Since landing in Cyprus, it has been all about verbs: listening, talking, absorbing, photographing, eating, some sleeping.
Christine speaking to Sophia.
Eser, Maria and Alana --- looking at the obituaries in a Turkish Cypriot paper.
My little contact with home has been via skype with my honey. While I usually debrief with Michael about most everything, digesting has not been on my personal Cyprus agenda (other than the haloumi and delicious meze).
I just took a moment to email my parents. My first attempt to synthesize my experience in an informal way. Though my email is not worth sharing with you all, my thoughtful mother, who happens to be a journalist, wrote me something worth discussing here.
re: MEDIA!
a smart run-on sentence from my Mama…
“We assume media is so commercialized, so politicized, Fox vs. MSNBC, that it cannot make a difference, but where there is conflict, just having access to another point of view can open up a whole new world.”
We being Americans, who typically hate our media.
This sentence distills some of the core issues relating to communication here in Cyprus. Access. If you live on the Greek side, unless you are a savvy cable genius (or have a huge antenna with a hot spot), your TV will not get channels from the Turkish side. And vice versa. Your local newsstand will also not carry the newspapers from across the border. Online of course, you can access media from the other side, but this requires the facilities. Younger generations on the Greek side, where we are housed, seem to have computers and internet, but we have explored the Turkish side minimally. I believe Alana mentioned that there are over seven newspapers on the Greek side. Some are in English, some are in Greek. I am not sure how many newspapers are on the Turkish side, but I assume it is comparable. I do know there is at least one English newspaper, potentially more. Remember the common language between the Greek and Turkish side is English. Lindsey who is working with the newspaper during the workshop, found very little about the “other side” in the newspapers (English ones). So far in our review of the newspapers Lindsey has collected, we found a Greek Cypriot paper that says “Turkey needs to be constructive”. The issue discussed in the article is the Kurdish settlers, who are moving to the Turkish Cyprus side from Turkey. This may be a post for another time….but my understanding is that Turkey treats the Kurdish communities poorly, but has incentives for them to move to Cyprus.
Lindsey making her spills on the newspaper
I’m getting off topic!
How often do you, whether American, Cypriot Greek or Cypriot Turkish read newspapers or watch media that does not represent your political voice?
This conversation turns hopeful, I promise. Working with these ten artists this week has been inspiring. The personal, political, a-political, physical dialogues have been grounding. Take Sharon’s project. She is creating a fictional narrative. The protagonist…Aunt Jemima! Aunt Jemima is hosting a pancake breakfast for the political and social leaders of Greek and Turkish Cyprus. “Just add water”. When political and historical jargon make conflict and peace so complicated that conversation is debilitating —- bringing it down to the most human factors is essential.
Sharon's public installation/workspace behind the hostel!
If you are in Cyprus, please join us tomorrow for the exhibition. For those of you who are other places, we will be sure to post images.
Until then,
Maya
