- ….. an abandoned dream

Works by three different MA courses at EMU

By Heidi Trautmann

An exhibition at the Goethe-Institut Nicosia from May 27 – June 13, 2014, with the opening on Monday, May 27 at 19:00 hrs in the presence of the artists. A project of artistic treatment of the forgotten and lost after a process of conflict and war on the example of the Nicosia International Airport.

Unfortunately I could not be present at the opening but went a couple of days later when the exhibition hall was again transformed into a lecture hall and the German teachers were about to have the final exams there. So I could not see the other installations but just the posters on the wall. However I have been given many photos of the opening event. I had heard that the organisers of the exhibition had organised bus transfer for those from Famagusta which I think is a sensible thing to do; if it could be done likewise when there are events in Famagusta, we from the western side of the island would surely come more often to Famagusta.

The students of the master class have used the photographic material they had available and created from and with it scenes of unreality, a dreamy world of ghosts, have filled the lost and abandoned halls of a once active turntable of human encounters into sometimes absurd pictures of Cypriot past; they have realised thoughts that came up when studying the case of the international airport in the buffer zone between the two brother communities.

Graduate students with diverse nationalities, cultures, religions and languages at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design provide fascinating perspectives and inspiration on the ”Abandoned” project, thanks to  their metaphoric approach and focus on a lost cause, a lost identity, a lost place, a lost idea, and an abandoned dream. Students expressed their ideas on the project in forms of posters and postcards, motion graphics and experimental videos.
Since the students involved in this project did not have direct experience with the Nicosia International Airport, which was selected as the case study, they tried to familiarize themselves with the topic through their lectures, research and photos taken by others. As William Glasser states in his “Choice Theory,” we are all born ”genetically programmed” to have five basic needs of ’survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.’ In that regard, students from various backgrounds were able to create powerful visual messages as their final products.

The instructors of the three MA courses are Assoc. Prof. Dr. Senih Çavuşoğlu (posters and postcards), Asst. Prof. Dr. Firat Tüzünkan (motion graphics) and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ümit Inatçı (video art).

The student artists are: Niloufar Safapour(Iran), Ali Fallahzadeh(Iran), Barış Parlan (Cyprus), Neda Rezadeh (Iran), Marjan Khajavi (Iran), Faegheh Babazadehchenarani (Iran), Zahra Mohammadkazemi (Iran), Elena Ghedova (Russia), Ayben Şengil (Turkey), Shima Golchin (Iran), Ahmad Osama Azmi Albakri (Palestine), Seyedeh Rozhano Azimi Hashemi (Iran), Shiva Parhizkari (Iran), Nasim Nejad Azar (Iran), Yali Wang (China), Maedeh Fekri (Iran), Oluwasegun Benjami Adetona (Nigeria), Sholeh Zahraei (Germany), Olaniyi Efena Teidi (Nigeria), Omid Kalantar (Iran), Nigina Nasridinova (Tajikistan), Bike Koralp (Cyprus), Şeyda Nur Turunç (Turkey), Sara Fahami (Iran), Farrukh Safarzoda (Tajikistan), Esra Taşkın (Cyprus), Zahra Barzigar (Iran), Wshyar Mohamad Amin Mustafa (IRAK).

An interesting mixture of nationalities working on a theme that does not concern Cyprus alone.