“Overnight Coup Plan” by Marina Xenofontos

2025 · colour · CY · Cypriot dialect, El, En/en · 13’ · In competition

“Overnight Coup Plan” (2025), directed by the artist on 16mm and mini-DV in Cyprus, follows the journey of a group of girls from Limassol to Ayia Napa. Its main set, Ayia Napa is one of Europe’s largest summer holiday resorts. The location, topography, and architecture of the town’s main strip is characterized both by its colonial and post-colonial history, located beside one of the UK largest military bases, and strong English identity held on to by the waves of tourists that arrive at its hotels and beaches on a yearly basis. It’s a coming-of-age tale, unfolding textured images in short sequences, a blurry impression of a dense experience. Filmed on the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état by fascist groups, in a style between documentary and fiction, the film tracks the motions of an average night out while simultaneously navigating the more obscure undercurrents of the landscapes and locations they inhabit. As decades pass from the establishment of Ayia Napa as a spring breakers’ theme park, layers of urban decay and reconstruction settle in while post-colonial errors and legacies begin to surface. The aftermath of a long night out becomes mirrored in the topology of the town, etched in its buildings and streets; all signifiers of the village this city-like-resort replaced are erased, establishing a sinister collective memory.

Director’s biography

Marina Xenofontos (1988, Limassol, Cyprus) lives and works in Athens, Greece. Recent solo exhibitions include: Eternal, Returns at Fondazione Morra Greco in Naples (2025); View From Somewhere Near at Kunstverein in Hamburg (2024); Public Domain at Camden Art Centre in London (2023); In Practice at SculptureCenter in New York (2023); Carousel at AKWA IBOM in Athens (2022); I don’t sleep, I dream at The Island Club in Limassol (2021). She is the recipient of the Frieze Emerging Artist Award 2022 and recently participated in the 15th Baltic Triennial in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Director Statement

Marina Xenofontos’ work employs film and sculpture to consider the inevitability of failure and the marginalisation of personal narratives in civic spaces. By shaping interpretations and meanings, she explores interrelated facets of simulations, objects, and translations that allow for a remembrance of symbols and errors in their functions. With this approach, traditional methods and processes embrace the ephemeral individual position within broader collective memory.