Histories and biographies grow through discussions across tables, while people sit on chairs and as they pass by objects in their environment. Things, Witnesses! – also called Amanuensis – is a project about these silent witnesses to history. It is a kinetic installation where inanimate objects move, with a pencil. Visitors trigger motion detectors, indirectly causing the suspended objects to oscillate independently, and to make markings on large palettes on the floor.

The first installation of Things Witnesses! was in the divided city of Nicosia, where the old (pre-1974) objects were likely witnesses to inter-communal, political conflict in Cyprus. I mixed 24 objects borrowed from Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, each of which drew differently over the course of the exhibition. The installation implies that alternate stories are embedded in objects and questions the uniqueness of personal witness and memory – here is how Charlène Dinhut explains it. The first exhibition was made possible through the Nicosia Municipal Art Centre Associated with the Pierides Foundation. Sounds of Love and Loss is a sonic work made from this installation.

Since 2009 I have adapted the installation to other places, Leipzig and Moscow – featuring furniture dating from critical periods of time, borrowed from particular communities in conflict. The drawings produced during the installations have been exhibited separately, and are part of international public and private collections. In 2011 this work was selected for the national representation of Cyprus in the 54th Venice Biennale of Art.

Things, Witnesses! borrowed Cypriot objects installed in “Suspended Spaces” at La Maison de la Culture, Amiens, FR 2010
Things, Witnesses! borrowed objects from the Donbas, Ukraine
part of the exhibition “Our Land / Alien Territory” at the Manege, Moscow 2015
Things, Witnesses! borrowed objects from the GDR period and before
at Halle 14, Leipzig in the exhibition “Terra Mediterranea – In Action” 2016 photo: Walther Le Kon
Things, Witnesses! borrowed objects from Cyprus
First installation at the Nicosia Municipal Art Center (NiMAC) Cyprus 2009
borrowed bed, Cyprus

drawing by the metal bed, July 1 – Aug 8, 2009 Nicosia
graphite on Mylar 110x100cm
borrowed chairs, Cyprus
drawing by one brown vinyl chair, June 26 – July 7, 2009 Nicosia
graphite on Mylar 110x100cm

borrowed blue chair, Cyprus
drawing by the blue chair June 20 – July 10, 2009 Nicosia
graphite on Mylar 110x100cm
borrowed hat rack, Cyprus
drawing by the hat rack July 10 – 11, 2009 Nicosia
graphite on Mylar 110x100cm
borrowed office chair, Cyprus
drawing by the office chair July 28 – Aug 1, 2009 Nicosia
graphite on Mylar 110x100cm
finished drawing 2009