PSI Foundation is making its first stop in the capital, choosing to introduce itself not through yet another exhibition space, but within the city itself.
You may encounter it in a shop window. In the window of an artist’s studio. On a wall, or somewhere you have passed by countless times without any particular reason to stop. For a few weeks, a walk through Nicosia’s old walled city acquires another reason to slow down. Moving images appear in places that were never designed as exhibition spaces, while video art finds its way between buildings, shop windows, cafés, people and the everyday movement of the city.
This is how PSI Foundation has chosen to make its first presentation in Nicosia. Rather than simply bringing an exhibition from Limassol to the capital, it is experimenting with a different way of bringing art and audiences together. The new project, Objects in the Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear, curated by Evagoria Dapola, leaves behind the safety of an enclosed gallery and spreads across different locations in the old city.
The exhibition does not necessarily wait for visitors to walk through its doors. Instead, it encounters them in unexpected and, at times, surprising places. The city itself thus becomes part of the exhibition, as the works become integrated into its everyday rhythm and appear in spaces that, until now, served entirely different purposes.
There is something intriguing about the idea of an artwork appearing where you least expect it. In a museum or gallery, you already know why you are there. You have decided to look. You have set aside time. On the street, however, encountering art can be entirely unplanned. You may be in a hurry, heading for coffee, returning from work, or simply passing by. And somewhere in between all of this, an image may make you stop.
This element of chance appears to lie at the heart of the project. Artists’ studios, architectural offices and former workshops, as well as shop windows, windows, walls and cafés, temporarily acquire a second life. The art presented in Objects in the Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear is not isolated from the city; instead, it enters its rhythm and becomes part of it.
After all, even the title of the exhibition comes from something entirely familiar: the warning found on car mirrors, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” A phrase we usually read without giving it much thought takes on a different dimension in this context.
How close, after all, is what we see? How does an image change when the point from which we look at it changes? And what happens when something familiar suddenly appears within a different context?
Of course, a passer-by does not need to know the theory behind these questions to become part of the experience. Perhaps all it takes is to look a little longer.
A Journey That Began in Limassol
The arrival in Nicosia is not an isolated move for PSI Foundation. Rather, it is an extension of a journey that began two years ago in Limassol.
PSI was founded there in 2024 as a non-profit organisation and established its permanent home in a restored 1960s carob warehouse. A building with a history of its own became a space for contemporary creativity and gradually began hosting exhibitions, artists, music, dance and a range of cultural activities.
The journey began with Casts of an Island, curated by Nikos Pattichis. It was followed by Τέκτων, a research project focusing on modernist architecture and Cyprus during the early years of independence, while the foundation’s programme simultaneously expanded to embrace different forms of contemporary creativity and international collaborations.
In 2026, one of the most important names in the history of video art, Bill Viola, became part of this journey. And this is precisely where the connection with Nicosia lies.
Two cities, two different ways of looking at the same art.
In Limassol, Bill Viola. Unspoken creates an environment in which the viewer is invited to pause, the noise from outside recedes, time slows down, and the moving image demands attention.
In Nicosia, almost the opposite happens. The image moves out into the street and becomes part of it. There is no silence of a controlled exhibition space. Instead, there are cars, voices, passers-by, shops, and people coming and going. The screen now finds itself face to face with real life and must, for a moment, compete for the attention of someone who may not have intended to encounter art at all.
This makes the relationship between the two exhibitions perhaps even more intriguing. In one city, the viewer moves towards the image; in the other, the image enters the viewer’s path.
Between the two stands PSI Foundation, with Limassol remaining its base and Nicosia becoming, for the first time, a new field of activity.
It is not so much a matter of moving from one city to another, but rather of testing the same conversation in a different environment and with a different audience.
Objects in the Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear
The exhibition brings together 14 works by 9 artists: Maria Anastasiou, Nadim Choufi, Danae Io, Stelios Kallinikou, Kakia Katselli, Aristotelis Nikolaos Mochloulis, Alexandros Pissourios, Janis Rafa and Konstantinos Taliotis.
For more information: psi.art
