The Deputy Ministry of Culture gave no written or explicit approval for a controversial publication that appeared at the country’s pavilion during the Venice Architecture Biennale, Deputy Minister Vasiliki Kassianidou told parliament.
Kassianidou informed the House Education Committee during questioning about the disputed publication that emerged at Cyprus’s participation in the international architecture exhibition.
The deputy minister faced questions from MPs about the publication, with proceedings briefly disrupted when AKEL MP Giorgos Loukaides made comments about Georgios Grivas that prompted a reaction from independent MP Andreas Themistocleous. Committee Chairman Pavlos Mylonas intervened to restore order.
Kassianidou said she had requested a factual report on the exact circumstances surrounding the process and would reserve answers on certain issues until she had the complete picture.
Based on information currently available, Kassianidou outlined the process leading to exhibitions at the Cyprus pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.
“A large part of the process is undertaken by the Cyprus Architects Association (SAK). The collaboration between the Department of Contemporary Culture (formerly Cultural Services) and SAK for this Biennale began in 2006. Until today, this cooperation is not accompanied by any written agreement that clearly defines the responsibilities and duties of each party,” she said.
The selection committee for the 19th Biennale comprised eight members appointed by SAK: six architect representatives from SAK and two cultural officers representing the deputy culture ministry. “This composition reflects SAK’s substantial role in the entire process,” Kassianidou noted.
For this year’s event, the deputy culture ministry and SAK issued an open call on 27 September 2024 for participation proposals. Five proposals were submitted and examined by the selection committee on 27 November 2024, with detailed minutes prepared on 17 December 2024.
According to Kassianidou, the committee considered the selected proposal aligned with the 19th Architecture Biennale’s thematic core as it highlighted “unrecognised manual construction practices, essentially reclaiming knowledge of primordial methods of sustainable natural resource management”.
Budget included publication costs
The participation documentation included a complete budget with estimated costs of €218,000, including a catalogue publication for €7,900.
“The final catalogue cost, as curator Ms Floridou informed the responsible officer of the Department of Contemporary Culture, amounts to €11,600 and not €300,000 as erroneously reported in statements and publications,” Kassianidou said.
For implementing the approved proposal, responsibilities were divided: SAK managed expenses of €155,000 covering exhibition production, team travel to Venice, documentation including print materials, and promotion of Cyprus’s participation.
The Department of Contemporary Culture handled €63,000 for operational exhibition costs in Italy, including pavilion rental.
SAK received 70% of its allocated budget amount as advance payment, which it subsequently paid to the team. The remainder will be paid by the deputy culture ministry after submission and review of financial statements following the exhibition’s conclusion.
Publication listed deputy ministry as co-publisher
Kassianidou focused on the controversial publication, noting it lists the deputy culture ministry as one of two publishers on the final page crediting contributors.
“On the same page, the publication’s editors refer those with questions or who have identified errors or omissions in the text to contact the deputy ministry (specifically the administration), providing relevant contact details”.
The deputy minister emphasised: “Simple collaboration or funding of an action does not constitute universal or automatic editorial consent for any book that may accompany that action. As an academic with extensive experience in publishing matters both as author and editor, I note that declaring any entity as publisher requires prior explicit and documented consent from that entity, following full briefing, material examination and, where required, evaluation and submission to scientific review and quality control procedures.”
“From our file review to date, no official written approval is documented for the deputy culture ministry to be listed as publisher. This omission violates basic principles of ethics and public identity management. It creates false impressions by presenting the ministry, and by extension the state, as the book’s publisher without this corresponding to reality,” she added.
Ministry demands publication withdrawal
The book “presents the authors’ personal perspective on the illegal Turkish invasion and political management of the Cyprus problem,” Kassianidou said.
“Obviously we live in a democratic society where every citizen has the right to express personal views freely. Therefore, if the authors and Fisherwomxn Press, also named as publisher, as members of a free society wish to publish a book with these views, they certainly have the right to do so”.
“However, they do not have the right to include, without approval, the deputy culture ministry as publisher of this book, nor to demand the deputy ministry fund its production and printing with public money,” she stated.
Kassianidou noted that following completion of the requested factual report, an administrative investigation and accountability assignment would be conducted where applicable.
For future management, the deputy ministry will strengthen clauses regarding publications and other actions requesting use of the culture ministry logo for state representation at international events.
“I am fully aware that balances on this issue are delicate, as there is need to safeguard freedom of expression and artistic creation rights, which the deputy ministry embraces, respects and practically protects as the apple of its eye,” she concluded.
The deputy minister expressed regret that discussion around the Venice Architecture Biennale focused on the publication rather than the exhibition that “worthily represented us at an important international forum” and its significance for preserving cultural heritage.
Background
The book, published in Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot and English, and displayed at Cyprus’s pavilion “To The Stones” exhibition, includes passages describing “forced population exchange” taking place in 1974 and refers to “conflicts” rather than a Turkish invasion.
The publication describes how “the war, through its dramatic and violent explosive brutality, led to forced population exchange, where the majority of Greek Cypriots were displaced from north to south, and the majority of Turkish Cypriots from south to north”.
The controversy emerged after DIKO MP Pavlos Mylonas, chairman of the House Education Committee, raised “serious issues of executive control over what receives funding” following coverage in Phileleftheros. Mylonas described the book as containing “historical inaccuracies that raise serious questions about executive oversight of funded projects”.
The Visual Artists and Art Theorists Association, as well as Artist group Fisherwomxn – phytorio have condemned the withdrawal of a publication from Cyprus’s pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 as censorship, following government intervention. The Association described the move as belonging to “authoritarian regimes, not democratic cultural frameworks”.
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