Larnaca Biennale announces its collaboration with Niki Papaspyrou and Marios Fournaris as curators of its fifth edition, which will take place from 13 October – 26 November 2027.
For the first time, the Biennale will be curated by a curatorial duo, reflecting a long-standing shared theoretical, research-based and curatorial trajectory. The curators will develop an international, multidisciplinary programme that will include the main exhibition, performances, public actions, lectures and workshops.
Further details regarding the theme of the Biennale and the open call for participation will be announced in late May 2026.
Statement from the Organising Committee of the Larnaca Biennale
“Leading the Larnaca Biennale 2027 will be two experienced professionals, two dedicated practitioners in the field of art,” says the Biennale’s Artistic Director, Vassilis Vassiliades.
“Marios Fournaris and Niki Papaspyrou are both connected to Cyprus, each in a different way. Niki’s relationship with the Cypriot art scene is a close one, as she researches and curates the work of Cypriot artists both in Cyprus and abroad. In this context, she served as a member of the jury of the Larnaca Biennale 2023. Marios’s contribution to the Biennale team marks a creative return to his place of origin, bridging his many years of experience in Greece and abroad with his Cypriot identity.”
“The selected theme, which will be announced shortly, draws its inspiration from the roots of the humanities and from their dialogue with the living reality of the present. At the same time, it gives form to a narrative that reaches back to the origins of human civilisation and existence. It is a perspective that approaches the phenomena shaping our world through both their social and historical dimensions and their inner, experiential reception.”
The Organising Committee of the Biennale welcomes the curators of the 5th Larnaca Biennale as members of its team and as its representatives to the public and to the artists.
Statement from the Curators
“We are delighted to participate as curators of the 5th Larnaca Biennale,” state Niki Papaspyrou and Marios Fournaris, “in a collaboration that we understand as a space of dialogue, research and meaningful exchange.
“Larnaca, Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region constitute for us a distinctive meeting point between local experiences and international voices. They also form a field of substantial research-based and theoretical inquiry, where the concepts of displacement, memory, habitation and belonging, as well as the anthropogenic climate crisis, acquire particular historical, cultural and contemporary significance. At the same time, these concepts resonate and are reformulated within a broader global context.
“Through the curatorial process, we are interested in exploring how contemporary art can function as a mode of critically mapping our relationships with place, history, communities and forms of coexistence.”
Biography of Niki Papaspyrou
Niki Papaspyrou is an art historian and exhibition curator. She studied History and History of Art (BA, 2004) and History of Art and Architecture (MA, 2005) at the University of Reading, United Kingdom, and graduated with distinction from the Department of Theory and History of Art at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 2010. She is a PhD candidate at the School of Visual and Applied Arts of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
From 2007 to 2015, she worked at the Byzantine and Christian Museum, contributing to projects of documentation, redisplay and exhibition policy. She was a member of the curatorial team of the exhibition Domenikos Theotokopoulos before El Greco in 2014. Since 2007, she has curated exhibitions of contemporary Greek art in collaboration with public and private institutions, and has participated in research and archival projects with an emphasis on the history and criticism of modern Greek art. She was co-director of the project Efi Strousa: A New Journey (Association of Alumni of the Department of Theory and History of Art, National Gallery, ISET, 2023–2025). She is an active member of AICA Hellas and of the Hellenic Association of Art Historians.
Biography of Marios Fournaris
Marios Fournaris is a visual artist, art historian and curator. He holds a PhD in Art History from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2025), with studies in painting, sculpture (BFA, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2010) and new media (MFA, University of Dundee, 2012). His work and research develop within the field of contemporary art, with an emphasis on the public sphere, cultural theory and the critical examination of artistic institutions.
He has presented his theoretical and artistic work internationally, in exhibitions, conferences, workshops and residency programmes, including Biennale ECC Personal Structures, a parallel programme of the Venice Biennale, and Photo Basel. He teaches at the University of West Attica, has taught at UC Berkeley, and is a postdoctoral researcher at the Industrial Systems Institute.
He is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors and of the Hellenic Association of Art Historians. His works are held in private and public collections, while his curatorial interests focus on the intersections of aesthetics, social experience and contemporary cultural discourse within the international exhibition and theoretical context.
Photo: Nikos Koustenis.