Abandoned airport of Nicosia

This work is part of my wider engagement with abandoned places and the connection between space and historical memory.

Nicosia International Airport is such a place.

The site of long and bloody battles, the airport ceased to operate after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. Located in the United Nations-patrolled “buffer zone” that cuts across the island, it has been used for decades as the headquarters of the world body’s peacekeeping force. Inaccessible to the public, it remains to this day a painful symbol of division and a part of Cyprus’s turbulent history.

Memory is linked to places and history to events – and historian Pierre Nora talks about the interaction that leads to their mutual definition. On the other hand, philosopher Robert Ginsberg talks about ruins and their aesthetics, explaining that their beauty is not only in themselves but also in what is hiding inside of them.

With this work, my goal is to transport viewers to the past and help them understand the historical context of the place and its symbolism, since the perpetuation of the dividing status quo will leave it vulnerable to the disastrous passage of time and eventually lead to its erasure from memory.