the Paphos horizon, the government ought to be looking at ways to improve the existing landscape in the area. “Much of it is already destroyed and needs cosmetic surgery,” he said.
He also referred to the huge statue of Archbishop Makarios in the grounds of the Archbishopric in Nicosia, which many people consider an eyesore. “This statue has no value,” he said. “People only photograph it because of its size.”
Pharmakas said there were many people against the idea of a gigantic Aphrodite and that he wanted to give this message to the Minister before the issue reached the cabinet and somehow received approval.
“We are afraid other ministers might have the same type of values as Mr Rolandis,” he said.
The minister believes there is not much point erecting “just another statue”. He said if one was to be built it would have to be “larger than life” or it would not attract attention.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
