By Tania Khadder
IF ARTISTS from both sides of the island can reach past checkpoints to work together peacefully and productively, why can’t the rest of Cyprus do the same?
This is the question that ‘Artists and Artists’, a bicommunal group of 15 painters, musicians and sculptors, posed to the world in opening its first exhibition last week at the Hilton Hotel in Nicosia.
The two-day exhibition was set to coincide with Kofi Annan’s visit, and was a tribute to his efforts to reunify the island.
“We put this show together in his honour, because we are grateful for the chance he is giving us,” 36-year-old Ruzen Atakan, a Turkish Cypriot painter from occupied Nicosia, and core member of the group, told the Sunday Mail.
“We wanted to show him the way things were from our perspective, and for him to see that we care about making changes.”
Each piece on display was unique in style and character, but all were created in the spirit of peace, some clearly depicting hope for reunification.
Katerina Attalides, a Greek Cypriot member of the team who was present at the opening of the exhibition, said Annan had spent some time looking around and seemed to take a sincere interest in the artwork.
“He was asking me about my painting and what it meant, and I told him that it was about being stuck on one side and not being able to see over to the other side,” she said.
Last week’s exhibition may have been the first time Artists and Artists has organised its work for the public under such a title, but members of the group began working together three years ago in Sweden.
In 2000, the United Nations organised a workshop for Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot artists to meet in Gotland, at the end of which they held a showing of their work. Since then, they have remained in close contact through email and the occasional meeting in Pyla.
“We decided to stay in touch to share ideas and mutual exchange. When the Annan plan emerged, it was a good time for us to put our heads together to do something,” Atakan said.
For many of them, the meeting in Sweden was the first time they had encountered the strangers from the other side.
“When we first arrived, we looked at each other and felt distant. We knew nothing except the bad things we had heard, and I think it was strange for all of us,” Atakan said. “But within two days we were working together, living together, drinking and eating together. We were enjoying each other and felt that we were not different at all.
“That is the problem in Cyprus. The two sides have no contact. We know nothing of one another, so how can we co-operate? We don’t even realise our similarities.
“This group of artists … had never met before. And yet we realised through our work that we were expressing many of the same feelings and the same ideas. We were the same on the inside. We are living on the same island, and it makes sense that we are the same. If only everyone else could see that.”
“Both sides exaggerate everything,” Asik Mene, a 48-year-old Turkish Cypriot painter, added. “Children are given the wrong ideas about the other community.”
The message the members of Artists and Artists are working to portray to the rest of the island is that co-operation is possible.
“It is very important to us that we succeeded in our exhibition at the Hilton,” Mene said. “If artists can succeed in working together under such problematic conditions, so can other parts of the community.
“The Hilton exhibition was just a first step towards something bigger. If artists can do it, maybe businessmen and politicians will start,” Attalides said.
But all of the artists who spoke to the Sunday Mail were clear about the limited ability of art to change people’s way of thinking.
“It takes more than just art to change things; art is only a part of the elements that cause change,” Attalides said.
“Art cannot do anything on its own, but it can work as a catalyst to make people understand the each other and to make people think about the essence of humanity,” Mene added.
They also agreed that accepting the Annan plan was a necessary step toward peace.
“This is a good chance for all of us, and we hope we won’t miss it,” Atakan said.
“It is not a matter of saying ‘this is my land’ or ‘that is my mountain’, it’s a matter of us all being able to share things,” Attalides said. “I want to be able to share my experience on the island with them (Turkish Cypriots) as much as I would with anyone.”
“There have been lots of tragedies for both sides, but now we need to forget the past and think about the future, and that it is worth it to try to live in peace,” Mene said.
Opinions varied, however, as to whether or not the people would vote ‘yes’ on a referendum if given the chance to do so.
“I really don’t know how people will vote. I know some that are completely against it, and others that are completely for it,” Attalides said about the Greek Cypriots.
“I know people want it on this side,” Atakan said. “Every week, Turkish Cypriots are meeting, lighting fires in the spirit of peace and talking about the plan. We are only thinking about this.”
The group plans to continue working together for future projects, and has even opened up doors for artists to work together from both sides in projects independent of Artists and Artists. Mene and Atakan said they were trying to plan a project to raise awareness for five-year-old Jale Sakaoglu, the Turkish Cypriot girl who needs an urgent bone-marrow transplant. And in Istanbul this summer, Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot artists are planning to hold an exhibition on the initiative of Turkish Cypriots in Turkey.
For now, Artists and Artists manages to work together with barriers still between them. Paintings cross the checkpoint while the artists are left behind, and email is a lifeline.
Members of the group expressed hope that political changes would allow them to work together under more favourable conditions. They want the freedom to explore their fellow Cypriots, and perhaps even more important to them, their fellow artists.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
