Nurtane Karagil
Nurtane Karagil has been engaged with the Cyprus island's socio-political environment on various levels which in turn set the tone of the majority of her work. Using a wide range of artistic mediums such as painting, illustration, sculpture, video and photography, her art conceptualises the power of memory, dreams and surreal fantasies in juxtaposition with everyday life situations.
Nurtane Karagil (b. 1989 in Famagusta/CY) studied Fine Arts at Hacettepe University and has an MA from the University of Brighton. She has been engaged with the Cyprus island's socio-political environment on various levels which in turn set the tone of the majority of her work. Using a wide range of artistic mediums such as painting, illustration, sculpture, video and photography, her art conceptualises the power of memory, dreams and surreal fantasies in juxtaposition with everyday life situations. Through this contrast, she invites the viewer to an uncanny zone where the edges of reality are somewhat sharper.
She exhibited her work in various exhibitions in the Czech Republic, Germany, the UK, Northern Ireland, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus; collaborates with local and international NGOs to create workshops or curricula with a focus on ecology and human rights; and is currently working as an art lecturer at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta, Cyprus. Karagil lives and works in Famagusta.
The following artwork will be shown as part of the EVROVIZION.CROSSING STORIES AND SPACES project:
Say Hello to the Grey Zones, wall collage, mixed media, dimensions variable, Famagusta/CY, 2023.
© Nurtane Karagil
In her expansive wall installation Say Hello to the Grey Zones, Nurtane Karagil assembles drawings, photographs, sketches, notes, and maps into a multilayered personal archive. The work was created in and about Famagusta – a city suspended between visibility and erasure within the ongoing conflict in Cyprus. Karagil’s collection is neither systematic nor complete, but open, growing, and vulnerable – like a wall-sized diary that records emotion.
Her collage elements recall a childlike, pop-cultural visual language, using bold colors, handwriting, humor, and repetition – while striking a serious tone. With irony and narrative playfulness, Karagil explores themes of division, invisibility, power structures, and belonging. The “grey zones” referenced in the title are not only geopolitical but emotional spaces – sites of uncertainty, transition, and waiting.
The wall becomes a living archive of everyday life under prolonged tension – a surface of protest, memory, and personal affirmation. Karagil navigates her position as an artist in a divided land with poetic clarity, inviting viewers into this fragmented visual world to find their own connections and engage with the complexity of the present through empathy and curiosity.
