University of Nicosia, Urban Gorillas and Plastique Fantastique
FUSKOPOLIS
Workshop at the University of Nicosia
Cyprus, 2014-2015
A cooperation between Urban Gorillas and Plastique Fantastique.
During a workshop held in November 2014 at the University of Nicosia, we designed and produced three different pneumatic structures. The result was so successful that we decided to launch an open call for artists in order to organise a festival: the FUSKOPOLIS Festival.
As a result of this process, the FUSKOPOLIS project was held for two days in each of the four Cypriot cities between March and April 2015. The sites chosen were important historical landmarks: the castles of Larnaca, Limassol and Paphos, while in Nicosia the events took place at the Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus. The project also acquired a bi-communal dimension, with an installation placed inside and outside Bedestan (the former St Nicholas Church), in the northern part of Nicosia.
This endeavour was an attempt to raise awareness of public spaces within the Turkish Cypriot community and to bring members of the two communities together through a series of activities that initiated social interaction.
The main tools adopted to realise this mission consisted of participatory action research, both in terms of direct urban interventions and observational on-site research.
Workshop direction:
Marco Canevacci (Plastique Fantastique)
Workshop organisers
Urban Gorillas NGO
University of Nicosia – Department of Architecture
Workshop participants: Stavri Papadopoulou, Georgios Papiotis, Marina Neofytou, Stavroula Michael, Raina Kanari, Anna Merry, Anastasia Taki, Ioanna Joseph, Veronica Antoniou, Nikoleta Dimitriou, Angeliki Koutsodimitropoulou, Christina Kouloumpri, Savvas Anastasiou, Sepear Nakh Javan, Zacharias Chrysostomou, Olivier Sax, Charis Mountis