From 10 April to 7 July 2024, Elpis Foundation presents Theodoulos Polyviou's solo exhibition, A Palace in Exile, third chapter of Transmundane Economies, an ongoing project started by the artist in 2022, which uses virtuality and associated digital technologies to study , reconstruct and fill the gaps within Cyprus' cultural heritage. Through videos, sculptures, installations and drawings displayed in all the spaces of the Foundation, the exhibition starts from the project of a Cypriot archbishop's building at the center of a historical event that actually happened.

In the 1950s, in a climate of ethnic and national tension, Archbishop Makarios III promoted the construction of a new archbishop's palace, starting the island's first architectural competition. This competition, and the resulting public debate, highlighted the role of architecture in national identity during British rule and set a precedent for the island's architectural future. As part of the Transmundane Economies project - after the first chapter entitled Bellapais Abbey at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, and the second, SCREEN, also exhibited in Berlin at the Bode Museum - A Palace in exile examines how the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion within the construction and the symbolism of the palace have fostered a sense of community and belonging, while marginalizing Cypriot minority groups from the predominant nationalist narrative.

On the ground floor, a selection of original casts belonging to the artist's archive marks the starting point of the exhibition. Coming from the Koromias factory in Nicosia, now disused, the casts had previously been used for the construction not only of the Archbishop's Palace, but also of numerous other churches in Cyprus. Some of these casts transcend their status as historical artefacts, emerging as autonomous sculptures, partly covered in gold leaf, which in the artist's words serve as “dogmatic negatives” .