Critical Archaeologies

Critical Archaeologies, a set on Flickr.

Critical Archaeologies in local newspapers

Local newspapers, Politis and Phileleftheros presented the workshop activities on Sunday's issues, documenting the visits in the UN Buffer Zone.

Critical Archaeologies #6 - Screenings and Lectures

During the days of the workshop, Nicosia Municipal Arts Centre (NIMAC), in the centre of Nicosia, will be the main meting point and working place for the organizers and the participants.In the last day the centre will be hosting the closing event of the workshop: Invited lectures along the workshop theme, screenings on 1970s Famagusta and an open discussion between the participants will take place, zcelebrate the closure of Suspended Spaces Project.

Critical Archaeologies #5 - Walks along the Green Line

Nicosia’s Green Line was established after the first inter communal troubles in 1963. As the political negotiations continue the search for a permanent solution of what has come to be known as the Cypriot problem; the Green Line, lies in the heart of the city in a suspended state: visible and invisible, forgotten and monumentalized. The workshop will organize two mirror walks along the two sides of the Green Line following the most apparent cut/section of Nicosia’s everyday life and recent past.

Critical Archaeologies #4 - Multiple Presents

Besides the obvious division of the city that has shaped its identity in the last decades, Nicosia centre has also been the site of intense migration. In the background of the city’s multicultural past; current inhabitants share multiple but unstable presents. In search of Nicosia’s realities, the workshop will visit KISA the Action and the Migration and Refugee Centre. KISA is a non-governmental organisation (NGO), established in 1998, as a result of the concern about the conditions of entry, stay and employment of migrants, the lack of a comprehensive migration policy and the ever-growing incidents of xenophobia, discrimination and racism in Cyprus.

Critical Archaeologies #3 - A Space on Hold

The workshop’s third destination - a case of suspended space par excellence- is the site of the old Airport of Nicosia, which was built in the 1950s. After 1960s independence the Airport became the main gate to the world, for the newly found state. Today, as another case of ruined and neglected site lying in the UN controlled area, the Airport is loaded with memory and it can be seen as a sign of unfulfilled utopian visions of 1960-70s internationalism, nation building and modernization. In this context, it has been the focus of recent and older theoretical researches and documentation projects which are also discussing its future role. Walking around its vast open spaces and next to the modernist buildings and structures, the visit will highlight the airport’s ‘openness’ in order to rethink the current and future role of this and other suspended spaces inside the city.

Critical Archaeologies #2 - Temporary Occupation

The workshop’s second destination is the Ledra Palace Hotel, built in 1950s, which lies on the main crossing point of the UN buffer zone. Since 1974 it has become an emblematic case of temporary occupation, that transformed it from a luxury hotel - symbol of tourist development and a meeting space for the local society in the 60s and 70s, into the headquarters of UNFICYP and residence for UN military personnel as well as a meeting ground for Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, political negotiations, bi communal talks and discussions. The visit inside the reused building and its facilities will turn into an exploration of the current form of this particular suspended space.

Critical Archaeologies #1 - Modern Ruin

The modernist house of the Cypriot architect Polyvios Michaelides (1907-1960) constructed in 1960, is the workshop’s first destination. Walking along the UN military paths inside the Buffer zone; the house -a case of modern ruin- will become a goal and a means to enter the suspended condition of Nicosia’s Dead Zone. The experience of an abandoned domestic space together with a short exhibition of the house’s original plans and photographs will also provide the first scene to begin contemplating on archaeology of modernism in Cyprus.

Critical Archaeologies - Concept

Nicosia is the city symbolizing Cyprus’ division and the city associated with the efforts to overcome it: through political meetings and negotiations; the creation of a ‘unified’ Master Plan for the city; the opening of the main pedestrian street called Ledras, and other crossing points that connect the divided parts. Beyond the obvious division of the city centre, migration has also shaped the city into a place where different cultures and people live and meet. Nicosia is eventually a place where new projects and futures are launched.

“Critical Archaeologies” workshop, in the context of Suspended Spaces project, traces the ‘suspended condition’ of the city through a series of visits and walks in the centre of Nicosia and the UN-controlled area of the dividing zone. These visits take the form of cuts/sections inside the city’s past and present, adopting the approach of critical archaeology that goes beyond the interpretation and aestheticization of the past, into a speculation of the future.

In order to resist the underlying danger of aestheticizing post-conflict places, the workshop insists in a positive reading of ‘suspended spaces’. In this manner the suspended condition, is understood as a case of ‘fertile delay’ in order to imagine a future based on multiplicity, complexity and openness, rendering Nicosia and Cyprus an experimental ground for politics, art and architecture.