Two square feet

Take one railway, two theatres and six artists and an inter-active inter-disciplinary event is born

WITH the rocketing price of oil, citizens of Cyprus might rush to get a ride to work every morning if we still had a railway. In 1901, the Cyprus Government Railway was built and lasted until 1951. And now, courtesy of the ECHO ARTS Living Arts Centre in collaboration with other creative artists from Cyprus and from Theatre Alibi in UK it is being brought back to life as the setting for an inter-disciplinary performance piece, which will be performed in theatre spaces on both sides of the island. It’s all about the division of the island and how the railway tracks were something that brought us together.

The performance draws on image and metaphor as well as fragments of autobiographical narrative and focuses on the old Cyprus Government Railway. “The railway tracks are something that used to be common between these two communities,” explained Arianna Economou, choreographer, dancer and director of the project, “ and although the buffer zone now divides us, the tracks are still there and they are unbroken.” The railway ran across the whole island connecting Morphou in the west with Famagusta in the east, as well as many villages and towns in between. In Nicosia, the railway line played a predominant role. It both linked and divided the Turkish and Greek communities within the district of Kaimakli. “As part of our research we spoke to both Turkish and Greek Cypriots about their memories of the railway, their childhood and living in a mixed community before the division,” said Arianna.

Artists have achieved some success in uniting the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities but ‘One Square Foot Project’ is going even deeper. “We are trying to contribute to the evolution of peace and reconciliation between the people of the whole of Cyprus through engaging creative artists and performers on either side of the military border in a bi-communal, interdisciplinary project,” Arianna said. “If you think about it, you will realise that we live on the same island and whether you get honey from a bee who is in Kucuk Kaimakli or Omorfita Kaimakli, it is still the same bee and the same honey.”

The artists performing with Arianna are Serhat Selisik (sculptor and installation artisit), Horst Weierstall (installation artist and documenter), Dorinda Hulton (dramaturge), Peter Hulton (video artist and documenter) and Ilker Kaptanoglou (musician).

The performance will be held inside the theatres but as Arianna explained, the outside is brought inside. “We did a lot of research for this how and the only way to send a message out to the people is to bring with us what we saw and what we experienced,” said Arianna, “the events are site-specific.” The Outdoor event-performance, which is mainly recordings takes the form of a 40-minute walk along the old railway line during which small actions will take place near the old train station in Kaimakli, north of the dividing Green Line. The walk will end by marking the square foot close to the buffer zone, where the continuation of the railway line is visible and on a proximity line to the first square foot marked Saturday the 3rd of September, in the first site-specific event in Kaimakli.

Although the purpose of this performance is to evoke peace and at least bring together artists from both communities, Arianna and the rest of the group are hoping for more than just that. “We want to bring a greater awareness of the personal perspectives of those living on either side of the line, including those in exile but also we want to honour the memories of the living as well as those who have died or disappeared,” Arianna explained, “but another important feature is looking towards ways of understanding, healing and forgiving for the sake of the present and the future.”

l Performances will take place at the THOC Ayios Andreas Market Theatre on Tuesday and Wednesday at 8:30 and in the theatre space of Arabahmet Cultural Centre on Friday and Saturday, also beginning at 8:30. For further information call Argyro Toumazou: 99 317278

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.