Peace Ambassadors
Peaceful Art Explorers
Project team:
- Natali Touloupou
- Ndzalama Pearl Maswanganyi
- Evie Theocharous
- Mikaella Panteli
- Alex Messios
About the project:
Urban Endeavours is a project by AHDR Peace Ambassadors consisting of a map of Old Town Nicosia with a variety of murals representing themes of Cyprus such as peace building, cooperation, creative self expression, justice and equality for all people to discover and enjoy. Through this endeavour, we aim to spark meaningful interactions among communities and promote active citizenship. Our key objectives are:
To foster inter-communal and international engagement, heighten awareness of the social and cultural significance of art in Old Town Nicosia, invite people to move across the divide (mentally or physically) and catalyse deeper connections among residents and visitors alike.
| NIC No. | Title | Artist | Description/ interpretation |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | CRS | This mural depicts a green tree with a Greek Cypriot woman and a Turkish Cypriot man sitting on its branches, symbolizing that Greek speaking Cypriots and Turkish speaking Cypriots share the same roots. As on the right and left there are two birds symbolizing that only they are able to freely travel in Cyprus. Moreover, further down there are two children hugging the tree and this wants to show that if we had the innocence of children, we would embrace the tree without taking into account any negativity. Finally, as we can see on both sides of the mural the word peace is written in both Turkish “Βariş” and Greek “Ειρήνη”. A powerful quote by CRS: “The colour green on the tree indicates the continuity, the hope to sit on the same tree and travel in Cyprus freely in the future.” | |
| 24 | Share some love | Yuka Blend | “My role is to be a connective between the artist and a community” is a quote by Dervish Zeybek that perfectly sums up the message behind this mural. Just like art, ice cream is often a point of connection between people. Sharing an experience with someone over a serving of ice cream is a simple yet powerful way to nurture connection and belongingness. Art brings people together in the same unapologetic way that ice cream does. One can hope that when this simple, yet important message is perceived, it can inspire people to share love with others. The phrase “Share some love” also happens to be the official hashtag of the festival - Yuka Blend, founded by Dervish Zeybek. |
| 25 | The Whirling Dervish | •Paparazzi | When describing the process of his dear friend Paparazzi creating this artwork, Dervish Zeybek emphasised the importance of not covering the residue and ruins left behind by the historical events of the past. Leaving the wall as is, and painting over it was to convey that the intention is not to change the city, but to blend it. Dervish Zeybek describes how the Whirling Dervish appeals to one of the fundamental values of Sufism- which is to spread love and doing anything from an intention to love. |
| 26 | A Unified World | • Yuka Blend • Mathieu Devavry |
This mural was created by Mathieu Devavry in collaboration with a group of children who incorporated their own elements of imagination and creativity into the mural. |
| 28 | Indoctrinate | Twenty Three | This mural depicts a person who is a wind-up toy. The person’s mind is evidently open to being worked on just like a farmer would work the land. This mural may symbolise how the mind of an individual may be used to fulfil a certain purpose once they have been indoctrinated by certain ideals. The hope would be that individuals of our society would indoctrinate themselves in the ideals of love and acceptance and therefore align their purpose in those ideals. |
| 29 | The peaking women | •Leonidas Con | Art is one of the most powerful ways to shift paradigms and drive change. Depictions of women in public spaces in Cyprus in statues, murals of road names are very rare. Therefore, we chose to include this mural of three women peeking out of the shadows to serve as a reminder for representation and inclusivity in public spaces. |
| 32 | Hope | • Yuka Blend • Mathieu Devavry • Elias Zaarour |
The mural illustrates a tree that one of the artists had on his grandfather’s land during his childhood. To the right of this tree a child is depicted hiding behind a shutter. This child represents the new and upcoming generation being protected just as they would be in their mother’s womb. This can be symbolic of hope growing in our society as the new generation rises up with a testament to how hope is what keeps our children protected in their ever-changing world. |
| 36 | Remembering Naciye C. Koroğlu |
Studio 21 | This beautifully detailed artwork of a long-time friend of Dervish Zeybek, was part of a project called “Remembering is beautiful”. Dervish Zeybek describes the initiative of the project as being about remembering good people, good memories and the connections they provided to the community. The project created portraits of various members of the community and each portrait served to stand for a particular message. This portrait of Naciye teyze represents Selfless Love. Dervish Zeybek had always promised to paint the shutter of her shop but never got the chance to until the days she passed away. This portrait was created in memory of her life. |
| 37 | “(What)right hand does” | •Studio 21 •Mattia Campo dall’orto |
Interestingly, the artist behind this piece, Mattia, lives in a town in Italy that is divided just like Nicosia which makes the sentiment of his artwork that much greater. This mural is only one part of a two-piece puzzle as it has a conjoining mural in the south side of Cyprus called “(But) Left hand knows” situated in the city of Pafos. These two murals are connected by one message despite being on opposite sides of the country with the message being “But the Left hand knows what the Right hand does.” When sharing the story behind this mural, Dervish Zeybek speaks about the spiritual beauty of the coincidence that “(But) left hand knows” is situated in his mother’s hometown while “(what) right hand does” is situated in his current place of residence, Nicosia. The aim of creating two separate murals with one unifying message was to create a connection between the northern parts and the southern parts of Cyprus. 38 Christopher Jewitt This intricate artwork uses lines and shapes to create a story depicting new life being created by two unified people. This artwork was painted in blue and white and the striking blue colour originally used has since become faint. Although the colours have faded, the message never will. The Mammoth Yuka blend Upon stumbling across media coverage about the discovery of the carcass of an ancient mammoth in the ice caps in the North Pole, Dervish was inclined to read further into this discovery to find that the Mammoth was named Yuka. This greatly appealed to Dervish because Yuka Blend happens to be the name of the festival that Dervish started in 2011. Mammoths are known to symbolically represent resilience, perseverance and this meaning particularly appealed to Dervish as he saw it as a symbolism of regeneration. |
| 40 | Breaking frontiers for Peace | Yuka blend | This mural may serve as a representation of breaking barriers existing in the Cypriot community in order to promote Peace. The depiction of fire is powerful because fire can serve as a bringer of life and a destroyer too. By destroying the pre-existing mental or physical barriers, new life can be brought to the land. |
| 42 | CRS | This mural is one of the last murals that CRS has done. This depicts two children holding a balloon and coming together, this is the reason the artist wrote the Greek word “ένωση”/“enosi”,which means union. With the aim of wanting Cyprus to be united again like the two balloons, he plays with the writing of the word “ενωσις”/“enosis” that refers to the wish of many in the past for Cyprus to unite with Greece. In conclusion, the artist wanted to show that we should desire a united Cyprus, instead of unity with elsewhere. Quote by Crs: “I’ve said that whenever I’m going to do a graffiti, it will always be determined by global developments concerning the content ” |
