Introduction

On the occasion of Mies in Mind—an exhibition parcours through 30 galleries for the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie—Esther Schipper is pleased to present Rosa Barba's new film Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage, 2021.

Inside the Outset is a project that consists of two parts: a film and a long-term open-air cinema installation within the 180-kilometer UN-controlled "Green Line Buffer Zone" in Cyprus. This area divides the island between North and South, and forms the starting point of Rosa Barba’s artistic intervention.

The project started seven years ago when Barba first visited the island and proposed a cinema sculpture in the Buffer Zone. The inaugural ceremony of the Open-Air Cinema will take place on September 10, 2021, with the projection of the film Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage along with films selected by the project’s Advisory Board of artists from each side of the Green Line and beyond. Visitors from both sides of the island will be able to enter the Buffer Zone, which is usually closed to civilians.

The film was exclusively shot in Cyprus, including underwater shots of the Mazotos shipwreck, as well as aerial shots of archaeological sites. The film follows Barba’s artistic approach of examining liminal states which manifest in between contested spaces, both mentally and geographically, in order to offer a new perspective.

Barba envisions the location of this open-air installation as a meeting point for the members of all communities on the island. Her intention is to highlight the capacity of art to create spaces of interaction and coexistence.

Inside the Outset: Evoking a Space of Passage was produced by Point Centre for Contemporary Art, funded by the Italian Council. A collaboration with Famagusta Avenue Garage. It received the first prize at the international competition of the Italian Council (Third Edition) in 2018, and was awarded a grant from DGAAP (Directorate General for Contemporary Art and Architecture and Urban Peripheries), Italy.