[spectre] Leaps of Faith project, Nicosia, Cyprus

[Andreas Broeckmann]

Leaps of Faith
An international arts project for the Green Line and the city of 
Nicosia, Cyprus.

13 - 29 May, 2005

Curated by Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova

Project partners: Kolektif Productions, Istanbul Foundation for Arts 
and Culture, Artists-and-Artists

<http://www.leaps-of-faith.com>http://www.leaps-of-faith.com






Leaps of Faith is an international exhibition and multi-disciplinary 
arts project that will be held in Cyprus in May 2005 and will mark 
the first time in 30 years that a part of the UN controlled Green 
Line (buffer zone) dividing the island is opened up for use in an 
international event.

The Theme of the Project
This project aims to animate and activate public spaces, buildings 
and sites in the divided city of Nicosia and the war-ravaged Green 
Line, partitioning the capital of Cyprus, through an international 
public arts event. The purpose of the project is to reinforce 
communication and exchange but also to encourage an alternative 
discourse which diverges from the political perspective that has been 
largely limited to the internal issues surrounding the perennial 
‘Cyprus Problem’. This means exploring the parameters of the island’s 
unique geographic position – being poised, as it is, between three 
continents, and situated within a region marked by ongoing political 
conflicts. At the same time, it aims to shift its attention to a host 
of existing socio-cultural issues and problems that have been 
marginalised as a result of the realpolitik such as gender and class 
issues, minority rights, the ill effects of tourism, de-regulated 
urban expansion, skewed notions of ‘development ’ and economic and 
sexual exploitation of immigrants. Rather than focusing solely on 
issues of opposition, division and closure the exhibition and its 
parallel events hope to focus on the possibilities for such 
‘openings’ – political and cultural – co-habitation, communication, 
and social change, as a way of imagining a peaceful and hopeful 
future for the island.

Venues
For more than 30 years, the UN controlled buffer zone, with its 
shelled out homes and shops left in ruins since the armed conflict in 
1974, has run through the heart of Nicosia, a visually dramatic and 
alarming reminder of the hostilities that split the island and 
prevented Cypriots from interacting with each other until April 2003. 
The exhibition will be held in the charged site of the so-called 
Green Line – in the abandoned buildings and on the street - and will 
spill into public spaces, buildings and venues on both sides of the 
divided city, thus calling into question the function of public space 
as well as of boundaries, visible and invisible, of the past and of 
the future.

Structure
Leaps of Faith will include a main exhibition organized by its 
curatorial team, which will feature 22 international and Cypriot 
artists whose work has conveyed an understanding of the notion of a 
contested territory, is engaged with a strong sense of social 
responsibility, operates site-specifically, and is in a position to 
be able to highlight the particular physiognomy of the city of 
Nicosia. The exhibition will be comprised of new, site specific 
works, which have been based on local research and communication.

A series of film screenings, lectures, artists workshops/talks and a 
conference have been planned to coincide with the exhibition. The 
artists’ workshops and talks are being organized by Noise of 
Coincidence, a Cypriot collaborative artists group. The film 
screenings will take place at the Weaving Mill in South Nicosia, the 
Goethe Institut in the UN buffer zone and Arabahmet Cultural Centre 
in North Nicosia.

A tri-lingual (English-Greek–Turkish) catalogue, designed by Cha Cha 
Cha Design, is being produced for the exhibition. It will include 
texts by the exhibition curators as well as by Rana Zincir (project 
initiator, political scientist/economist), John Nassari (artist and 
academic), Neshe Yasin (poet), and Maria Hadjipavlou (political 
scientist, lecturer at the University of Cyprus)

Participating artists in exhibition:
ARTLAB (Great Britain), KATERINA ATTALIDES (Cyprus), MARC BIJL 
(Netherlands), CALL#192 (Cyprus), HUSSEIN CHALAYAN (Cyprus), PHIL 
COLLINS (Great Britain), MINERVA CUEVAS (Mexico), KENDELL GEERS 
(South Africa), SEJLA KAMERIC (Bosnia), SERAP KANAY (Cyprus), SIGALIT 
LANDAU (Israel), PANAYOTIS MICHAEL (Cyprus), DAN PERJOVSCHI 
(Romania), SUSAN PHILIPSZ (Great Britain), PLATFORMA 9,81 (Croatia), 
MINNA RAINIO & MARK ROBERTS (Finland), AKRAM ZAATARI (Lebanon)

Participating artists in film/video screenings and presentations:
ARTISTS WITHOUT WALLS (Israel/Palestine), LONNIE VAN BRUMMELEN (The 
Netherlands), MARINE HUGONNIER (France), DAVID MASSEY (Israel), 
ANGELA MELITOPOULOS (Germany), KATARINA REJGER & ERIC VAN DEN BROEK 
(Netherlands) HITO STEYERL (Germany), ZELIMIR ZILNIK (Serbia)

Artists/groups participating with parallel projects:
DEEP, EMAA Group, Maria Anaxagora, Emin Çizenel, Inci Kansu, Ismet 
Tatar, Katerina, Neophytidou, Mehmet Yashin, Neshe Yashin, Nilgün 
Güney, Pembe Gaziler, Phanos Kyriacou, Rüya Resat, Sophia Kakoulli & 
Chara Savvidou & Constantinos Evangelides, Vicky Pericleous, 
Dr.Yiannis Papadakis, Zehra Sonya & Nicholas Panayi, Hourig 
Torossian, Horst Weierstall, The 242 Art Group, Mustafa Hulusi, 2/2n 
(Skevi Afantites, Hein van Dam, Jessica Goes, Meric Kara, Christos 
Kyriakides Alexis Marinis, Matalou at home, Jorge Moitas, Daniella Pais, 
Yiorgos Tsaggari, Zenios Tselepis – U4EA, Ayca Tuyluoglu, Kyriaki 
Costa Hadjipierri, Carolien Vlieger), Serhat Selisik, Anil Ozgurun, 
Anber Onar

Sponsors
Leaps of Faith is supported by the Open Society Institute, the 
European Cultural Foundation, the Chrest Foundation, the United 
Nations Bi-communal Development Programme, which is funded by UNDP 
and USAID, and executed by UNOPS.

Additional support has been received by the Mondriaan Foundation, 
FRAME (The Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), the British Council, 
Technical Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK), The Royal Netherlands Embassy, 
Cyprus Mail, Yeni Düzen and ‘Politis’ newspapers, Vakiflar Bank, 
Goethe-Zentrum Nicosia and the Pharos Trust.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus is 
giving support to parallel events organized by Greek Cypriot artists 
groups.

Contact
For more information: Rana Zincir, Project Initiator. E: 
rzincir at yahoo.com T: +90 533 734 5886
For press material/images: Göknur Gündogan, Kolektif Productions, 
Project Assistant
E: pr at ifistanbul.com T: +90 212 243 7433
Exhibition opening times: daily 11 am – 8pm




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