A look at Cyprus through a different lens

Phaneromenis 70 Cultural Centre presents a guided experiential walk this week as part of its Delivering Views – Delivering Texts project. The Nicosia centre collaborates with Dr Gabriel Koureas and invites the public to join a walk in Greek and English through Ayios Andreas this Saturday.

Setting off from Ayios Andreas Primary School at 3pm, participants will follow Koureas on a nostalgic walk through life’s many stations. Under the title Returning from the Diaspora: Seeing Cyprus through a Walk along Life Stations, the event is one of many walks Phaneromenis 70 organises and one of the first events of a new series.

“I used to be a member of the Cypriot diaspora, having lived in the United Kingdom for nearly 40 years, until my return to Cyprus three years ago,” Koureas says. “The return to the place where I was born and brought up was as important as the time I first flew from this island: fear, mixed with immense excitement. During my diasporic years, I lived in an in-between space, partly nostalgic and partly utopian, never really settling down. In other words, there was always a nostalgia for spaces, places, people, smells and sounds of my childhood experience. On my return, an almost reverse procedure took place. Those cities I lived in and all their memories and lived experiences came back with me to flood my life on our island.”

Delivering Views – Delivering Texts is an ongoing project of Phaneromenis 70, which focuses on the impressions of foreign visitors to Cyprus and their unique views of the island. In visual and written form, visitors have contributed to the creation of an archive and a series of books that attest, record and share their impressions of the island. For this edition of the project, organisers look at the reality and idea of diaspora to explore the notion of ‘place’, the experiences within it and the shared or different realities of locals and foreign visitors.

Delivering Views – Delivering Texts # 33: Diaspora – Action 1: Returning from the Diaspora: Seeing Cyprus through a Walk along Life Stations

Walk with Dr. Gabriel Koureas. Organised by Phaneromenis 70 Cultural Centre. December 30. Starting Point: Ayios Andreas Primary School, Nicosia. 3pm. In Greek and English. Registrations atphaneromenis70@gmail.com