CENTRE FOR VISUAL ARTS AND RESEARCH (CVAR)

This center (Κέντρο Εικαστικών Τεχνών & Έρευνας/Kentro Eikastikon Technon & Erevnas, Centre of Visual Arts and Research) was established in 2014 by the Severis Foundation. It includes a museum dedicated to the history and arts of Cyprus, but also a research center (reserved for academics), a café and a store. It is housed in a former Ottoman caravanserai that has been remodeled over the centuries. The interest of this place lies in the philosophy of its founder, Costas Severis, a wealthy banker born in 1949, who works to bring the island's communities closer together. The CVAR is thus one of the very few cultural institutions to highlight the multi-community aspect of Cypriot history. The four levels of the museum are organized around temporary and permanent exhibitions. The Severis collection is presented on a rotating basis. This covers the period from the ^eighteenth to the ^twentieth century, through painting, cinema, literature, photography and more. The objects presented here have one thing in common: each has a connection with Cypriot history, whether it's an ^18th-century Turkish Cypriot woman's costume, the Cozzafani Monastery, a representation of Bellapaïs Abbey (near Kyrenia) by the French Orientalist painter Louis-François Cassas (1756-1827), who visited the island in 1785, or works by contemporary artists who play on Cypriot clichés (religion, antiquity, etc.).). All of this is presented in a carefully designed museography.