The first days here were very intense. We were exploring the last divided city in Europe by walking our feet off. It is crazy and bizarre to show your passport each time you want to cross the so called „green line“ – even if you just want to grab a coffee or sit down for lunch. We learned that during winter the turkish side is one hour ahead as Turkey is not switching between summer- and wintertime. We learned that both sides are responsible for the division even if they don’t tell you so. We learned that if you get a map on the greek side, the streets on the turkish side hold no name. And vice versa. And we learned that most of the houses are empty and decaying not because of the crisis, but because they were left behind by either Turkish or Greek Cypriots who had to leave them behind when the civil riots started back in the 1960/70s.

Even though the border between the two sides have been opened since the earlier 21st century, they are still far from being reunited. Most of the Turkish Cypriots are living on the turkish side, Greek Cypriots on the greek side. Each side (or at least let’s say: each governement) seems to have its own truth which does not match with the other one.

This is my perspective, so I don’t claim to tell you the whole story. I cannot do this. Nobody can, though. It is always our own perception that knits only a small fractions of pieces together in order to create a bigger story. Those stories will always be fragmented.

Hence the aim of our workshops: Step by step we try to create a new truth in this city, knowing that by defining different starting points we will end up with different stories. We started off by mapping different routes through the city center. We used filters (such as „coffee“, „sources of warmth“, „hanging“, etc.). You’ll find a collection of those routes below.