Iacovos Loizou: Participatory painting inspired by the urban roofscape
Iacovos Loizou was selected to take part in one of the 18 rooftop residencies of the European Creative Rooftop Network. For this artistic exchange between Nicosia and Rotterdam, Iacovos was asked to develop a Rooftop Art Project in Rotterdam under the themes of “geopolitics”, “emigration” and “rooftop sensation”.
*ECRN is a project which is co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union. Urban Gorillas represent the city of Nicosia in the network.
*Iacovos is an emerging Cypriot artist with an educational background in Urban Planning and Urban Design. His artistic work is an amalgamation of his urban studies background and creativity. The outcome is a polished marriage of text, bold colours and comic style characters, which is more associated with street art. Through his work, Iacovos hopes to better understand how art can be a visual communication tool to influence urban and cultural change.
Rooftop Artist Residency in Rotterdam
Iacovos Loizou has spent two weeks as a resident artist in the city of Rotterdam, creatively exploring the city’s roofscape to develop his Rooftop Art Project. This unique experience and perspective of the city infused the artist’s work and inspired him to create a series of paintings with the theme of friendly rooftop monsters. The artistic research of Iacovos culminated in two days of participatory painting on the rooftop of the National Photography Museum during the Rotterdamse Dakendagen.
Creative Rooftop Workshop in Nicosia
Iacovos Loizou ran a creative workshop, during the Pame Kaimakli festival 2022: Urban Playground, providing visitors the opportunity to join the artist’s canvas to co-create an art piece inspired by Kaimakli neighbourhood. The workshop aimed to use art as an informal and playful trigger for conversation and exchange with Kaimakli’s rooftops in the background.
