The Little Land Fish

Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial writing and culture.
Editor: Anna Collett
Volume XXXIII Number 1-2, 2011
Australia ISSN 0106-5734
Article:p.247, Antonis Danos,
“TheLittleLandFish: Experiencing Place,
Homeland, and Identity in an Exhibition
of Contemporary Cypriot Art”.

The Little Land Fish;
Istanbul 2010- European Cultural Capital
Project 13, Karaköy, Santa Limani
Exhibition catalogue: ISBN 978-9963-9729-2-0
Curated by Antonis Danos and Zeynep Yasa Yaman.

Lia Lapithi, Video on DVD, “The Little Land Fish”, 1 minute, 2010

Penned by Samad Behrangi, The Little Black Fish is the story of an old fish telling his 12,000 children and grandchildren a tale themed around justice, equality, questioning dogma, and swimming against the tide. The tale concerns the efforts of the little black fish in his troublesome voyage to the sea and eventual freedom' (The Little Land Fish 9). Taking Behrangi's tale as the starting point, two Cypriot artists' associations (Turkish Cypriot EMAA and Greek Cypriot EKATE) put out a call for artists to submit works for an exhibition that took place between June 19th and July 19th, 2010 at the Sanat Liman space, within the framework of the 'Portable Art' project of Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture. The works were selected by the author and Zeynep Yasa Yaman, who also co-curated the exhibition.
By Antonis Danos

Lia Lapithi (b.1963) gives a humorous twist to a more literal visualisation of the topic: in a one-minute video loop aptly titled The Little Land Fish— the background is taken over by the bare, rocky volume of the Pentadaktylos mountain range. This mountain — one of two on the island — has become an iconic image for Greek Cypriots ever since the 1974 military invasion by Turkey that has separated the country into two halves: Pentadaktylos dominates the skyline of the 'occupied' (in the eyes of Greek Cypriots) territory. In her video collage, Lapithi shows the mountain as it is seen from inland — the way it is seen from the South (from the dominant Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus) — yet she has placed in the foreground the sea: a view possible only if one were to look from the North (such as, from the southern coast of Turkey), but for the 'wrong' side of the mountain! To the sound of the water, several fish are 'swimming' in mid-air (above the sea) while a spoon net is chasing after them unsuccessfully!
The playfulness of sight and sound in Lapithi's video, and the impossible reversals of viewpoints contribute to feelings of uncertainty and displacement, while hinting at the degree of absurdity that is one of the ingredients that have gone into the making of the so-called 'Cyprus problem' in the past sixty or so years.