The Saw is a sculpture by the Cypriot artist Rinos Stefani in the sea front of Paphos, Cyprus. Τhe disappearance of the sculpture in 2024 gave rise to a public outcry and triggered off reactions by cultural and political organisations. After the uproar in the media, the Paphos Municipal Council decided to ask the artist to remake the sculpture. The Saw is now standing at the coastal broadwalk, about 300m west of the Paphos Medieval Castle, just outside the Archaeological Park.
The disappearance of The Saw sculpture caused an uproar in Cyprus
The metal sculpture The Saw was installed in 2017. Eight years after its installation, during the renovation works of the coastal promenade by the Municipality of Paphos, the Saw disappeared. The loss of the sculpture, in April 2024, gave rise to protests from the public and cultural institutions of Cyprus. The Chamber of Fine Arts and the European
Capital of Culture Paphos 2017 issued announcements denouncing the Municipality of Paphos for reckless behaviour and unacceptable irresponsibility. It should be noted that around the same period, other works of art in Paphos had a similar fate.
After the uproar caused by the disappearance of the works of art, the House of Representatives, with MP Giorgos Koukoumas submited on June 6, 2024, a question to the Deputy Minister of Culture, regarding the role of the competent Deputy Ministry and requested information on the state’s policy regarding the protection of works of art in public spaces.
Under the pressure of the outcry (in a pre-election period) the Mayor of Paphos promised to restore the lost sculptures. After a long adventure, The Saw of Rinos Stefani was remade and put back in place.
The meaning of The Saw
Niki Loizidi, Emeritus Professor of Art History at the Athens School of Fine Arts, writes: Rinos Stefani has always been a creator with wide open horizons, above all, he has been an artist of profound social and political engagement. A dominant position in his compositions is often occupied by the saw as a basic symbol of his work, as an indisputable reference to the danger of obliteration, more so on the danger of partition of the island. Stefani’s work employs sharp expressionist prowess to condense the agonizing passage of an essentially blinded man through a forest of saws.’’
Antonis Danos, professor of History and Theory of Art at the Cyprus University of Technology, writes: “Stefani’s oeuvre is imbued with a political intent. The political element here is not to be understood in the rather limiting definition of “committed” art or as a noisy manifestation that inevitably carries an expiration date of its possible effect or intended message. Instead, it is meant as the presence of an ecumenical quality, which derives from the continuous exploration and negotiation of the human condition: of erotic, existential and ecological anxieties and dead-ends, but also of the (endless?) effort for a way out, and of the (hopeless?) desire for (inter)personal fulfilment. All of these are manifested in a mood of ambivalence, comical as much as tragic, with a sense of humour, sympathy or caustic critique, as well as in a prevalent sensuality. ”
The Saw of Rinos Stefani imposes itself on the viewer with its solid appearance and the power of simplicity; it stands as a metaphor of degradation of nature and society and it carries a strange ambiguity that makes it appear like a totem of our time. It is not the first time that Stefani challenges social and cultural conventions and the viewing of art. The Saw raises questions of democracy and reveals the contradictory relationship between the public, political power and art.
