At the Municipal Arts Center of Limassol – Papadaki Warehouses entitled “Karayan: The Golden Eras” works from the eight sections of the life and art of Andreas Karayan are presented, as mentioned by Giorgos Taxiarchopoulos who collaborated with the artistic coordinator of Andreas Karayan’s work, Mr. Mohamed El Saadani. So on this occasion I spoke with Mr. Karajan about his art, his experiences and whether he feels like a revolutionary or a pioneer. Mr. Karajan tells me that “when you’re honest with yourself and you’re not afraid to tell your truths, to be vulnerable, then you become… a pioneer”, as for whether he was a revolutionary he tells me: “it’s not a question of feeling revolutionary , what I was asking for was my own justification as an existence, as a complete personality”. He also tells me that he likes to tell stories and that this is in his DNA, as for what his characteristic is, he answers me: “living a grand opera and making fairy tales”.
–After 50 years of artistic career have you reached where you dreamed of reaching when you started?
– In a way, yes! In the sense that I have completed some very important circles for me. When I started my “revolutions”, leaving aside Medicine and a comfortable urban life, I did not know where it would lead me. I felt the need to change my lifestyle, not what my family imposed on me but what I wanted. I knew inside what I wanted, I think we all know what we want if we listen to our inner voice. As I said, it is important that, without even realizing it, I was completing themes in my art and my writing, rather the one and only theme that governs my entire course, the acceptance of diversity.
-You had told me in our previous interview that your painting is critical painting… was this liberating for you as a creator?
-Just that! When I first started painting, before I even started school, the early drawings where I showed two naked boys indoors I knew that a whole story was beginning. I am happy that the Municipality of Limassol honored me for my eightieth birthday and set up an excellent retrospective exhibition with the support of the director of the Limassol Municipal Arts Center and curator of the exhibition, Mr. Giorgos Taxiarchopoulos, with the artistic coordinator of my project, Mr. Mohamed El Saadani and Mrs. Voulas Kokkinou. Just the viewer walking through the halls seeing my works gets exactly this “critical” feeling. It’s a beautiful painting, I’m a fan of pure painting language, but at the same time it completes what I started in ’67, the search for my own truth through colors and compositions. In fact, the last work I painted last year is two naked boys lying down which brings together the feeling of the watercolors I started in 1967 with today. I was moved by the attendance of the public at the opening held by Ms. Annita Dimitriou, president of the House of Representatives. Great honor for me.
-What would you say is the characteristic of the creator Andreas Karayan, then?
– The storytelling. I love telling stories and it’s in my DNA. And I believe I inherited it from my grandmother! When I was a teenager I had this strange dream that I was walking among ancient Greek statues and hearing their whispers. These whispers told beautiful secrets that awakened in me strange sensations, which I later tried to capture in my painting. I think my characteristic is that I leave myself to the charm of things and make a myth out of reality, this is my own personal mythology which is the basis of my Creation trial. What is my feature? So to live a grand opera and make fairy tales.
– How does the writing course intertwine with painting? Do they influence each other, or are they two separate creative processes?
– I am an entity, paid by the stardust of the universe, within me exists the entire creation, the universal divine, this is what defines me and this is what leads me to Creation and of course all my experiences in life. So every form of my expression is interconnected. One process complements the other and it is not only the writing and the painting but also the approximately twenty years of journalism, where I dealt with critical and humanitarian issues. Even with the infiltrated blessed Katsamba, we fought and saved the building of the Chief Secretariat that they intended to demolish. These are all beautiful pieces, part of a puzzle that after all, that puzzle is me! And I confess I am unimaginably happy that Creation gave me years to complete my “Pentalogy” that I have been writing since 2004 with the release this year of the fifth volume “The Fifth Book” by Hestia publications. Within the 1000-plus pages my narrator marches, searching for artistic and romantic identity in a changing world, the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. For me it is my legacy, my Magnum Opus.
–Do you consider yourself a pioneer? Were you the first to introduce the male nude into Cypriot art if I’m not mistaken?
– When you are honest with yourself and you are not afraid to tell your Truths, to become vulnerable, then you become… a pioneer. The topic of homosexuality has always carried a “disguise” outfit. In the renaissance to paint a nice male nude you cover it behind Saint Sebastians or gods of antiquity. Of course, that was also very charming. Tsarouchis introduced male nudity within the framework of a “Greekness”. I wanted to go further, in 1978 with my first exhibition of erotic male nudes which caused so much disturbance that the Archbishop came to close it, and later with my large compositions, trilogy “Cyprus 83-85” I used the male naked as a form of rebellion and protest. As the art critic Chrysanthos Christou wrote in the History of Cypriot painting: “Karayan adds a new dimension to contemporary Cypriot painting. An erotic and sensual dimension, Cavafy and contradictory, apologetic and self-analytical. The subject of his painting is almost exclusively the male figure. It rests on its marvelous design, compositional clarity, formative power and chromatic prowess.”
–Did you feel rebellious by talking about taboo subjects like nudity or homosexuality, in times when this was not the norm?
– It is not a question of feeling revolutionary, what I was asking for was my own justification as an existence, as a complete personality. I remember always being a rebel from a young age, when my mother told me something, I told her no, this no marked me and I carried it all my life. Of course, it was not an easy thing because I was challenging, and every revolution has its price. It takes a lot of courage to stand up to the norms. Of course, the revolutionary movements of the time, the Gay Liberation Front and Feminism, also helped me a lot. I lived in London and breathed everything modern and revolutionary. We lived in shared houses, we fell in love, it was the time of the Flower Children. It was natural for me to think of myself as a ‘revolutionary’, although I didn’t smoke as liberally as ‘real’ revolutionaries did! When I came to Cyprus with all these experiences I became one of the pioneers of the gay movement. I’m not saying I didn’t encounter some racism towards me, but somewhere I imposed myself through the honest attitude I kept in my life, painting and writing.
“I think my characteristic is that I leave myself to the charm of things and make a myth out of reality, this is my own personal mythology which is the basis of my Creation trial.”
–How much have cities like Alexandria and Nicosia influenced the creator?
–Here I give you the aura of two cities that influenced me, made me cosmopolitan and opened my horizons. Nicosia: Ouzounian Street, in the 40s and 50s where I grew up, was a multicultural center, a micrograph of the society of the time. I remember Mrs. Pampoulos who used to go out on the balcony with her cigarette and say about the newly rich “le col xebrak an vayan le vrak hestik”. Every house also had a story. Upstairs was the house of Armenian, George Injirjian, who brought the first television to the neighborhood. The Greeks could not buy a television, because they would go masked on the spot and break it, it was considered a product of British propaganda, we are in the era of EOKA. I remember going and watching operas. It was a different time where in everyday life there was a fairy tale and a cosmopolitan way of life. My father was a violinist and he often took me to the rehearsals of the first orchestra created in Nicosia, the Mozart Orchestra. Alexandria: “This is Alexandria, the Mediterranean full of memories, nowhere else does the Mediterranean have so much beauty, I went out to the balcony, to my studio, and was filled with the aura of love carried by the breeze.” I was painting my “Alexandrina” and discovering the city and its world. Further on, the Greek Quarter, magnificent mansions that used to be surrounded by gardens, Penelope Delta also lived there, glorious times with receptions, dances, political debates… The street is dominated by posters of uncovered women who let their rich hair blow, as they advertise some shampoo. The divided face of Egypt, on the one hand the veiled Egyptian women and on the other the world of advertising, the world reflected in Alice’s magic mirror. Egypt maintains its secular character, I feel safe walking the streets. This feeling that unites the past time with the present and of course the dynamic figure of Cavafy hovering above the city inspired me significantly. Besides, I consider myself “Alexandrian”, the last “Alexandrian” as an Egyptian friend says.
–What does creator mean, Mr. Karayan?
– Memories! Without memories there is no ego. The biblical “whoever loses his soul gains heaven” is a paradox, whoever loses his soul sinks into the hell of non-existence, swims naked in a black slimy void, trying to discover himself, who he is. Memory is the penetration of past time into present time. When the past intrudes into the present, then we doubt which of the two moments we are in. After all, time is subjective and we charge it with our “I”, so it is only understandable to us. The moments where the past joins the present are short and I used painting and writing as an illustration, like a diary that binds images, memories, sensations. I used to think it was a perversion to fixate on a fact. But today, looking at my paintings, I identify the past with the present, and the identification places me outside of time. This is the charm of Art. After all, being a creator means making your own Hell or Heaven and leaving it for future generations.
Tags: live grand opera KATHIMERINI kathimerini .com.cy
-
