Deneia

Today I have walked about 15km and shot 3 rolls of film.
I left early afternoon to visit the village of Deneia, approx 300 inhabitants. Deneia is one of the 4 villages situated inside the buffer zone http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deneia.
I went by bus - and cursed this choice, promising myself that i need to find the financial means to take a loooooong period off work (i hope my boss does not read this) and phisically walk the lenght of this border.
Bus travel: the driver had no idea as where Deneia could be. I knew it is near Kokkinotrimithia, itself approx. 20km from Nicosia. The driver stopped in the wrong place, far out from Kokkinotrimithia, telling me to change there for a minibus. Then i found out the minibus did not pass through there and i was 5km away fromwhere I should have been. So i walked. 
I love walking and my idea is to walk as much as i can, as my photography is based on casual encounters. 
However it was getting late and I was worried i may not have enough time/light to photograph. 
In Kokkinotrimithia a stroke of luck: i managed to catch the minibus. Inside 2 women so suprised to see a foreigner in that area that they invited me in one's house. So i spent a good hour chatting to them, and also one's elderly mother. All in greek, which i don't speak, but i am good at talking with hands...so border-hand-talking. One thing I understood: they are born there, they have been there for many many generations and they have stayed there, no matter what the political situation was.
Then i had a walk in the village and then i walked back -6 or 7km- to Kokkinotrimithia, took a wrong turn and walked few extra km.
The weird thing is, Deneia is technically inside the buffer zone but I had to look for signs of it: watchtowers in the horizon with a flag of Turkey, a small army base and a sign that said "no photos".

I met Yiannis Papadakis

Thursday evening i met with Yiannis Papadakis, author of "Echoes from the Dead Zone :Across tthe Cyprus Divide" to discuss the current situation in Cyprus.
The book is written in a very personal style yet surprisingly objective. The author research does not take "sides" but questions everything and everyone from both sides. Practically a "borderlands hero" as he crossed the divide in 1996 when the border was totally closed; the book has been published in both greek and turkish - a testimonial of Papadakis'objectivity and honesty on the subject.
During the evening he made a very interesting comment about the north-cyprus society and its relation to turkey: turkish compose the highest and the lowest ends of society. Turkish occupy the higher positions, due to the stronghold of turkey on north-cyprus. Furthermore there is the influx of workers from turkey, which constitute cheap labour and the poorest part of society. This is very unique, as in most society a specific group occupies a specific position, but in north cyprus turkish occupy the higher and the lowest.

Twice a Stranger

today I have visited the exhibition "Twice a Stranger" at Leventis Museum, in Old Town Nicosia.
The museum itself, which presents Nicosia through the centuries, is really well designed and interesting.
The exhibition subject is "forced displacement and population exchange in the 20th century" and it is very interesting and very well curated, with video interviews (some unfortunately without subtitles) and archive photographs. It documents the forced population exchanges between Greece-Turkey, Germany-Poland, India-Pakistan as well as the 2 sides of Cyprus.
The exhibition is great and well worth a visit.
 However it does not include -I was disappointed!- the population exchanges between Armenian and Azerbaijan...they should dedicate a chapter to the village of Chambarak, Armenia, where most inhabitants were born in Azerbaijan and then forced to leave! I am sure between Armenian and Azerbaijan there are many of such cases...the exhibition focused on people who have traced their roots...but what about those who know their roots? those who have vivid in their memory the forced migration? those who are not at peace with having being kicked out??

this is the exhibition website:
http://www.twiceastranger.net

Nicosia, a city interrupted.

 

to find a map of the whole Nicosia, i had to go through various shops and finally i bought one. The one above depicts the "old city" surrounded by the Venetian walls. The green area that cuts in in half is the buffer zone.

On each side of the divide, free maps are given out to tourist. Here i took a map from each side and tried to put them together, to gain an idea of how Nicosia could be.

Yesterday I crossed on the turkish side. The "old city" is similar on both sides. Same architecture. Same old big  wood & metal doors at the entrance of buildings. Same stray cats. 

Actually the cats are allowed to cross the buffer zone as they please.

On both sides, same small dingy streets that all of a sudden are stopped by the walls of the buffer zone.

I walked from one side to the other. I sneaked some photographs. At the turkish checkpoint the police asked me about my hasselblad and laughed. He had clearly seen me sneaking a shot but kindly decided to let me go. When i walked back late in the evening the greek-cypriot police guards were drinking coffe and didn't bother with opening my passport.

I spent the evening with a turkish-cypriot friend, born and raised in a divided Nicosia. She told me how she has grown up used to the idea that her city finishes where the wall starts. How she does not like that Turkish Cyprus is so dependednt from mainland Turkey and how she would like to see her country being recognised on international level but without having turkish army and without having to use turkish currency.

She also expressed her dislike for Turkey sending over so many people from mainland: in order to increase numbers, mainland Turkey supports the immigration to northen cyprus. But my friend, like many others, does not identifies herself as Turkish. She identifies herself as Cypriot who speaks a turkish dialect (different from mainland Turkey! she is keen to specify!). I look at hear and yes, she doesn't look turkish. She looks like...like girls on the "other side".

She would like to see the island unified but says it is not possible until the greek cypriots will start consider the turkish cypriot as equals rather than a minority. She told me "You live in England. When you will have children in England, if people call them "minority" they will be upset and suffer. No one wants to be a minotiry. We want to be equal"

Curiously my friend does have a Republic of Cyprus passport, therefore she is a EU citizen. After 2004 when Republic of Cyprus joined the EU, everyone who is born in cyprus has the possibility to have a passport, as well as they can travel to the south to obtain free health service. Because one part is "under occupation" it is still considered part of the southern republic. However people who from mainland turkey have put roots on the island do not have the right to a passport from the southern part, no matter how long they have been on the island.

EU & Europe

geography vs. politics
this map (found on http://europa.eu/about-eu/countries/index_en.htm ) identifies EU countries (Cyprus presented as unified!), candidates (in the process of incorporating EU law into their law), potential candidates.
It also mentions those overseas territories , such as French Guyana, that are actually part of the EU despite being so far away from geographical europe.

My interest in borders is anthropological, borders as point of contact and separation between people, and when i ask myself the question of "who are we, the people of europe?" i am still very confused between EU and Europe. Turkey for example is mostly in Asia geographically speaking, and having travelled there many times I don't feel Turkey shares a European culture at all. On the contrary, I found the people of Armenia to be remarkably similar to Italians!!

Europe, you confuse me!

my website

this blog is about my research on the borders of Europe, I am a photographer interested in human geography and how people relate to the territory they inhabit. I am interested in concepts of home and belonging.
This blog displays work in progress. As I photograph with an analogue camera using slide film (hasselblad) the images published here are not the final pieces but rather snapshots that I use to document and represent what i do.
To get an idea of my work -past and preset - please visit my website  or my facebook page Paola Leonardi Photography.
Please feel free to comment and give input to my work using this blog or email me paolina@leonardiphoto.com

"sharing an island" movie

"Sharing an Island" a very interesting movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtvOzD_2l0&feature=youtu.behttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEtvOzD_2l0&feature=youtu.be

visit to UNFICYP

today i was at the UNFICYP base in Nicosia for 1 hour, photographing the disused airport.

I took 6 rolls with my 2 hasselblads using 40mm distagon lens and 80mm lens (no snapshots this time!)...the site is huge and it is the kind of place where I could spend days and days taking photos. So one hour was very little and very rushed but it still was a fantastic experience.
The site is desolated and of a melancholic raw beauty.

It's interesting to see how nature is taking over the abandoned site: buildings are crumbling (unfortunatly I was not allowed inside as the buildings are not only dangerous as they may fall down but also there is plenty of absetos) and grass and trees are growing inside them.

A bit thank you goes to the UNFICYP, in particular to Capt. Michal Harnadek, public information officer, of the Slovakian contingent as well as Mr  Michel Bordanneaux who helped me to organise the visit. Capt Harnadek was a great source of interesting information.

It has also been a good opportunity for me to reflect on my project and how to develop it: my interest is in human geography and how people relate to a territory. I feel that to really portray the borderlands of Europe I will need an enormous amount of time and that, rather than visit individual places, I should really walk the whole lenght of Europe's borders. Only by phisically walking the borders I can establish  a connection with the landscape and people who inhabit it.
So i am thinking to return to Cyprus in winter, when the mild weather will allow me to walk along the buffer zone. Not so much photographing the buffer zone itself (arid land, crumbling buildings and military positions) but the people who live along it.
The buffer zone is a weird place, as it is not an official border but a "de-fact border".
Through my research I am reading a lot on the subject of borders, and my favorite definition is that borders are "time written in space, sociological facts that take spatial form". The buffer zone is a clear example of this: time and history are occupying a physical space.

but at least some have a sense of humor!

Things that have made me smile today!!
I saw those while walking in Old Town Nicosia along the Cyprus divide.

an underwear shop called "no border"
a kebab restaurant called "Berlin Wall" just right next to the divide.
a sign that says "fuck E.U." written on a billboard promoting the EU.
an old man with lots of cats in his shops (I love cats and I love old people)
a statue crying blood
a sign saying that a mermaid is missing

also the kindness of the people of Nicosia has made me smile today ( thank you very much to the lady whose name i will never know who gave me a lift in her car when she saw me very tired...)

how to piss off your neighbor.

how to piss off your neighbor in few easy steps:
put flags everywhere. Greek and turkish flags...facing each other, against each other.

Put then every few meters.

Cyprus is an independent country...so why so many Greek and Turkish flags?
I remember a piece i read many years ago in university, Freud wrote something like "the mother does not want to relinquish the hold on the child". That makes me think of the motherlands Greece and Turkey and their flags everywhere in the child-island of Cyprus.

Nicosia - walking along the Cyprus divide

I Arrived in Nicosia where tomorrow I will go to photograph the abandoned airport inside the UNFICYP base (read UNFICYP mandate on the island on their website http://www.unficyp.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1).
I went for a walk in the old city, along the buffer zone, to take some snapshots as test for my project.
When I asked permission to photography I was told by government of the Republic of Cyprus that I can photograph expect where there is a sign that says otherwise...problem is: the sign is everywhere.
A very old sign, possibly put there 40 years ago...so old it depicts a 5x4 camera!
I think they played a practical joke on me. "Yes you are allowed to photograph but not where there is the sign..." it's bloody everywhere!

So i sneaked some snapshots even where i wasn't supposed to photograph, as well as photographing the empty streets and crumbling buildings on the "greek"side.
Some houses are inhabited, there are people whose back wall/back garden is a border! I hope to meet some and photograph them...but at 2pm under the burning sun the streets were empty

"they are making us refugees twice"

First day in Cyprus, in Larnaca.
After much walking I had a rest on the beach, a good swim in the gorgeous sea and then i went for dinner.
I picked the worst looking restaurant, displaying the cheapest prices. Inside the interior is all patched up, table cloths are dirty, the place is messy and the owners -father and son- are sitting having coffe.
I order some food...well never judge a book by the cover: food was amazing. grilled fresh fish.
I start chatting to the son, turns out he speak italian as he went to study for a year in southern italy.
I explain him what i do, photographing borders and he is not surprised, but looks sad at his dad, who starts talking in greek...this is what they said:
"we are refugees. Our home is in a village near Famagusta.
 I remember it all, I was 10 and we had to pick up few things and run with the fear that the Turkish army was coming to kill us. When the border opened after 2003 we went back to see our home. A turkish family was living in it. Not Cypriots, but turkish from mainland Turkey. They let us look around quickly but didn't let us touch anything. But that is still my home. We arrived as refugees here in Larnaca. My father opened this restaurant and  we lived here all this time. Now our government wants to demolish the restaurant to build a road. Our government will make us refugee once again, we will be refugee twice! It's all politics fault!"

Cyprus

I am in Cyprus to photograph people and places of the Buffer Zone.
The buffer zone is a de-facto border that keeps a buffer between 2 sides...for one side is not recognised as state by the international community.
The situation is complex and I am not an historian/politician so if anyone wants more info on the Cyprus divide, i strongly recomend the book written by Yiannis Papadakis "Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide"

I arrived yesterday evening to Larnaca and today I had decided to be a tourist...instead I ended up walking for nearly 10 km toward...I don't know where. I just walked randomly.
Tomorrow I will be heading to Nicosia where I will meet on tuesday with Capt. Michal Harnadek of the UNFICYP to visit the abandoned airport in the buffer zone.

On the place i was sat next to a couple of Turkish Cypriots living in London, they told me things that reflected Papadakis' book, as in most people don't hate "the other side" and feel bigger political powers are keeping the island divided.

my research

here some books/publications i am using for my research:

Benedict Anderson (1983) "Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism" London:Verso

Yiannis Papadakis (2005) "Echoes from the Dead Zone: Across the Cyprus Divide"  New York: I.B.Tauris  
This is an amazing book that should be compulsory to read for both sides of the Cyprus divide! Really illuminating. I am hoping to speak to Mr Papadakis in Nicosia as part of my research.

Etienne Balibarr "We, the People of Europe? : Reflection on Transnational Citizenship"

more images from Imatra, border crossing Finland-Russia
apologies for the bad quality, i have used a bad scanner and an old computer! I will eventually get around to do proper high res scans.
In the wood near the road there were crosses with old clothes on them. Old shirts crucified to the trees. Very spooky. Me and my friend Dagmar started joking that it looked like something out of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" movie. Later at the hotel, the owner told me that he thinks they are scarecrows for humans, put there to scare away people trying to cross illegally as from far away they look like people in the woods.

Marasia, last village before Turkey

no bridge so i had to walk through the stream. practically the elderly villagers of Marasia  are trapped in!

Little Greek flags everywhere.

photographs i took over a year ago during my first "borders expedition" in Marasia, Greece.