THE JOURNEY OF THE AURA OF THE BLACK STONE OF CYPRUS. 2018-
THE JOURNEY OF THE AURA OF THE BLACK STONE OF CYPRUS
Identical virtual copy of the Black Stone, produced through a 3D scan of the original Black Stone. 3D scan, reconstruction and video by Andreas Kopřiva Lernis, by Time of Flight laser scanning (TOF) with the authorization and supervision of the Τμήμα Αρχαιοτήτων Κύπρου / Department of Antiquities, Cyprus and the artist. Documentation indicating aura and value fluctuations of a found stone from neolithic era until today. A 3D Print Stratasys F770 3D-Drucksystem hand retouched 120cm x 50cm x 60cm circa.
This project traces the fluctuations of aura and value of a found stone from the Neolithic era until today. Artistic creations, like all objects, follow a curve of value over time. Ritual objects may lose their significance. Tools become obsolete. Ordinary things sometimes acquire an exceptional symbolic charge for a short period, only to fade again when the conditions that produced their value disappear. Yet if works of art are objects of a particular kind, their transformation follows a special trajectory. A sculpture toute faite in Duchamp’s tradition begins its life as a commodity but evolves into something exceptional, its entire essence directed toward the gaze of posterity.
The journey of the aura of the Black Stone of Cyprus, starting from a minimal premise, is conceived as a tout fait of a unique type. Weary from the weight of its long history, it slices through time like a blade and extends its existence into a distant past when it was nothing more than a gabbro stone among many. Its archaic presence generates a renewed aura. It becomes an object resonating with echoes from remote epochs, inviting the viewer to contemplate its extraordinary migration through meaning, belief and value. The project uses the narrative of the Black Stone as a paradigmatic example of a dynamic fluxus of aura.
The Black Stone of Cyprus is a one hundred twenty two centimeter high aniconic black gabbro stone dating back to the Neolithic period. According to legend it was found near the beach of Aphrodite in South Cyprus, emerging from a volcanic deposit. Worshipped as a holy object, the raw stone was transported to a location that later became the Sanctuary of Aphrodite in the archaeological site of Palaipafos. For thousands of years it was touched by countless hands during rituals and repeatedly covered with oil that smoothed its surface.
The rituals evolved across different cultures. They were first dedicated to the Queen of Cyprus, the Great Mother, then associated with Astarte and eventually with Aphrodite. The cult of Aphrodite in Cyprus was in fact born around the cult of this black stone. It presumably occupied the central position of the sanctuary, as documented by sources such as Homer and Tacitus and as depicted on Greek, Roman and Egyptian coins produced in Cyprus and abroad from the first century BC to the early third century AD. After the death of Theodosius I in 395 AD, his sons Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West reconfirmed the prohibition of all pagan cults. The priestesses of the sanctuary then buried the stone near the temple.
After almost seventeen centuries of disappearance, the stone resurfaced during modern archaeological campaigns. While the exact date of rediscovery remains debated, it was first mentioned by D. G. Hogarth in 1888. It was found embedded in a late Roman mosaic floor but was not recognized as the sacred stone of Paphos. Its true significance was acknowledged only in 1913 during the second archaeological excavations directed by J. F. Myres.
The Sanctuary of Aphrodite was one of the most important pilgrimage sites of the ancient world. It flourished for centuries until its abrupt decline when Roman authority banned non Christian rituals in the imperial territories. The interaction between the ancient audience and the stone was both creative and destructive. The stone was physically sculpted by generations of worshippers through repeated touching, each gesture intended to receive the blessing of the goddess embodied in the stone. Touch here acts simultaneously as creation and erasure. These gestures echo research developed in the project When the Rising Sun on Gramsci and John Berger.
The project is anchored in this four thousand year long fluxus. It is presented through historical documentation and two contemporary artifacts. One is an identical copy of the Black Stone produced using the Stratasys F770 3D-Drucksystem and hand retouched to restore surface details. The second is a virtual 3D copy of the stone created through a full scan of the original in the Paphos Sanctuary.
Across the centuries the image of the stone multiplied through the minting of thousands of coins. This proliferation of images eventually allowed archaeologists to attribute identity and value to the rediscovered stone. The reproduction of the stone’s image, which had been intense in Greek and Roman times, was only revived again around fifty to sixty years ago when a cast was produced with the intention of displaying a replica in the Museum of Paphos.
For technical reasons the cast failed and has since been abandoned in the courtyard of the manor house beside the sanctuary, together with other archaeological fragments. The Black Stone thus continues to generate simulacra, reproductions, copies and images, each marking a new stage in its long career.
The specificity of the failed cast lies in being an unsuccessful copy of an original object. Exposed to rain and sun, it began to deteriorate and slowly developed new shapes and its own aura. It became the copy of a copy that transforms itself once again, a fragment participating in the ongoing morphology of aura that surrounds the Black Stone of Cyprus.
