Stitching The Buffer Zone Book

Stitching the Buffer Zone Landscapes, Sounds and Trans_Experiences along the Cyprus Green Line

Anna Grichting Solder Maria Costi de Castrillo Stephanie Keszi - Georgia Frangoudi

STITCHING THE BUFFER ZONE: Landscapes, Sounds and Trans_Experiences along the Cyprus Green Line PGS. 9-67 © Anna Grichting Solder 2012 PGS. 68-145 © Maria Costi de Castrillo, 2012 PGS. 146-191 © Stephanie Keszi - Georgia Frangoudi, 2012 For more information: stitchingthebufferzone@gmail.com

First Edition 2012 ISBN: 978-9963-9899-4-2 Designed by Kyriaki Sofocleous Translated by Michael Hill & Kimon Matara Printed by Cassoulides Masterprinters Ltd

48 Constantinou Palaiologou str., 1015 P.O. Box 22831, 1524 Nicosia, Cyprus +357 22347797 +357 22495604 www.abookwormpublication.com

Within the framework of the Cyprus presidency of the Council of the European Union the ARTos foundation organized an exhibition entitled “Does Europe exist?”, which took place between 1-15 November 2012. This exhibition posed the question, among others, in how far Europe as an entity exists within it’s “geographical”, among others, space.

The exhibition “Does Europe exist?” primarily highlights, challenges and proposes actions that aim towards the self-awareness of Europe, criticism towards the blazing Middle East, reflections of the small but important Cyprus as Europe’s outpost in the southeastern Mediterranean. Art does no longer concern us as a system, or as a production, but as a raison d’être and a voice that must position itself in substance.

“STITCHING THE BUFFER ZONE: Landscapes, Sounds and Trans_Experiences along the Cyprus Green Line” was part of the exhibition “Does Europe exist?”.

Contents

From a deep wound to a beautiful scar.................... 9 The Cyprus GreenLinescapes Laboratory Anna Grichting Solder 1. Third Landscapes and Healing Ecologies.....................................12 2. Palimpsests. (Re)Activating Layers of Landscapes......................32 3. Co-Creating Ecological Landscapes of Memory............................48

The Stitches- Connecting the two Nicosias again.... 69 School for construction of Traditional Musical Instruments Maria Costi de Castrillo 1. Experiencing the Dead Ends......................................................72 2. Searching History’s Threads.....................................................76 3. Observation: The Silent Monument.............................................90 4. Observation: Climbing the Peaks..............................................102 5. Stitching the “Two Nicosias”...................................................110 6. Recreating the Threads...........................................................120 7. The Stitch – School for the Construction of Traditional Musical Instruments..........................................128

trans_experiences.................................................... 147 In the Buffer Zone of Nicosia Stephanie Keszi - Georgia Frangoudi 1. De-Limiting.............................................................................150 2. Nicosia: The Boundary, the Space and the Meaning of the Place..................................................160 3. In-Statements.........................................................................166 4. Trans_Experiences..................................................................176

From a deep wound to a beautiful scar The Cyprus GreenLinescapes Laboratory Anna Grichting Solder

Contents

1. Third Landscapes and Healing Ecologies.................... 12 This project is conceived around the conceptual framework of Third Landscapes (Gilles Clement) and seeks to initiate healing ecologies in the Cyprus Buffer Zone, a physical and psychological wound that fragments landscapes and divides societies. The forces of Nature have engendered a process of cicatrisation which reveals a new ecological and restorative potential, suggesting an opportunity to create a beautiful scar that will turn the marks of pain into visible manifestations of a landscape of healing.

2. Palimpsests. (Re)Activating Layers of Landscapes...... 32 The interstitial spaces of conflict offer opportunities to reweave coherent relationships between disrupted networks, fabrics, ecologies and societies and to intervene with imaginative and far-sighted projects that are compatible with the genus loci - the genetic code or spirit of the place. Through a strategic exploration of the Green Line we can seek ways to reweave the distant and recent past into the future urban landscape and reveal the multiple layers rather than negate the past.

3. Co-Creating Ecological Landscapes of Memory............ 48 The process of co-creation is a process of healing, and the result can be a beautiful scar. Engaging civil society to co-create the new landscapes of the green line and engaging them in the process is an important step towards its realization. The Cyprus GreenLineScapes Laboratory invites actors and stakeholders across the dividing line to partake in the visioning of the future landscape in an interactive and participative platform that connects people, projects, and sites across and within the Buffer Zone.

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Summary

It is not really a line, not very visible, and not often Green. Between two frozen fronts that will not clear the storm, it forms an interstice of land that encapsulates much pain, weaving through landscapes of copper, sand, sea, and stone - crossing cities, roads, rivers, fields, orchards, plains and mountains. It is a landscape of memory in becoming, a necklace of archaeologies, a river of hope, a ribbon of fertile flora, a haven of mice and moufflon. A chasm of traumas, it will flourish into a beautiful scar, a peaceful paradise, an Eden of ecological wonders where the lemons will become less bitter and Aphrodite will converse with Venus, Mary and Umm Haram in a joyful song of Angels.

The project and research reflects on how the Cyprus Buffer Zone might be transformed from a military dividing line into a memorial landscape of cultural and biological diversity, and this through a process that brings together the communities on both sides in a common vision for a peaceful and sustainable future. The work is divided into three parts, articulated through three conceptual approaches that are presented with three artistic mediums - a movie, models, and maps.

1. Third Landscapes and Healing Ecologies 2. Palimpsests. (Re)Activating Layers of Landscapes 3. Co-creating Ecological Landscapes of Memory

11

1.

12

Third Landscapes and Healing Ecologies

“At its maximum of defiance, the frontier doubles itself inevitably into two lines, each turned toward the exterior, but which must also protect the interior against the threat not only of the other but also of this intermediary interstitial region, the noman’s land, this geographical expression of misunderstanding, of rift, at first a corridor of death, desolation, and barbed wire, but which can sometimes soften and become the very image of the crossing of frontiers when that finally begins to occur.�

Michel Butor

13

Borders and Scars of History “Borders are the scars of history� declared Robert Schuman, one of the founders of the European Union. Throughout history, geopolitical contour lines have materialized and dematerialized across the globe, defining empires and ideological blocs, separating warring nations, hindering mobility or preventing invasions.

What links these chronologically distinct territorial scars is that they all eventually became obsolete, and that they have a common typological element - the patrol path. Hadrian’s Wall, the Great Wall of China and the Iron Curtain have become landscapes of cultural and natural tourism that include nature trails, archaeological and conflict heritage sites and seasonal programming, articulated along the backbone of the former patrol path.

Locked between competing geopolitical agendas and social narratives, the Cyprus Green Line continues to be a physical and psychological wound that fragments landscapes and divides societies. Albeit, the forces of Nature have engendered a process of cicatrization which reveals a new ecological and restorative potential, suggesting an opportunity to create a beautiful scar that will turn the marks of pain into the visible manifestations of a landscape of healing.

The protected and confined nature of the buffer zone, has progressively been reclaimed and restored by Nature, like cracks in a pavement that are colonized by spontaneous vegetation. Nature as a healing mechanism suggests the cicatrization of 14

Korea Demilitarized Zone

Berlin Wall - Iron Curtain

Cyprus Buffer Zone 15

the boundary and the creation or formation of a scar. This leads us to a question that is central to this research: that of the memory of the dividing line, the inscription or erasure of the trace, the attitude to both the past and to recent history. Our interest lies principally in the territory, in the space of the boundary, in overcoming the rift, and not so much in the boundary as a wall or object.

In “Afterwards”, Quim Rossel traces the potential of obsolete and degraded military and industrial territories to embrace new uses. He explores the opportunities for reprogramming, rehabilitating, and restoring the dereliction and disorder of these sites, positioning this work as it addresses ecological and responsibilities towards collective memory. In this process of reconstructing the physical and the mental geographies of the site, Rossel suggests reweaving each of the moments that the past or the history of the location configures rather than revealing them out of a sense of nostalgia. The operation of reweaving calls for a “strategic exploration of the landscape,” accomplished by employing the techniques of archeologists, which consists in “uncovering the points adjacent to the discovery of a find,” the aim being to detect all the areas affected by a war, conflict, or disaster. Rossel refers to this archeological exploration as “scanning the scars of the conflict.”

16

Wild vegetation in the Venetian Walls of Nicosia.

Everywhere the fabric of interstitial spaces offers the chance to redress coherent relationships between cities and their metropolitan areas, between urban centre and outer city areas. To seize this opportunity and avoid far worse disasters, it is essential to intervene with highly imaginative projects, but ones that are carefully calculated, farsighted, but very specific: in the sense that it is possible to design a place very positively only along trajectories compatible with its genetic code. A knowledge of the genetic codes and the scientific understanding of the potential and limits which they confer on the urban phenomena that have generated them is the most reliable frame of reference to avoid what has happened in Berlin, where the period while the Wall stood was marked by an attempt on either side to create contrasting architectural symbols sufficiently weighty to demonstrate the superiority of the respective regimes; while now, as if the city ought to conceal all the signs of its tragic history, there’s a commitment to fill in the gaps created by the division, with immense profits but dubious urban territorial advantages.�

Giancarlo de Carlo

17

Traces and Walls What traces remain of the great walls of history? Throughout history, immense linear defensive infrastructures have been constructed at the edges of empires and nations. In many cases, traces of these linear megastructures still remain imprinted on the territories of these former borderlands.

One of the most salient examples is the Great Wall of China, built by a succession of dynasties over 2000 years, extended for as much as 6000 kilometers; its. remains are said to be still visible from the moon.

Hadrian’s Wall, begun in A.D. 122 and lasting four centuries, stretched for 119 kilometers from East to West across one of the narrowest points of Great Britain - part of a larger system of limes marking the limits of the Roman Empire. Offa’s Dyke, built by King Offa between England and Wales, is one of the better known and documented segments of a ditch-and-bank structure, created in Europe by powerful rulers in the eighth and ninth centuries. The Iron Curtain, and its most famous segment, the Berlin Wall, divided Europe and the World into two blocks from 1961 to 1989. An article published by the Reuters news agency in 2007, lists a number of physical barriers being constructed or planned around the world today, which would “dwarf the late, unlamented Iron Curtain.” Security and immigration control are the main reasons used to justify their construction, but as the article points out, they are also political statements and “translate territorial claims into concrete facts on the ground..” The list includes walls in or around the cities of Baghdad, Tijuana, and Jerusalem, barriers 18

Mapping of Territorial Barriers. In White -Historical Walls. In Orange - Existing Walls or in construction

Oh, rain, erase these frontiers for us, wash our continents of these stripes inflicted in honeyed tones by the diplomatic whip of amiable madmen during interminable discussions in pavilions with pendants and marquetry; carry us away in your immense babble, in your tranquil canter toward those other frontiers which do not correspond to any line traced on a map, guarded by no army, marked by no placards, in those regions where the contours of knowledge rush down in cataracts, into abysses which make them blaze up. Frontiers, give us your rain! Oh, rains of the frontiers, wash away our partitions and our wounds; sweep us away to the other side of the frontiers of the rain, lash our sluggishness and dissolve us in the delights of germinating and vaporizing, filtering with emotion through all the walls of our bodies and of the hours.

Michel Butor 19

The StitchesConnecting the two Nicosias again.

School for construction of Traditional Musical Instruments Maria Costi de Castrillo

Contents Summary................................................................ 71 1. Experiencing the Dead ends........................ 72 2. Searching History’s Threads....................... 76 3. OBSERVATION: The Silent Monument............. 90 4. OBSERVATION: climbing the peaks............... 102 5. Stitching the “TWO Nicosias”...................... 110 6. Sound in Urban Context............................. 120 7. The Stitch – School for the Construction of Traditional Musical Instruments....... 128

70

eLIZabeth! eLIZabeth!

Summary Experiencing the Dead ends of the City leads to frustration. In order for the citizen to be able to experience the city as a whole and to surpass the prohibition and create a common experience with the ‘others’ he must use spacial tools.

First tool is searching the threads of the city through History.

Second tool is OBSERVATION: a. through examining the Dead Zone as the Silent Monument that is carved by the noise of the city surrounding it, b. by climbing up to the peaks of the city and recreating the broken threads with the mind – surpassing the prohibition visually. c. Searching for the actors and the observers, the sounders and the listeners in the city. Who are we and who are the ‘others’?

Third tool is recreating the threads that where cut off and stitching the “two Nicosias” together again.

This project proposes one possible stitch for connecting the “two Nicosias” again. This stitch uses as its main tool Sound in Urban context.

At the same time it is an invitation and a challenge for others to propose their functional stitches thus promoting common experience in a pluralistic way on this dead of function zone.

hopefully Musical Architecture pRoduce a new sense of locaTion for thInking aNd

becoMes A diffeRent place That was always In the air for someone to Notice

like silence.

The arts are not isolated,

froM one another bUt engaged in dialogue thiS understandIing will introduCe

of spAcial phenomenoN, however each art can Do

An otheR Cannot it Has been

predIctable therefore, thaT nEw musiC will be answered by The new architectUre – woRk we have not yet seEn

only heard.

John Cage 71

1.

EXPERIENCING THE DEAD ENDS of the city Urban Gap–Gap of Common Experience.

72

Imagine that…

Imagine you wake up one day and all has changed as if in a mirror, instead of your right hand being your right hand, it will be your left, and instead of hearing better from one ear you’ll unconsciously turn the other ear in order to listen. You will continue to write with your right hand only now it will be your left and it will be totally normal, physically speaking. You might not even notice the difference.

Now let’s imagine that on all the “dead line” and occupying all the height from the earth to the sky we raise a mirror, gigantic- exopragmatique.

For so many years we believed that Pendadaktilos was occupied. Our Pendadaktilos, our mountain, that stands as an eternal background of our lost land. It wasn’t like that though. For so many years it was behind us, a backround to our own scenery, we walked on it, we related to it, we ate there. These so many years it was ours and we thought we couldn’t approach it. The only thing we had to do was look behind us.

Then who are the ‘others’? What is there on the other side? We stared and stared at the mirror. But in vain. We could only see ourselves. It was impossible for the sight to pass this double mirror, the one turned towards us and the other towards the others.

It took us a long time to discover the existence of the mirror.

The mirror existed there for quite a while and due to the fact that they didn’t take much care of it, there came a moment when it had cracked at many points and it was quite easy to tear down only with a few pushes.

How weird! We were pushing our own selves, trying to see who would fall first. It fell easily rising infinite dust. It was the kind of glass that shreds when broken. For many days we walked blinded by the dust that had entered the eyes. They hurt, got all red and would tear. Everything was blurry around. Was it really worth tearing down the mirror? But how could we go on living without knowing what is on the other side?

When our eyes finally managed to see clearly, we wondered if they had found the time during the days we couldn’t see to put up another mirror. Pendadaktilos is in front of us once again, while we and “the others” remain the same.

Maria Costi de Castrillo

73

One may first approach the research of Nicosia within the walls by searching for the connections of the divided city. By doing this he notices that while walking in Nicosia (a medieval town that can only be experienced by walking through it) is how often you come across dead ends.

This Urban Gap causes frustration to the citizen

This situation creates discomfort. A citizen who lives in a city wants to experience it, to understand it. Thus, these dead ends can cause two distinct reactions: 1. Completely ignoring their existence while pursuing experiences in different parts of the city.

HE CANNOT PHYSICALLY EXPERIENCE THE CITY AS A WHOLE

2. Overcoming the discomfort by rising above the prohibition and discovering new tools to find connections by which to experience the city as a whole.

The first tool is history. By looking back, one can discover how this city was born, the development of the axes and movements within it and how it arrived to its current situation.

Climbing the peaks of the city to OBSERVE how the city WAS connected

Trying to recreate the city’s threads using sound to surpass the prohibition

Two possible solutions: 1. Move away from the dead ends.

2. Climb the peaks of the city to observe.

The goal is for the citizen to experience his city as a whole.

74

Nicosia – the last divided capital of Europe.

The Buffer Zone creates an ‘Urban Gap’ but also a gap in the memory of the city.

Intervention on Nicosia Master Plan Map (1981) recording of the Buffer Zone.

Experiencing the dead ends of the city

75

2.

STITCHING TOOLS to help surpass the Prohibition – the dead zone.

1st tool: Searching history’s threads

76

The absurdity of the Venetian Walls Â

It is believed that Nicosia’s first perimetrical fortification walls were built during the Lusignan Rule. Their initial erection (late 13th century) and subsequent fortification during the mid-14th century is directly related to the threat of possible invasions.

In 1489, the island falls under the rule of the Republic of Venice, and for a long time they keep the old fortification of the Lusignans as is. However, the threat of invasion from the rising Ottoman Empire makes them panic and so they delegate the drafting of a new defensive fortification plan to the architect Giulio Savorgnano, who in 1567 starts supervising the construction of the new fortification walls that adhere to the Renaissance standards of the time. These new walls have a diameter approximately equal to the 1/3 of the diameter of the Lusignan walls, making them easier to defend. So the 2/3 of the city outside the new walls is said to have been demolished and along with them many trees and vegetation cut down as to allow complete visual access of the area. The city gates are limited to three, two of them on the West - East axis of the city (Ermou street), indicating the importance of this route for the Venetians. In addition, the river is diverted outside the walls and to the north, which in time proves somewhat unsuccessful, as the river will continue to run through the city in times of heavy rainfall.

In 1571 Nicosia eventually falls to the Ottomans after a long siege. The Ottomans complete the construction of the fortification walls that the Venetians had only managed to build up to half of the original projected height, using the remains of the ruined medieval city. In the end though, all these attempts and failures of the Venetians to successfully fortify the city of Nicosia may have ultimately been pointless, since it would have been impossible for 4,000 Venetian soldiers to defeat 40,000 Ottomans.

Maria Costi de Castrillo

77

Lefkosia-Ledra-Lefkotheon-Lefkon-KermiaLefkous-Lefkousia-Lefkopolis-Fotolampos The current location of the city of Nicosia dates back to Roman times (58 BC). The Romans built their castle where the center of the walled city is located today, around the Saint Sophia Cathedral (later named Selemiye Mosque). This is not accidental, as from the first years of the city’s existence, the basic activity within it and to other cities had been defined.

At the same time, first attempts were made to link the two areas of the new city north and south of the river with the construction of four bridges.

Each bridge served activities to and from the Roman fortress while the main bridge lead directly to the south gate of the castle. This is the first example of urbanization of the river. But there is still no building along the river, only along the major axes of the castle.

Since this period, we see that “two Nicosias” are developed, one on the north side and one on the south side of the river. Concurrently, first attempts are made to unite the 2 sides into a single city, which will continue for centuries.

Cyprus has been occupied at times by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Lusignans, the Venetians, the Ottomans and the British, and Nicosia served as an administrative center. Each time, depending on the interests of each occupier, the main axes of the city North-South and East-West acquired major or minor importance.

During the Roman era the W-E axis along the river Pedios was the most important, since the Romans had economic and commercial interests in the East. In Byzantine times however, the N-S axis was more developed. The W-E again gained prominence in the Lusignan and Venetian eras. The same phenomenon continued during the Ottoman reign, while during the period of British rule the N-S axis reemerged as more important.

All empires that have passed from Nicosia pursued the goal of uniting the “two Nicosias” with various special gestures. The Turkish invasion of 1974 resulted in the dissolution of the two main axes of the city. From this point onwards, only minor attempts are made to unite the two parts, while each of the two Nicosia grows independently from each other.

78

1300 b.C.

Hellinistic Period

58 b.C. Roman Empire Traces seen in the urban fabric-road, axes

Existing buildings until today from these periods

Resulted in the buffer zone, abandonment-many empty buildings, decline of historic center

330 a.C.

Byzantine Empire

from the Saracene Arabs)

1191 a.C.

Lousinian Kings Era

1489 a.C.

Venetian Period

(648-964 a.C. 24 invasions

1571 a.C. Ottoman Empire 1878 a.C.

British Sovereignty

1960 a.C.

Declaration of Cyprus as an independent and sovereign state

1974 a.C. Turkish Invasion and Occupation of 37%

of Cypriot territory 2004 a.C. Cyprus enters the European Union Many opportunities for solutions

and studies for future interventions on the dead zone

79

trans-experiences In the Buffer Zone of Nicosia Stephanie Keszi - Georgia Frangoudi

147

Contents Summary.......................................................149 1. DE-LIMITING...............................................150 2. NICOSIA: THE BOUNDARY, THE SPACE AND THE MEANING OF THE PLACE...........160 3. IN-STATEMENTS.........................................166 4. TRANS-EXPERIENCES................................176

148

Summary

Transexperiences.1 Through “transexperiences� different elements are assimilated, intermingled and transformed. An osmosis is been effected between the familiar and the unfamiliar, original works are created that transpose one reality, concept or situation into another. Similarity and dissimilarity coexist without annulling each other.

Buffer zone. A liminal space, two disparate sides. A strip of land that penetrates and bisects Nicosia’s historic centre, violating its spatial and structural integrity. An urban rift, a desolate space (absence of man).

Living city. A living organism that is delineated, shaped and developed by human presence (inhabitance). The integral walled city of Nicosia is divided into two parts, each evolving to a different beat. The similar and the different coexist.

How does one delineate the relationship between the living city and the buffer zone? How can architecture interpret and manage this peculiar lattice of relationships and spatial configurations?

To enable an investigation of the characteristics of this liminal space, the spectrum of meanings a boundary can take on are first considered.

An attempt is then made to delimit the dead zone and to redefine the elements that constitute its boundary.

These elements are developed into spatial concepts, and subsequently into architectural tools that help shape a new interpretation of the dead zone.

An ephemeral landscape is proposed, where interventions and installations interject against the background of the dead zone which is now a conduit for a new experience > transition.

149

1.

DE-LIMITING

150

limit: a point or level beyond which something does not or may not extend or pass2

Delimitation is a prerequisite for the existence of man. To observe, interpret and conceptualise our world, we invoke forms which are either material (objects, edifices) or notional (meanings, knowledge, actions, behaviours). Such forms are delimited, delineated and revealed by their boundaries, their out-lines.

“Through delimiting, determining and designating, a boundary imparts form and substance. Its profound importance lies in the fact that, in its absence, there can be no conceptualisation of form, being or discrete social categorisation.” 3 “The individual is in a constant process of discovering his/her limits, and how he/she relates to the inclusion and exclusion engendered by the very notion of boundary.” 4 The boundary itself is the liminal space that delineates one side from the other, conveying at once a convexity and a concavity. Hence, a limit is not an end, but rather a new beginning. As Heidegger points out: “the space of, say, human occupancy essentially comprises what man has managed to embed into his boundary... the boundary is not the place where something ceases but rather, as the Greeks had discovered, where something is brought into existence.” 5

151

Spacial limits The need for man to comprehend his space and his particular position within that space is profound. It is by this means that man (/inhabitant) delimits the space within which he dwells and acts. As this space is allocated an area and imbued with distinctive characteristics, it becomes determinate and specific. The very process of construction is a definition and delimitation of a discrete, distinct area from the rest of the universe, one assigned with a specified function. In this way, “space becomes a comprehended and expansive corpus that man transmutates into a discrete locus”. 6 “The patent architectural tool to define a limit is the wall.” 7 The wall delimits one space and separates it from another.

Within a broader demarcation, this delimitation may also assemble several elements together into a single corpus.

Man uses limits, boundaries and walls as a means of establishing spatial concord and physical security. Space is organised into states, cities, townships; as the areas created by installed boundaries are afforded distinct identities, and are generated connections between them. The boundary is the element which divides and connects.

152

Binary limits “Good fences make good neighbors?” 8

The dual property of dividing and connecting is part of the very essence of a boundary. Every association between the spaces either side of the boundary comprises both a distinction and a transcendence. “Everything can be distinguished in terms of polar binaries, such as ‘We’ on one side of the wall, against the ‘Others’.” 9 There has always been a need to maintain a connection with the the ‘Other’, the ‘Foreign’.

“On one hand, excessive entrenchment can build ideological prisons, since strict limits and high “walls” fragment concepts, territories and peoples into two poles, two diametric opposites. On the other, it is only through limits that physical and human existence on the planet can be sustained. The absence of strict limits and dividing lines leads to confusion, incoherence, obfuscation, and everything that has been achieved through millenia of social evolution is brought to the brink of collapse.”10 Man himself cannot comprehend the relationships he has established and is establishing within the historicalspatial continuum he occupies without first grasping the significance of boundaries and of their dynamics. Just as he installs a boundary, he must apprehend it. Aristotle characteristically mentions that “boundaries, when delimited, founded and seated, become objects to be defended. They cannot be abolished except through cataclysm. It is thus crucial that they who construct them weigh their installation well, so as to avoid conflict and despair.”

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out And to whom I was like to give offence” Robert Frost in Mending Wall 153

This is a work in progress, characterised by expansiveness towards further points along the border where the two halves of the city once linked. They are injections straight into the heart of a living organism to aid in its healing.

Insofar as the system propagates, the border shrinks through experiences that “stitch� the space. Once the seam is sewn, the constructions are removed to a different location in the city to be used anew.

The intervention is left purposely incomplete; a transient situation that will continue to evolve, concluding only as it disappears. (a place of temporary situations) The intervention is thus structured as a story. A story we hope has meaning between the moment it begins and the moment it ends. > TRANSEXPERIENCES

188

189

Notes 1. A term invented by the artist Chen Zhen, ΤΟ ΒΗΜΑ newspaper, June 1 2008, Πολιτιστικό Έτος (ed.), p.12-13, Σύγχρονοι Έλληνες εικαστικοί στο Πεκίνο 2. Oxford English dictionary, online edition 3. Yiannis Papadakis, To Όριο ως το Ενδιάμεσο: Μέσα και Έξω, Ξένοι και Ξωτικά, Κίνδυνος και Δημιουργικότητα 4. Stefanou Ioulia, Stefanou Iosif, ΠΕΡΙΓΡΑΦΗ ΤΗΣ ΕΙΚΟΝΑΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΗΣ, Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις ΕΜΠ (ed.), Athens, 1999, p.

159 5. Heidegger Martin, POETRY, LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, Albert Hofstadter, New York, 1971, p.132 6. See 4, p. 161 7. Lidia Yiannoulopoulou, Stella Kamarianaki, ΤΟΙΧΟΓΡΑΦΗΣΕΙΣ: ΜΙΑ ΔΙΕΡΕΥΝΗΣΗ ΤΟΥ ΟΡΙΟΥ, Lecture, ΕΜΠ, 2006, introduction, supervising professor: D.Sevastakis 8. 17th-century proverb, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (taken from the poem “Mending Wall”(1914) by Robert Frost) 9. See 7 10. See 7 11. Seminar: “THE CHALLENGES OF REUNIFYING DIVIDED CITIES AND TERRITORIES”, Nicosia – Cyprus, 8 June 2006, The German experiences, Rethinking governance – Multiple solutions for a fragmented city by Ares Kalandides 12. www.enet.gr, Κόσμος, March 20 2007, Christina Pantzou - Τα τείχη που χωρίζουν τον κόσμο στα δύο 13. Photography exhibition by Danae Stratou: «CUT» - 7 Διαχωριστικές γραμμές 14. Interpressgr.blogspot.com, Κόσμος: Τα τείχη του αίσχους 15. Jacques Lacarriere, ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ - Η ΝΕΚΡΗ ΖΩΝΗ, trans. Voula

Louvrou, Εκδόσεις Ολκός (ed.), Athens 2003, p. 36 16. Yiannis Papadakis, «Η ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ/LEFKOSHA ΜΕΤΑ ΤΟ 1960: ΕΝΑ ΠΟΤΑΜΙ, ΜΙΑ ΓΕΦΥΡΑ ΚΑΙ ΜΙΑ ΝΕΚΡΗ ΖΩΝΗ», στο N.Trimikliniotis, Το πορτοκαλί της Κύπρου, Νήσος, Πολιτείες 10, Athens 2005 17. Agni Michailidou, ΧΩΡΑ, Η ΠΑΛΙΑ ΛΕΥΚΩΣΙΑ , 1977, p. 23 18. Kevork Keshishian, 1990:15, Gurkan, 1980:150,175 19. See 17, p.24 20. See 17, p.20 21. Pierre Pellegrinorino, ΤΟ ΝΟΗΜΑ ΤΟΥ ΧΩΡΟΥ, Τυπωθήτω (ed.), Athens 2006, pp. 57, 16, 17, 137 22. ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΕΣ magazine, issue 49, Jan/Feb 2005, p.61 23. Kotionis Zisis, ΜΟΡΦΟΠΟΙΗΤΙΚΗ /ΣΩΜΑΤΙΚΑ ΕΝΕΡΓΗΜΑΤΑ ΣΤΟ ΤΟΠΙΟ, Πανεπιστημιακές Εκδόσεις Θεσσαλίας (ed.), December 2007, p.7 24. See 4, p.17, 202 25. Rois Vasileiou, ΝΕΚΡΗ ΖΩΝΗ, 2006 lecture, supervising professor: D.Sevastakis 26. See 15, p. 25 27. Eleni Portaliou, ΤΟΠΟΙ ΜΝΗΜΗΣ: Η ΠΟΛΗ ΤΗΣ ΓΚΡΑΝΤΙΒΑ ΚΑΙ Η ΜΝΗΜΗ ΤΗΣ ΠΟΛΗΣ, στο Ελελεύ, see 30, p. 69 28. See 23, p. 82 29. See 15, p. 60 30. Stavros Stavrides, ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΗ ΟΘΟΝΗ ΣΤΗΝ ΠΟΛΗ ΣΚΗΝΗ, Ελληνικά Γράμματα (ed.), Athens 2003, p.39-40 31. See 30, p. 38 32. ΑΡΧΙΤΕΚΤΟΝΕΣ magazine, issue 64, Jul/Aug 2007, p.55 33. See 23, p.77 34. See 23, p. 80

Acknowledgements We wish to thank everyone who contributed directly or indirectly to the formation of this project, including organizations, individuals, friends and family. We especially express our gratitude to our thesis supervisor Mr. Stavros Stavridis, whose guidance and support inspired us throughout the project˙ as well as to Mr. Dimitris Karidis for his apposite remarks. Lastly, many thanks to the “Stitching the buffer zone” team (Maria Costi, Alkis Hatziandreou, Anna Grichting), to “ARTos Cultural and Research Foundation”(Achilleas Kentonis) and to “a bookworm publication”( Kyriaki Sofocleous, Nikolas Kyriakou, Ioanna Christodoulou), all of whom made this publication possible.

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Pictures’ Copyrights: 1. DE-LIMITING: Page 155: (1) Yaldor Photography (2) Landesbildstelle Berlin (3) Yaldor Photography Page 157: Nicosia, Buffer Zone - Stephanie Keszi Jerusalem, Wall - FarewellFire Mitrovica, Ibar River - Danai Stratou Page 159: Berlin, The Wall - ManuelA69 Belfast, Peace Line - aimée and ragan Mexico, Border Fence - dcis_steve 2.NICOSIA: THE BOUNDARY, THE SPACE AND THE MEANING OF THE SITE Page 163: Antonis Antoniou, 2006 (border) Page 165: Antonis Antoniou, 2006 191