Voicing the Line
VOICING THE LINE
performance intervention
in collaboration with Oya Akin
"Stepping over the Borders", Exhibition & Residency
10-20 March 2015, part of "Confrontation through Art" project
Organized by EMAA & Rooftop Theatre. Curated by Basak Senova and Alenka Gregoric
Nicosia - Cyprus
17 March 2015
Duration: 1 hour
Materials
Artists' bodies, buffer zone.
Description of action
Christina and Oya are walking along the buffer zone within the Venetian walls of Nicosia, from the East to the to the West and back to the East, while shouting each other's names. Christina, the Greek-Cypriot is walking at the South part of the buffer zone and Oya, the Turkish-Cypriot is walking at the North part of the buffer zone. Sometimes they can hear or even see each other, and sometimes it is not even possible to know if they are close to each other due to the thickness of the Green Line.
Documentation
Photography: Marinos Houtris, Oliviu Anton
"Working with Christina Georgiou during her project, has made an enormous impact on me and my perception of the border. Until then the border was something I preferred not to look at, see, something I crossed, walked through as soon as, as quick as possible...Walking the Nicosia border with her on both "sides" of the dividing wall, calling out each other's names, listening for our own and trying to be heard by "the other", made me see the border for what it is...a pathetic sad pile of rubble that is by no means neither thick not strong enough to separate us...Made me notice once again that the real enemies are the borders we build within ourselves and between us with others...I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to watch Christina's works and even more privileged to have worked with her in a couple of them."
~ Oya Akin