Giovanna Silva: Foxtrot Gate – Cyprus

Giovanna Silva, ed. Texts by Yannis Papadakis, Konstantina Zanou, Giorgos Charalambous

The book Foxtrot Gate – Cyprus is part of a series of publications about nations at war, or in crisis; conceived by Giovanna Silva, they tell the stories of different countries through photographs of their multifaceted landscapes. In the case of Cyprus, Silva has attempted to decipher Nicosia’s recent past and contested present, their symbols and physical structures – along with related erasures, which are inscribed in the landscape of the divided capital itself, and in particular the so-called Buffer Zone (or Green Line) which cuts through the center of the old town of Nicosia, separating the city into southern and northern sections. “The two different views of Nicosia’s past and future are evident in the contrasting physical structures which comprise each side of the Green Line,” writes Yannis Papadakis. “On the Turkish Cypriot side these are permanent walls, walls which create abrupt dead ends on roads that once continued; on the Greek Cypriot side, they are temporary constructions, made of sand-bags and barbed wire which can easily be removed. Both sides put forth fervent claims of independence and sovereignty […] The very fact of its division makes Nicosia a peculiar kind of place.” The publication includes a selection of essays by Yannis Papadakis, Konstantina Zanou, and Giorgos Charalambous, and a guide to the UN Buffer Zone.