
Artist: Christos Symeonidis Chrisimos
Location: Saint Kyriaki church, Agros. Limassol district
Category: ΕΟΚΑ 1955-59, Cypriot Women
Photography: Evangelia Matthopoulou
The initiative for the memorial was taken in 1998 by an ad hoc committee for the memorial to the EOKA 1955-59 fighters.
The distinct segregation between masculine and feminine identities becomes explicitly tangible in the case of the sole memorial acknowledging and honoring women’s contribution to national struggles, paying a “reverent commemoration and praise” to them as indicated on the inscription.
Nevertheless, the sculpture does not include any of the expected, or necessary under the circumstances, male attitudes of aggressiveness or militaristic spirit. On the contrary, the woman depicted is illustrated in favour of the female stereotype, as a mild, rather agreeable creature, saluting with her right hand while holding a stone in her left hand, which rests bended on her stomach. Symbolic cultural values prove rigid enough to prevent any visual representation of a shifting identity, which could deconstruct the dominant codes.
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