NICOSIA
Cyprus
11.11.2023 - 10.02.2024

At the Green Line, Nicosia © Wikimedia Commons

EVROVIZION.CROSSING NICOSIA

EVROVIZION.CROSSING STORIES AND SPACES is an exhibition by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), and it is being presented in Nicosia in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Zypern, and NiMAC [Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre, Associated with the Pierides Foundation].

NiMAC
19 Palias Ilektrikis
1016 Nicosia
Cyprus
https://nimac.org.cy/evrovizion-crossing-stories-and-spaces/

GUIDED TOUR AND OPENING

Sat, 11.11.2023
18:00 Guided tour
19:00 Opening

Artitst present: Lana Čmajčanin, Ivana Ivković, Adnan Softić, Maria Tsagkari, Kyriakos Theocharous and Nurtane Karagil

Curators present: Maria Efstathiou, Sabina Klemm, Sanja Kojić Mladenov and Ioli Tzanetaki

After the presentations at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Vojvodina in Serbia and the Goethe-Institut Athen in Greece, the exhibition is coming to its fourth station, NiMAC in Cyprus. The project has been expanded to include a new work by Greek Cypriot artist Kyriakos Theocharous and Turkish Cypriot artist Nurtane Karagil – curated by Maria Efstathiou. Further local expansion of the exhibition is also planned: Adnan Softić will for example develop new works in close cooperation with local actors.

Artists Lana Čmajčanin, Ivana Ivković, Adnan Softić, Maria Tsagkari, Kyriakos Theocharous and Nurtane Karagil will be present during the opening ceremony as well, where they will be available to discuss their work with the public. Exhibition curators Sabina Klemm, Sanja Kojić Mladenov and local curator Maria Efstathiou will guide visitors through the show.

Ioulita Toumazi, fellow of the Slavs and Tatars’ international residency programme, will co-curate the Pickle Bar performance, to be presented in Nicosia early in 2024. Both the residency-mentorship programme and the Pickle Bar installation by the artists’ collective are part of the EVROVIZION project. The integration of the Pickle Bar installation into the exhibition creates an open space for local dialogues. Before each exhibition opens, a young local professional (an artist, curator and/or researcher) is invited to participate in the Pickle Bar mentorship programme in Berlin. For two months, they are integrated into the artists’ studio and mentored in their personal projects – some of which may eventually be presented as part of EVROVIZION. Slavs and Tatars and ifa selected the young Greek Cypriot curator and researcher Ioulita Toumazi as a fellow of the 2023 Pickle Bar residency-mentorship programme.

Information on public events and guided tours will be announced soon.

Following the exhibition in Nicosia, a new issue of the EVROVIZION magazine will be published, thus enriching the “archive of the journey.” Co-edited by Evagoras Vanezis, EVROVIZION.CROSSING NICOSIA will be dedicated to the presentation of the ever-growing project in Nicosia and its impact on the city’s cultural identity.

Europe’s Last Divided City
Nicosia (Λευκωσία, Lefkosía, Lefkoşa, Λήδρα, Lēdra), the fourth host city for the EVROVIZION project, is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus and the last divided city in Europe. The rich and turbulent history of a city oscillating between the East and the West has left its mark on its architecture, where the city’s buildings become storytellers from the distant to the recent past. After almost a century of British colonial rule, the Republic of Cyprus was founded in 1960 and its official languages are Greek and Turkish.

Due to conflicts between the two main communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, the Green Line – a demarcation line that can be compared with the Berlin Wall – divided Nicosia as early as 1963 and lead to abandonment along it. Following a coup and invasion in 1974 the Buffer Zone, which runs across the middle of the island, divides Cyprus in two. The Turkish Cypriot community was displaced in the northern and the Greek Cypriot community in the southern part of the island respectively. The Buffer Zone, a hermetically closed line, made contact between the communities in Cyprus impossible, until the first checkpoint opening in 2003 in Nicosia. The opening of further checkpoints followed, all of which were temporarily closed during the covid pandemic, separating the communities once more.

A significant example of collaboration between the two communities is the Nicosia Master Plan, which started as early as 1977. With the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) the plan for a common sewage system was developed and materialized, making it the first honest and successful collaboration of the two communities aiming to develop the city of Nicosia as one.

On 1 May 2004 Cyprus became a full EU Member State. Despite Cyprus being a divided country, the entire island is EU territory thus allowing the implementation of EU funded projects on both sides of the divide. Nonetheless, the authorities of the northern part of the island are not internationally recognized.

At the Green Line, Nicosia © Wikimedia Commons

EXHIBITION
ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
Responsable:
Ellen Strittmatter
Organisation and Realisation:
Clea Laade, Sabina Klemm

PRESENTATION IN NICOSIA

Goethe-Institut Zypern
In charge of the project:
Dr. Gabriele Gauler
General coordination:
Natalie Stylianou

NiMAC
In charge of the project:
Maria Efstathiou
General coordinator:
Marika Ioannou

Curators:
Sabina Klemm, Sanja Kojić Mladenov
Local curator:
Maria Efstathiou
Local co-editor of the EVROVIZION.CROSSING NICOSIA magazine:
Evagoras Vanezis
Fellow of the Pickle Bar residency, local co-curator of the Pickle Bar performance:
Ioulita Toumazi
Local artists of the Pickle Bar performance:
To be announced
Artists participating in the exhibition in Nicosia:
Nevin Aladağ, Igor Bošnjak, Vajiko Chachkhiani, Lana Čmajčanin, Johanna Diehl, Petrit Halilaj, Ivana Ivković, Janine Jembere, Nurtane Karagil, Vladimir Miladinović, Henrike Naumann, Selma Selman, Emilija Škarnulytė, Slavs and Tatars, Adnan Softić, Kyriakos Theocharous, Maria Tsagkari
Technical team ifa:
Martin Edelmann, Manuel Reinartz, Carsten Tabel
Technical team NiMAC:
Charalambos Charalambous, Christakis Christodoulou, Eraklis Constantinou, Filios Filokyprou, Michalis Nicolaou

Texts:
Maria Efstathiou, Sabina Klemm, Sanja Kojić Mladenov, Clea Laade, Natalie Stylianou
Proofreading:
Nathan Bailey, Greg Bond, Jeanette Mohr, Natalie Stylianou
Video subtitles:
Simone Kinateder, André Werner
Graphic Design:
Heimann + Schwantes, Berlin
heimannundschwantes.de

Venue:
NiMAC
19 Palias Ilektrikis, 1016 Nicosia

Duration:
Saturday, November 11, 2023–Saturday, February 10, 2024

Visiting days and hours:
Tuesday–Saturday: 10:00–21:00
Closed: Sunday, Monday
Christmas holidays: December 24, 25, 26, and 31, 2023, and January 1 and 6, 2024

#Evrovizion