Maria Loizidou: The Place I Am Not

Wednesday 02 Oct 2024 – Monday 21 Oct 2024

The Place I Am Not, is an exhibition of new work by Cypriot artist Maria Loizidou, presented at both The Hellenic Centre and the Freud Museum in London. This unique collaboration delves into themes of identity, belonging, and the immigrant experience, inspired by Sigmund Freud’s life as an immigrant in London—’a home away from home’ where he never truly belonged, and The Hellenic Centre’s original mission to unite the Hellenic diaspora in the UK.

Loizidou’s site-specific works explore the concept of ‘place’ as a protective shell for human beings, reflecting on how spaces, objects, and stories shape our hybrid identities. By connecting two historic London venues—Freud’s former home and a former Swedish gymnasium now serving as The Hellenic Centre—Loizidou highlights their roles in nurturing both the mind and body.

The Place I Am Not invites you to contemplate the complex realities of diasporic identities, fragmented selves, and emotional traumas. Through this evocative journey, the exhibition questions what it means to be an immigrant, and how we cultivate safe spaces in unfamiliar territories.

With the support of

   

The publication The Place I Am Not is supported by Pylon Art & Culture, Athos Demetriou Associates LLC and AA&U, For Architecture, Art and Urbanism.

Exhibition Tour

Saturday 12 October, led by artist Maria Loizidou.

Meet at 11:30am at the foyer of the Hellenic Centre. Arrive to the Freud Museum London at 12.30pm to complete the tour. Guests will travel independently from The Hellenic Centre to the Freud Musem.

Bookings can be made via info@helleniccentre.org or 0207 487 5060 and directly at our reception desk.

The exhibition is made possible with the funds provided by NEON Organization for Culture and Development It is supported by Kalfayan Galleries, Irene Panagopoulos and the Cultural Section of the Cyprus High Commission.

Additional information

Maria Loizidou

Maria Loizidou (b. 1958, Limassol, Cyprus) lives and works in Nicosia. Her practice interweaves personal and political references in relation to the history of colonialism, war, oppression, minorities, and the deprivation of social welfare in Cyprus. 

Her work combines drawings with pencil, animation, video, sculpture, and knitting through collective workshops. Recently, it, has been presented in installations such as The Place I Am Not, in collaboration with Freud Museum London and Hellenic Center (2024), Moi Balbuzard Migrant, in collaboration with the Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris (2023); Monumental lightness, A Century of the Artist’s Studio: 1920–2020, in collaboration with Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021); and Portals, in collaboration with NEON, at the Former Tobacco Factory in Athens (2020). In 1986, she represented Cyprus at the 43 Venice Biennale with the work The Myth of Ariadne in three acts, and in 2017 she participated in Documenta 14, with the work Collective Autobiographie (2011). Her works activate public spaces, creating platforms for interaction and discussion, emphasising the power of fragility.