Your Excellency, Mr. President,

Your Excellency, Mr. Vasiliou, former President of the Republic,

Your Excellencies Ambassadors,

Distinguished guests,

The short film you have just watched will have given you a good idea of what the Nemitsas Foundation stands for.

For those of you who are here tonight for the first time, I shall only state that the purpose of the Foundation is to award leading Cypriot Scientists and Artists who excel around the world.

These are people who have already been honoured with the highest distinctions in their fields; people who have contributed to improving the quality of life of our fellow human beings.

Since our first prize was awarded in 2010, we have recognised seven outstanding individuals, who have made us exceptionally proud.

We are here tonight for the 6th Prize. This year, for the second time since the creation of the Foundation, we have selected the field of the Arts. The first occasion was in 2011, with Classical Music. In 2015 we have taken a bold step and turned to the Visual Arts. I use the word bold because, for us, Visual Arts is relatively unknown territory.

However, with determination and vigour, we have consulted specialists in the field, done a lot of research and, as a result, we have gained knowledge and understanding.

We had a total of 43 exceptional applications. In line with our regulations, we entrusted the selection, as always, to renowned personalities in making the award. This time the International Prize Selection Committee is made up of five women, who specialise in modern art, as follows:

Marie-Laure Bernadac, Curator of Contemporary Exhibitions at the Louvre Museum,
Chantal Béret, Curator of Contemporary Collections at the Pompidou Centre,
Anaël Pigeat, Art Critic and Publisher of the Art Press Magazine,
Andri Michael-Sueur, Professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Picardie Jules Verne,
Sarah Wilson, internationally-acclaimed Art Historian and Curator.

The committee has selected Christodoulos Panayiotou, to whom we present the award tonight.

I would like to mention that Christodoulos Panayiotou is the youngest person that we have awarded to date; he is just 37 years old and is from Limassol. I can assure you that neither the President nor I had any involvement in selecting him ….!

Christodoulos’ work focuses on researching History and Geography, with interpretations and messages that sometimes need to be explained in layman’s terms.

The Chairwoman of the Selection Committee, and of course the artist himself, will tell you about his work.

All I will add is that, from a young age, Christodoulos Panayiotou has succeeded in becoming known for his remarkable work in Visual Arts, by taking part in international exhibitions that have given him worldwide recognition and internationally-acclaimed awards. I will mention briefly the “Deste” Prize, of the Dakis Stelios Joannou Foundation and his selection by the Ministry of Education and Culture to represent Cyprus this year at the Venice Biennale.

Louki and I have visited the exhibition in Venice and have seen the artists’ work close up.

Christodoulos’ work has been presented in many solo and group exhibitions in the most highly-regarded art centres in the world, attracting critical praise.

The 2015 Nemitsas Prize is awarded to Christodoulos Panayiotou for his internationally-recognised and prestigious achievements in Visual Arts. He has a long and bright future ahead of him and we wish him continuing successes.

I will conclude with a few words on the progress and objectives of our Foundation.

The Foundation, through careful cuts in its costs, has managed to address the immediate financial difficulties caused in our country by the financial crisis of 2013 and hopes to continue with its annual awards.

That is all from me. I now call Mrs. Androulla Vasiliou, former European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, to the podium, to give us a few words about Christodoulos Panayiotou, the Cypriot artist, whom we are honouring tonight.