ARCHIVO WEBINAR SERIES 2026

RE-MAKING THE ISLAND

(Diss)assemblage, contemporary photography,

and decolonial praxis in Cyprus

ELENA STYLIANOU

Through a decolonial lens, and using Cyprus as a case study, this presentation examines how contemporary photography and artistic practices can play a pivotal role in re-making islands by reclaiming alternative, locally situated perspectives. It argues that such practices challenge entrenched hierarchies of meaning, unsettle dominant historical narratives and visual regimes, and reassess island imaginaries from within rather than through externally imposed frameworks. Focusing on the work of Cyprus-born and based photographers and artists Stelios Kallinikou, Nicolas Lambouris, and Elena Adamou, the presentation explores how photographic practices engage critically with landscape, memory, and the archive. These artists’ works resist fixed or monolithic representations of Cyprus, instead foregrounding multiplicity, fragmentation, and lived experience. Their practices operate as counter-narratives to the island’s long history of representation through imperial, colonial, and touristic gazes.

The presentation adopts the terms (diss)assemblage and trope as key analytical tools. (Diss)assemblage is used to describe artistic processes that both assemble and disassemble meanings, unearthing invisible movements, relationships, and temporalities. Drawing on Ariella Azoulay’s notion of photography’s civil contract, these practices unfold quietly over time, producing layered readings of the island. Here, the artists’ photographic gaze, material processes, and personal recollections become integral to acts of (diss)assembling that reveal complex social, political, and affective networks. The term trope—understood as a turn, shift, or reorientation—is employed to examine the making and unmaking of islands. The trope of the island and the trope of the photograph are discussed in relation to historical imperial image-making, as well as contemporary practices that actively reframe both physical and imagined landscapes. Ultimately, the presentation considers how dominant and dormant narratives continue to shape, disrupt, and renegotiate notions of islandness, revealing it as a condition in constant flux rather than a stable or closed identity.

Elena Stylianou is Director of NiMAC (Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, associated with the Pierides Foundation) and Associate Professor of Art and Art History at European University Cyprus. Her research, writing, and curatorial practice focus on the history and theory of photography, modern and contemporary art, and museum and curatorial practices. She has curated numerous exhibitions in Cyprus, including Fluid Persistence, Repetitive Acts: The Power of Weaving and Textile in Contemporary Art, In the Sea of the Setting Sun: Photographic Practices and the Archive, and Ar(t)chaeology. Her work appears in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, and she is co-editor of Contemporary Art from Cyprus (Bloomsbury, 2021), Ar(t)chaeology (2019), and Museums and Photography (Routledge, 2018). Dr Stylianou holds a doctoral degree from Columbia University, Teachers College, NY, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at UCL, London and has received major awards including Fulbright, ArtTable, and Getty-CAA grants.