The Room of Ivi Meleagrou

Language: Greek (with English descriptions)

A multimedia exhibition built around a virtual reality reconstruction of the private room of Cypriot author Ivi Meleagrou (1928–2019), once located in her family home in Agios Andreas, Nicosia. The VR model is conceived as a time-based experience accompanied by archival video, audio, and printed material, inviting audiences into an immersive and contemplative encounter with the author’s life and work, focusing on her seminal novel Eastern Mediterranean (1969).

Initiated in 2021 by The Island Club, in conversation with the ITICA/Museum Lab of the CYENS Centre of Excellence, the project began with the photographic documentation of Ivi Meleagrou’s room, which CYENS transformed into a VR model in 2022. It is now presented in collaboration with the Centre of Performing Arts MITOS within their ongoing project Δωμάτια (Rooms), launched in 2022, which revisits the lives, works, and legacies of female authors. The project was made possible through the close guidance and collaboration of Eleni Meleagrou, and is financially supported by the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, Cyprus, and CYENS Centre of Excellence.

La chambre d'Ivi Meleagrou is held in parallel with the exhibition "Le prétexte de la peinture": Variations autour de la collection d'Ivi Meleagrou, presented at the Limassol Municipal Arts Center - Apothikes Papadaki, as part of the Art Explora Festival.

Concept & Curation: Christodoulos Panayiotou and Androula Kafa (The Island Club), Elena Agathokleous and Constantina Peter (Centre of Performing Arts MITOS), Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert (ITICA/Museum Lab of CYENS Center of Excellence)
Sound Design: Maria Spivak
CYENS Technical Team: Alexis Polydorou, Alex Baldwin, Panayiotis Kyriacou
Supervision of Technical Team: Fotos Frangoudes
Team Leaders of ITICA/Museum Lab: Kleanthis Neokleous, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert
Technical Support: Martinos Thalassetis
Exhibition Hosts: Vangelis Koniotis, Maria Kyriakou and Lara Paci
With the collaboration of Eleni Meleagrou

With special thanks to the contributors and participants of the one-day gathering on Ivi Meleagrou’s novel, Eastern Mediterranean, brought together by The Island Club and the Centre of Performing Arts MITOS with the support of the Department of Contemporary Culture of the Deputy Ministry of Culture, Cyprus, on 23 June 2025: Maria A. Ioannou, Louiza Papaloizou, Eleni Meleagrou, Takis Hadjidemetriou. Ria Alexandrou, Christina Andreou, Seta Astraiou-Karides, Aliki Danezi-Knutsen, Katia Hadjidemetriou Foleman, Marinos Houtris, Stavros Stavrou Karayiannis, Kris Konnaris, Demetris Loutsios, Marina Mandris, Nicola Mitropoulou, Loizos Olympios, Andry Panayiotou, Marios Pavlou, Nicos Philippou, Stephanos Stephanides, Ioulita Toumazi. Evagoras Vanezis, Lex Gregoriou, Vaggelis Koniotis and Belinda Papavasiliou.

With warm thanks to: Antigone Heraclidou, Marios Mettis, Haris Pellapaisiotis, Constantinos S. Constantinou and Sofronis Sofroniou.

Ivi Meleagrou

Ivi Meleagrou (Nicosia 1928–2019) stands amongst the most important novelists of Cypriot literature and she is a pioneer in renewing prose writing. She was a founding member and editor-in-chief of the periodical Kypriaka Chronika (1960–1972), collaborated with newspapers, and was also the first announcer of the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation. For her novel Eastern Mediterranean (1969) she was awarded the State Prize for Fiction, while its sequel, Penultimate Season, was also distinguished in Cyprus (1982) as well as in Greece (1983). Alongside her literary work, she developed an active political and social engagement as president of the Central Committee of Women’s Organizations after 1974, with a presence in Cyprus and abroad on issues of occupation, displacement, and women’s rights. In 2014, she was honored with the G.P. Pierides Prize for her overall contribution to literature.

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