1 neighbourhood: 101 villages. Strovolos III estate

18 May 2018. An afternoon Festival

Workshops, Exhibits, Screenings, Performances, Discussions and Music

From 2pm until late. Paligenesias Square.

Artecitya, Artos Foundation &

Fine Art programme, Department of Design and Multimedia, University of Nicosia

2018 was the European year of cultural heritage and the 18^th of May is celebrated internationally as ‘Museum Day’. We invited people think of our city, it’s built environment and its people as an integral part of our everyday community living heritage and these urban cultures in relation to the neighbourhoods of the displaced housing estates as living monuments.

These neighbourhoods were constructed hurriedly between the years of 1976 to 2000 and they form the primary example of communitarian architectural environments (of common living) on the island. In the period of 1975-86 12,500 families found what was meant to be ‘temporary’ housing in such neighbourhoods and to date the state has constructed more than 14,000 housing units, which accommodate approximately 60,000 people across the island. There are around 70 state housing estates on the island, which include low rise blocks of flats and homes and these were comprehensively planned to include basic services such as shopping centres, community centres, open spaces, schools, play-grounds and medical facilities. A 45% of the land used was dedicated by the urban planners to courtyards, communal gardens and green spaces, to accommodate the re-housing of a rural population that rapidly shifted to urbanised. Indicative that in Strovolos III neighbourhood- estate there are people registered from 101 villages.

Today in these specific built environments the majority of the inhabitants are elderly, the newer influx of residents are migrants, the edible gardens are often overgrown [or turned into parking spaces] and the open areas are largely empty and deteriorating. Even though largely ignored or forgotten, these constructed neighbourhoods house people’s families, pets and plants together with their memories, their stories and their knowledge, which are still very much alive and shape an invaluable aspect of how we understand our recent past. Residents, students, young people, artists and examples from other social housing art projects from London and the US come into conversation at the festival. Through this encounter we aim for a process of intergenerational and intercultural exchange and to consider how late twentieth century socio-political narratives are reflected in the constructed communities of social housing programmes and become part of our intangible cultural heritage.

The festival will activate the central common area of Strovolos III, Palligenesias Square together with the residents of the neighbourhood.

Programme

Murals and Public Space installations

Stelios Tzivas: Allospos Project

Leonidas Constantinou, Bugche Bozkurt, Stavroula Tsamourlidou; Lakis Christofidis; Chimezuteh Atemiye; Kayleigh de Sousa; Evangelia Mela.

Different shops of the square will host exhibits by:

University of Nicosia Fine Art students

Pancyprian Gymnasium students- Antigoni Sofokleous

3^rd Primary School of Pallouriotissa- Despo Pasia, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation

Antonis Hadjikyriacou, Digitised Kitchener Map, Sylvia Ioannou Foundation

Different shops of the square will host screenings by:

Xarkis: Voicing Stories, Videos

Taking over the King’s Land, Producer director Gillian McIver, Film (London)

Civic Art: Four Stories from South Los Angeles, Mark Escribano and Sara Daleiden, s(o)ul, 2017 (Los Angeles)

Adi Atassi: An Interview. Filmed by Polymnia Tsinti for Waves Arts and Culture Journal, 2018 (Cyprus)