Paphos Life

I'll happily admit I'm not there greatest in the world when it comes to interpreting art, but does anybody understand the significance of the new statue thingies that are appearing around town as part of Paphos 2017 project? The 'rusty' halves seem to have some inscriptions on them but as all the ones I've seen are in the middle of a road, it's a tad tricky to tell what they are, or if the rusty look is now in fashion or are they likely to be painted?

Ian the Polemi Philistine

I was told that the sculptures are the Greek P, and they signify the boundaries of Paphos.
I'm not sure about the inscriptions on the rusty bits, I haven't looked that closely!

There were a few visitors to the one by the motorway roundabout this morning.

The couple of new structures I've seen look like the
numbers 1 & 7.

Some photos would help

Here photo link...

http://cyprus-mail.com/2017/01/16/welco ... pafos2017/

Max

When they are finished I will do a blog article.

the P representing welcome to Paphos and 17 the year it represented European city of culture

I saw the one at the end of the motorway yesterday...

My initial thoughts were...

1) What the hell is it supposed to be?
2) Graffiti magnet.
3) The money could have been better spent.

No, not the number 17. It is indeed (from various angles) the Greek letter P = Π.

Beejay Brown posted this:

This was posted by Bejay Brown...

Have you seen these springing up around around Paphos and what do you think of them?
According to the mayor, Phedon Phedonos, they will be placed around the ten entrances to Paphos town.

***The monuments have been designed by a group of Paphos architects and are made of concrete and corten weathering steel.

They depict the letter 'P' in Greek, the first letter of Paphos, and so have been crafted in this shape.

One of the designers told me that each creation is made of two separate parts, a white concrete column which represents the history and civilisation of Paphos and another crafted in corten weathering steel which marks new beginnings for Paphos, the future and the contemporary surroundings.

The metal structure has the design of Paphos lighthouse cut into it and this is a symbol of the light of Paphos, of new beginnings and the era which we want to come.

The ten monuments are also a welcome ‘gate’ for Paphos and are found along some of the boundaries of Paphos which connect the town with the surrounding areas.
The largest of them all stands at four and a half meters on the roundabout close to the highway to Limassol as this is the main entrance to Paphos.

The monuments will also be lit up from inside using LED lighting; there will also be floor lighting to illuminate it at night-time as well. ***

Jeanne

Sounds a lovely idea to me!

And a waste of money to me.. It just shows how we all have different views

But I do agree they WILL look nice Illuminated

Trev..

Call me old fashioned, "YOU'RE OLD FASHIONED!" but you surely shouldn't need to have 'art' explained to you...?

If you really need to be told it is the Greek letter 'P' it isn't doing its job...

I still think it looks like 17.

Anybody knows how they are illuminated. Would be perfect
with Solar PV as there are already LED bulbs to be installed.

Max

I went round this morning and photographed all 10 of them. Some are nearly finished, one still had a cement lorry by it.

Have to say, I was actually very impressed with them. Well, the ones that were nearly finished anyway. They do look really nice. I think the 17 is just a coincidence though. It is definitely more of a pi.

Some of the comments on that newspaper article are painful to read. People moaning that it looked nothing like a P. That makes my head hurt.

memory man wrote: ↑Tue Jan 17, 2017 12:10 pm I still think it looks like 17.

I do like a bit of culture.

I like what I've seen but then again, it's only one photo - I shall wait for Dominic to post his photos on his blog, I assume....

They will make for some nice photography as they go through their rusting process - I hope he will provide us with more photos of their progression over time.

Keep up the good work, Dom

Yes I will upload a blog in a couple of hours. There will also be another article when they are all finished, and in a year's time. As you say, it will be interesting to see how they progress.

I welcome all efforts like this to improve the local environment. I have enjoyed various different types of sculptures in many cities around the world. Sometimes they are obvious, other times they need explanation. Either way these new sculptures are starting to work as people are talking about them and to many that is the purpose of art.

Waste of money? I suppose it depends on your viewpoint. I think efforts to make places look more pleasant are to be welcomed as part of improving quality of life. So many whingers have criticised the scruffiness of Paphos in the past, its a pity if all the vast improvements being made to correct this were to become another whinger's moan. From what I see the completion of all the works in Paphos, the sculptures, the Tomb of the Kings scheme are all great improvements.

Pete