Atlandis Lost

Over 7000 handmade test tubes, each one inscribed with the word boundary, are orchestrated into a seismic and synchronized sound-scape. Lia Lapithi's Test Tube Bed stands for a metaphor aiming to communicate the instability and tension inherent in the local political scene. The tubes are organized into an orderly grid on a bed-like construction, which is mechanically programmed to bounce rhythmically from one side to the other. A disconcerting yet fragile sound is produced and repeated in a hypnotic loop, suggesting a process evolving patiently but persistently. Drawing from scientific evidence suggesting that Cyprus emerged from the sea during the violent drifting of large tectonic plates which caused the European, Asian and African Continents to separate, the work seems to allude to the cultural "drifting" apart of the two communities wanting to clutch on to the imaginary [mother]land. Test Tube Bed may be suggesting a different reading of the notion of collective identity, as both the image of a bed as curative and that of the laboratory test tubes as therapeutic, subtly imply the state of healing achieved when narratives and boundaries finally start to become more flexible and abstract, hence the soothing, rocking movement of the tubes, causing a blur effect.