Cyprus (Republic of)

On a wildflower-lined gravel track off a quiet thoroughfare...
...a parked black van scans its surroundings for personal devices to send out a thumbnail from the account of a recently deceased person. Captioned “OMG! Have you seen this?!”, it reaches three unsuspecting acquaintances. In disbelief, the first recipient takes the bait and clicks the link. The second fails to see the notification as it drowns in a sea of information debris. The third — no longer friends with the “sender” and unaware of their passing — sees the message and opts not to answer, effectively ghosting them... So our ghost story goes, and so it echoes: On which side of the screen lies the ghost?
With this question, Lower Levant Company, Endrosia Collective and Haig Aivazian sidestep the superstitious provenance of ghosts, speculating instead on present sociotechnical and material forms of ghosting. Alongside diffracted modes of spectatorship, a “vigil workspace” revives the labour of invigilation, invisible within the art industry, to hold a space for reflection and remembrance.
The exhibition proposes ghosting as a paradoxical act of withdrawal and persistence. This form of vigilance requires an adjustment of attention; a recalibration of the senses; a commitment not only to staying with the problem of ghosts, but to drawing alliances with them and, entrusted with their agitation, dismantling and building worlds anew.