Take the Cementography Tour

Cementography is an art form invented in the 1960s by Cypriot artist Christoforos Savva. The process begins with paper and pencil, as the artist sketches a plan for a wall hanging made from cast cement. The plan is used as a guide for creating a mould with polystyrene, which is shaped by cutting or burning the material. Then a cement mixture is prepared; some portions of it may be coloured or given increased texture by the addition of pieces of glass, stone, or tile. The cement is added to the mould and allowed to harden. Afterwards, the polystyrene is removed, and the surface of the work can be further defined by painting or scratching it. Savva taught the technique to fellow artist Costas Economo, who gave it its name, and he then passed it on to the next generation of artists. In 2017, he collaborated with nine artists to create an eight-panel work, ‘Arodafnousa’, using cementography. It illustrates a fourteenth-century Cypriot folk tale in which a beautiful girl named Arodafnousa is beloved by a king and murdered by a jealous queen; the king kills his wife and gives the girl a proper funeral. The eight panels can be viewed in sequence in the Old Town area of Pafos, where they have been mounted on the exterior walls of buildings. A website connected to the project (www.cementography.net) explains the technique and describes two documentary films featuring it. Inquire at Guest Services for a custom map of the tour.