Talk: Johann Pillai
Bedri Rahmi 's Lost Mosaic Wall: Recovering History and Exhibiting Crisis
Salt Galata
May 18, 2018 19.00
Photo by Sidestreets, Monument to Fragmentation installation of original panels and fragments from the exhibition Bedri Rahmi - The Lost Mosaic Wall: From Expo ’58 to Cyprus, 2010
Floor 1, Workshop IV
Exploring the legacy of world fairs, Exhibit continues with a talk by Johann Pillai, Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Çankaya University.
The program will focus on Pillai’s research on the “lost” artwork by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, a mosaic wall commissioned for the Turkish Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958, and mysteriously disappeared right after. Pillai will present new findings about the pavilion and the wall, uncovering the circumstances that occurred over the decades such as historical mishaps, the political upheavals of wars and military coups, errors of judgment, and chance events.
The talk will be held in English.
Johann Pillai is co-founder and director of Nicosia-based independent educational and cultural initiative Sidestreets. He is the author of various interpretive articles on literature and art, as well as the publication, Bedri Rahmi - The Lost Mosaic Wall: From Expo ‘58 to Cyprus (Nicosia: Sidestreets, 2010). His main research interests are theories of literary and visual interpretation, the politics and ideologies of writing history, and relations between science, technology, and belief systems.
Exploring the legacy of world fairs, Exhibit continues with a talk by Johann Pillai, Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at Çankaya University.
The program will focus on Pillai’s research on the “lost” artwork by Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, a mosaic wall commissioned for the Turkish Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair in 1958, and mysteriously disappeared right after. Pillai will present new findings about the pavilion and the wall, uncovering the circumstances that occurred over the decades such as historical mishaps, the political upheavals of wars and military coups, errors of judgment, and chance events.
The talk will be held in English.
Johann Pillai is co-founder and director of Nicosia-based independent educational and cultural initiative Sidestreets. He is the author of various interpretive articles on literature and art, as well as the publication, Bedri Rahmi - The Lost Mosaic Wall: From Expo ‘58 to Cyprus (Nicosia: Sidestreets, 2010). His main research interests are theories of literary and visual interpretation, the politics and ideologies of writing history, and relations between science, technology, and belief systems.
