Alexander Malios

I am a Dres­­den-born Cypri­ot, and a resi­dent of Leip­zig by choice. I grew up in Cyprus and today I feel that I am a Euro­pean citi­zen with Ger­­man-Cypri­ot roots. The­r­e­fo­re, I would like to take this oppor­tu­ni­ty to share with you one of my grea­test visi­ons and hop­eful­ly invi­te you to join in my enthu­si­asm for Cypri­ot histo­ry and cul­tu­re, now and in the years to come. The idea to com­bi­ne the three most important loca­ti­ons in my life, name­ly Dres­den, Cyprus and Leip­zig in a sin­gle pro­ject has been gro­wing in my heart for many years. Dres­den, the city whe­re I was born; Cyprus, the coun­try whe­re I spent my youth years until the com­ple­ti­on of my mili­ta­ry ser­vice, home to many of my rela­ti­ves and also whe­re I am a legal citi­zen; and Leip­zig, the city which I call my home­town, which I have made the cent­re of my life, whe­re my own fami­ly lives and my work is loca­ted. In many aspects of my life I have been bles­sed with hap­pi­ness and luck; becau­se of this, I have been able to coll­ect many his­to­ri­cal objects span­ning the last 11,000 years of Cypri­ot histo­ry, and to com­bi­ne them with my second pas­si­on for Late Impres­sio­nist and Expres­si­ve Rea­lism pain­tings and gra­phic arts of the Dres­den School, ran­ging from the begin­ning until the midd­le of the 20th century.

After the growth of both art coll­ec­tions, I star­ted to enter­tain the idea not to keep the­se pie­ces of art only to mys­elf, but to share them with others. The poten­ti­al of this initia­ti­ve lies more in the Cypri­ot Coll­ec­tion than in the Pain­tings and Dra­wings, as the focus of a new cul­tu­ral hot­spot within the city of Leip­zig. I have been able to actively expe­ri­ence Leip­zig as a thri­ving and ever-gro­­wing city over a long peri­od of time. Now, with this pro­ject, I wish to give some­thing back. The­r­e­fo­re, I cor­di­al­ly invi­te you to fol­low my visi­on, which is none other than to estab­lish a Ger­­man-Cypri­ot Cul­tu­ral Cent­re in Leipzig.