Naima Morelli

Archive
May, 2025 Monthly archive

In the art world, fairs often have a meteoric rise and fall in an oversaturated market of competing events. But every so often, one lands with a quiet, deliberate weight, embedding itself in the soil of its context and revitalizing it. Vima in Limassol, Cyprus, is one such project.

Unfolding in a transformed wine warehouse near the sea, VIMA resisted the sterile polish of typical fair venues. Here, the Mediterranean wind mingled with the hum of languages, from Russian to Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, to English.

The fair was founded by three Russians who have established themselves in Cyprus – Edgar Gadzhiev, Lara Kotreleva, and Nadezhda Zinovskaya – all of whom have brought a deep well of curatorial and institutional experience from Central Asia, Eurasia, and beyond.

I have interviewed the three founders for Times of Central Asia.

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A crowd of visitors walks through a large industrial exhibition hall with stone walls and exposed beams, viewing booths from galleries including ΓΚΑΡΑΖ art space and Alpha C.K. Art Gallery at the VIMA Art Fair.

Beyond its commercial ambitions, the inaugural edition of VIMA art fair carved out space to consider Cyprus’ complex geopolitical position. I wrote a report on the fair for the Observer.

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A pale Milanese dawn draped the city in shifting greys, as visitors crossed the threshold into the space of Fondazione Elpis, a foundation created to promote dialogue with emerging geographies and young artists.

This time, it was Central Asian artists who were in the spotlight, claiming a shared history fractured by Soviet rule and global currents. The show YOU ARE HERE: Central Asia redraws a regional map, allowing artists to reimagine the borders of their belonging beyond nation-states. At the same time, it invites each visitor to relate to the works by locating its place within these stitched, erased, and reconfigured narratives.

I have interviewed curator Dilda Ramazan for Times of Central Asia.

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A painted green and blue wall with dripping effects, depicting tropical plants and foliage, intersected by a metal structural frame on the right.

Very proud to have my first review in Artforum. This is a review of the installation Artificial Green by Nature Green 4.0 at the 2024 Bangkok Art Biennale by artists Bagus Pandega and Kei Imazu’s.

The work cyclically generated and erased images of a lush Indonesian rainforest, like Penelope repeatedly weaving and unraveling her shroud.

Here is the link to the review

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