The healing is on the wall

This year marks 20 years since the establishment of the Bank of Cyprus On-cology Centre in Nicosia. To celebrate this fact, the Bank of Cyprus in collabo-ration with the non-profit organisation Alternative Brains Rule (ABR), has creat-ed an artistic project within the centre entitled The Wall Gallery.

Alternative Brains Rule was commissioned to research and create a project that would help make the visit to the treatment centre more enjoyable. This is now made possible with the creation of The Wall Gallery, which has turned the outside walls of the centre into artistic creations.

Through research and surveys, ABR discovered that hospitals around the world are turning to art as part of a wider effort to create a healing environment. Art helps patients and people who visit these kinds of institutions express their thoughts better and also helps them deal with their feelings and stress. With this in mind, The Wall Gallery was created to transform the outside of the centre into a permanent artistic dialogue between artists, patients and visitors, and passersby. This project also aims to raise awareness about cancer and the operation of the centre.

Speaking about this project, the centre’s director Panos Erktoudis said “the whole initiative for this project came from the centre’s nurses when the notion to create a beautiful and relaxing view for inpatients who stay here for treat-ment came up. Now patients will see the beautiful creations of Cypriot and foreign photographers, with a change in themes every three months.”

The Wall Gallery displays works by established and emerging artists that meet the standards set by the study for a healing environment. The first artist whose work is now decorating the gallery is photographer Silvio Augusto Rusmigo, who has managed to capture our landscape in his own unique way.

The next time you pass by the centre, stop for a few seconds and take a look at these huge photographs that were taken to help the healing process.

The Wall Gallery
Photography displayed on the outside walls of the Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre, Acropoleos Avenue 32, Strovolos, Nicosia. Tel: 22-847300

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.