Museum of Found Volumes
Museum Format - Studio Antonas FS 2020 Jacopo Bianchi & Karol Wojtas
Inside Nicosia
Map of Nicosia, around 1570
Until the 1960s, the island was under control of the British and was inhabited by Greeks and Turks. In mid-July 1974 there was a coup in Cyprus, the goal of which was an immediate union of Cyprus with Greece. The invasion of Cyprus was caused by Turkey’s claim to create a free Turkish Cypriot state. After unsuccessful Turkish-Greek talks, conducted through the US, on July 20, 1974, Turkish troops, under pressure from the public opinion of their country, attacked Cyprus from the air and from the sea. Turkey has therefore implemented the island’s partition plan. Nicosia was divided shortly after the invasion and remains the last divided European capital. It has not been possible to cross the demilitarized zone since the Turkish invasion. It was not until 2004 that several border crossing points were opened, through which Union citizens could cross the border, obtaining a visa from Northern Cyprus immediately. However, the visa is not affixed to the passport, but issued on a separate piece of paper. One of the largest Mediterranean islands has been divided into two parts by a buffer zone called the Green Line. The line is currently in the form of a demilitarized zone about a few hundred to just a few meters wide, depending on the place. It extends over virtually the entire length of the country. The zone is today managed by United Nations peacekeeping forces and is guarded by UNFICYP soldiers. In Nicosia, it passes through the center, dividing the capital of Cyprus in half. On its territory there is also a large part of the mission’s property. The remnants of a once united island indicate the fragile relation between two different cultures sharing the same island.
The Buffer Zone can be crossed at a number of spots across the whole island, most notably at the end of a busy shopping street called Ledra. It is located almost in the middle of the historical part of the city surrounded by medieval fortifications. The zone itself remains highly restricted, while the built fabric has been left for physical decay for more than 30 years. However, abandonment does not characterize the entire island. Inside the buffer zone there are also entire villages inside the zone where life still continues. Pyla is one of such settlements with Greek and Turkish co-habitants. However, abandonment does not characterize the entire strip. Inside the buffer zone there are also entire villages inside the zone where life still continues. Pyla is one of such settlements with Greek and Turkish co-habitants.
An illuminated flag of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (solely recognized on the international level by Turkey) is seen on the Pentadaktylos Mountain. It is visible from South Nicosia, having the size of approximately four football fields and being illuminated in night. The flag serves as an element of propaganda, where both sides (more or less) subtly are trying to assert their dominance over the other side. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact, that the conflict is far from being resolved. The national symbols play a crucial part in cultivating the country’s identity, being also taken as a central subject for street art pieces.
Abandoned spaces can be found outside of the city as well. One of the most astonishing examples is the abandoned Nicosia International Airport, where aircrafts still stand to this day. It looks more like a movie scene than an actual airport. Another peculiar place is the ghost district of Varosha in the city of Famagusta in the North-East part of the island. Countless buildings, pieces of infrastructure are slowly but surely reclaimed by the nature, hence the name “the Green Line�. The passing of time is a key characteristic of the built fabric inside the green line. Ruined buildings expose the essence of their construction and turn gradually into a series of objects in space. Those can or even should be addressed by the architects planning buildings inside the zone. A dialogue between the past and the present can be created while adding a modern value to the existing structures.
Analysis
Axes in the Buffer Zone
Public areas
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Museums in Nicosia
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Frailty of a wall
The wall that divides Nicosia remains a symbol of a conflict between the two sides. When thinking of divided cities or countries in the past, one comes to the conclusion that the wall itself bears not only a big emotional significant, but also shapes the political discourse around it. “Tear down this wall!“ said the US President Ronald Reagan in West Berlin on June 12, 1987, asking the leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, to close the Berlin Wall, which divided West and East Berlin since August 1961. The walls have been also picked as a subject of modern and conceptual art, with most resounding examples from the Iranian artist duo - Icy and Sot. Their visual repertoire tackles modern-day social issues, delivering strong statements through their commitment. Another artists closely working with walls and the subject of division is the famous British street artist Banksy, whose work has had considerable impact in places marked by conflict such as Israel and Palestine. More recently a planned division between two countries in the North America has become a central subject of a successful presidential campaign by one of the candidates. Walls have become a symbol of both danger and safety, opposing ideas and conflict. What walls and divisions have in common is that they eventually fall, being subsequently turned either to ashes, or left to stand as a reminder of the former conflict.
The wall of Berlin shows the potential of transformation in regards to the wall dividing the city. The same question arises in the context of Nicosia. Our project intends to investigate how the art production process can bring people of both sides together. A slow and gradual process of transition can be started by the museum institution. The collaborative aspect of the whole process highlights the potential of such an establishment in the area. Engaging the artistic scene from the Turkish and Greek side would make art the common ground for the cooperation to flourish.
References
Cretto di Gibellina - Alberto Burri
Canopy over ruins, St. Maurice, CH - Savioz Fabrizzi
Church conversion, Vilanova de la Barca , ES - AleaOlea
Kunsthaus, Bregenz, AT - Peter Zumthor
A wider spectrum of a museum
The role of a museum has forever been to document the world in accordance to the prevailing notions. It is a place built for today and tomorrow in order to be able to look at yesterday - with the primary goal of documenting the human activity. In the recent decades we have seen a myriad of answers to the question of a museum typology, from palace-like structures of the 19th century, the linear progression of art in Wright’s Guggenheim Museum up until the celebration of engineering manifested in the Centre Pompidou by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano. However, the project that particularly caught our attention was the Zinc Mining Museum in Allmannajuvet, conceived as multiple pavillons spread across the landscape. Its fragmented nature inspired us to think about the museum as a series of interventions serving different functions rather than having one building to accommodate every purpose.
Mining Museum, Allmannajuvet, NO - Peter Zumthor
Working with ruins
`We don’t destroy the ruins. We just modify them to make them more like ruins.`
aus Carlo Fontana: L’Anfiteatro Flavio (1725)
The urban fabric of the old town of Nicosia is of dense character, though rather tiny dimensions. The buildings locked inside the buffer zone have one to three floors and have been either destroyed or simply timeworn. Nevertheless we recognize their importance as history bearers. We therefore decided that it would be suitable to embrace the existing structures while adding new volumes on top. They should be translucent, while providing transparency to the museum and establishing a dialogue with the city.
Project
In 1987, the American President Ronald Reagan addressed Mikhail Gorbachev and famously coined the phrase `Tear down this wall! ` calling for opening of the Berlin Wall. Although 30 years have passed and Berlin has long reunited, there is still one divided capital in Europe and that is Nicosia. The city’s urban fabric is famously divided in two parts by the UN-controlled buffer zone. The site for the project, the Ermou street, is locked entirely inside the area. Formerly it used to be a vivid shopping street, that has gradually turned into a relic of the past since the division of Cyprus in 1974. What is striking, is the amount of deserted or destroyed buildings inside the area. We intend to work with the found ruins and make them into a passage that can instantly host a program of art or education. The former commercial character is replaced by a museological one. Both Greek and Turkish Cypriots claim the city their own and have rather little to do with each other on a day-to-day basis. We saw the task as a chance to instigate a dialogue between both populations with the museum as a suitable platform. Over the years, the notion of the museum has largely changed and in this context, we understand it as a string of punctual interventions that would rejuvenate the deserted zone. Our proposal extends the definition of a museum by providing space for four stages of the art production: storage, production, exhibition, and discussion. Our intention is to allow insight into every step of the process while engaging the spectator on a deeper level. Thus, our museum intends to redefine the relationship between the artist, their work, and the audience. The project is imagined as a self-governing art society involving artists equally from both sides of the city. In the buildings themselves we strived for a common visual identity, while ensuring the biggest possible flexibility of use. Under the auspices of the United Nations, the museum would have an unbiased character. Curatorial teams could be invited to work for a certain period, being initially approved by both sides and the UN. By focusing primarily on the art production and cooperation, the street turns into a vivid artistic vein in the heart of the city.
The question arises – how is the concept meant to work in such a complicated context? Right now, there is a border crossing at one end of the Ermou street. This could be one of the entrances to the street, making it a separate zone in the green line, a street that can be accessed from both sides, with four border crossing alongside. In order to make the implementation of the project more feasible, each additional intersection would serve either as an urban park or could be enclosed by a pavilion. Those however would work as a café or a space for informal gatherings after an exhibition. At the beginning of the project, the Ermou street is therefore blocked but could be gradually opened in the following phases according to the UN and the curators. As far as the construction aspect is concerned, the existing walls contrast with the new structures. The volumes are supported by a prefabricated steel structure enveloped in polycarbonate, allowing for a distinct incidence of light. In order to structure the space in between the buildings we also envision a new pavement as a series of geometric slabs whose size differs in relation to the distance towards the upcoming part of the museum. The bigger the slabs, the closer you are to the next building. With this in mind, the series of interventions could become a departure point for change in the Ermou street. Should the division remain, there is a way of introducing life and establishing a lively spot on the art map of Nicosia. Should Reagan´s wish for Berlin come to fruition in Nicosia and the division be overturned, art would have a platform right in the middle of the city and the street´s once vivid character would be re-established.
Artwork Artwork
Conventional museum as an Conventional museum as an exhibition space exhibition space
Visitors Visitors Artists Artists
Curators Curators
Storage Storage
Artists TR TR Artists
Discussion Discussion
Exhibition Exhibition
Production Production
Storage Storage
Visitors Visitors
UN UN
UN Artists GR Artists GR
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Floor plans
Elevation
Section
Production
Ground floor
2nd floor
1st floor
Elevation
Cross section
Longitudinal section
Exhibition
Ground floor
3rd floor
2nd floor
1st floor
Elevation
Elevation
Section
Discussion
Floor plans
Elevation
Section
Details
Lightweight walls
Steel concrete compound ceiling
Steel frame
Windows
Glass Polycarbonate
Preexisting walls
Production
Exhibition
Storage
Discussion
Exterior visualisation
Interior visualisation
Pavilions
Plan
Actual situation
Pavilion perspective
Urban space
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Photo credits
Page 4
Credit: Giovanni Francesco Camocio
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Camocio,_Map_of_Nicosia.jpg
Page 8
Credit: A. Savin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nicosia_01-2017_img17_View_from_Shacolas_Tower.jpg
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Credit: Michal Osmenda
Credit: Roman Robroek
Credit: Neil Hall / Reuters Credit: Athanasios Gioumpasis Credit: Neil Hall / Reuters
https://www.flickr.com/photos/michalo/8132781915
https://romanrobroek.nl/a-rare-view-inside-the-buffer-zone-in-nicosia-cyprus/ https://www.reuters.com/article/idIN332775906920140410
Credit: Icy and Sot
https://icyandsot.com/
Credit: Carlo Marino
http://deregiminelitterarum.altervista.org/alberto-burri-grande-cretto-gibellina/
Credit: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa Credit: Savioz Fabrizzi Credit: AleaOlea architects Credit: Adrià Goula
Credit: Friedrich Böhringer Credit: Fredrik Flogstad
Credit: Pepe Vera Credit: Carmelo Baglivo Credit: Carmelo Baglivo
Credit: Chris Hill-Scott
https://www.thelocal.de/galleries/4/photos-of-the-berlin-wall-then-and-now-the-local https://www.sf-ar.ch/architekt/schatz-abtei-maurice-restaurierung-1818.html
https://inspiration.detail.de/kirchenumbau-in-vilanova-de-la-barca-114372.html https://www.archilovers.com/projects/201110/gallery?1831119
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Kornmarktstra%C3%9Fe_3_Kunsthaus,_1.JPG
https://www.detail.de/artikel/ganz-in-schwarz-minen-gebaeude-von-peter-zumthor-33158/ https://www.huffingtonpost.es/pepe-vera/la-ruina-en-ruina_b_13353872.html http://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/14060541 http://www.uncubemagazine.com/blog/14060541 https://quis.cc/places/nicosia/