Perceiving Academy II Cyprus Edition with Eric Ellingsen

Peace Bread image by Lynn Peemoeller

The occupation and division of the island nation Cyprus is a context to explore transnational themes of division, unity, identity, and urbanism. Working with participants over the course of two weeks, and using wheat, flour, bread, and dough as a metaphor for life and as a common material, we explore contemporary attitudes about the divided city and the nation of Cyprus from a diverse set of representatives in both the occupied (Turkish) north and the south. In this work, exploring the historic role of wheat and bread, a spatial narrative was generated from actions moving around the island collectively learning and gathering stories from participants that reveals paths of identity which are not necessarily defined by political lines but rather woven together in time and space, built into a shared landscape. The final event staged in a public space adjacent to the politicized dividing line, the “Green Zone,” utilized, “unified” dough made with gathered materials from both sides of the Island to materialize participant led objects of physical and personal significance imagined from the course of our activities which was transformed into bread objects. Funded by E.K.A.TE Cyprus.