see http://www.global-art.org/about/projectdescription.html

TATİANA FERAHİAN

ZEHRA ŞONYA

Contemporary Art from North and South Cyprus
The Little Black Fish

June 19-July 19, 2010

CURATORS
ZEYNEP YASA YAMAN, Associate Professor, Faculty of Letters, Art History Dept., Haccettepe University, Ankara
DR. ANTONIS DANOS, Lecturer in Art History and Theory, Dept. of Multimedia and Graphic Arts, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol

ORGANIZERS
EMAA, European-Mediterrenean Art Association
EKATE, Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts

ARTISTS
SERHAT SELIŞIK- DOĞUŞ BOZKURT, MUSTAFA ERKAN, ZEHRA ŞONYA, ÖZGÜL EZGİN, GRUP 102, KLİTSA ANTONİOU, VİCKY PERİCLEOUS, TATİANA FERAHİAN, KATARİNA ATTALİDOU, MELİTA COUTA, YİANNOS ECOKOMOU, ADİ ATASSİ, ANDREAS SAVVA, YİOULA XATZİGEORGİOU, NİKOS KOUROUSSİS, LİA LAPİTHİ

Organized by European-Mediterian Art Association and Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts, supported by Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency, The Little Land Fish exhibition presents artists from North and South Cyprus. This exhibition is conceived and funded within the scope of “Portable Art” project. Seventeen artists from the island will be hosted in İstanbul with the cooperation of Cypriote non-governmental organizations. The exhibition is open to visit between June19 –July 19 2010.

“My dear child, are you crazy? World!... What is this other world! The world is right here where we are. Life is just as we have it… Samad Behrengi, The Little Black Fish.

Penned by Samad Behrangi, The Little Black Fish is the story of an old fish telling his 12,000 children and grandchildren a tale themed around justice, equality, questioning dogma, and swimming against the tide. The tale concerns the efforts of the little black fish in his troublesome voyage to the sea and eventual freedom. Swimming against the tide, breaching the oppressive barriers, going beyond our limits, leading the society and shedding light on the unimaginable horizons, are the major themes of the book.

The Little Land Fish art exhibition project, inspired by the book, is centred on multi-perspective interpretations and discussions of several concepts and problems, thereby fostering new artistic creativity. Our time is marked by a tension between the historical and the contemporary, which could be relieved by adopting an intermediary position that makes the past subservient to the present. This position, alongside new perspectives, is grounded in the creative domain of art. The relations, the oscillation, the strata between the past and the present, the historical/geographical/cultural fractures, and the connections and disconnections, call for a politicisation of art, and a re-reading and re-interpretation of the role of political power.

The history of civilisation is marked by a tension between various ethnic groups and communities, islanders and continentals, the settled and the nomad. The cultural phenomena of a world that is getting smaller have precipitated discussions around “local culture” and “global culture,” and around individual and collective “cultural identity.” In this framework, little individual stories are often important in revealing and materialising these notions. The exhibition aims at offering artists living in Cyprus, a discursive platform for interpreting and expressing via art, the relation, the dialogue and the tension between the island of Cyprus (a “Little Land Fish”) and the continent (be it Turkey, Greece, Europe, etc.). It also aims – using as starting point the story of the Little Black Fish and its adventures to reach the great seas – at discussing the theoretical transformations of a common identity, of reciprocal becoming, of borders and of transformations.


Opening Programme:
Date : June 19, 2010
Hour : 19.00
Exhibiton Panel : June 20, 2010, 16.00-18.00
Information: Saliha Kasap

SANAT LİMANI
Meclis-i Mebusan Caddesi, Liman İşletmeleri Sahası
Antrepo No:5, Tophane
Tel: 0212 243 90 74 / 0212 516 07 12-13
Contact: sanatlimani@istanbul2010.org


http://www.en.istanbul2010.org/HABER/GP_709122

the little land fish

Contemporary art from Turkish and Greek Cyprus

ISTANBUL-Hürriyet Daily News
Monday, July 5, 2010
Istanbul is hosting an exhibition titled “The Little Land Fish,” which is being organized by the European-Mediterranean Art Association and the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts. The exhibition will present work from artists from both Turkish and Greek Cyprus, hosting a total of 17 artists from the island with the cooperation of Cypriot nongovernmental organizations.

Penned by Samad Behrangi, “The Little Black Fish” is the story of an old fish telling his 12,000 children and grandchildren a tale of justice and equality, questioning dogma and swimming against the tide. The story focuses on the efforts of the little black fish in his troublesome voyage to the sea and eventual freedom.



This art project, inspired by the book, is centered on multi-perspective interpretations and discussions of several concepts and problems, fostering new artistic creativity. It also aims to investigate the meaning of peace and friendship.

The exhibition offers the Cypriot artists a platform for interpreting and expressing the relation, the dialogue and the tension between the island of Cyprus and continental Europe via art.

It also aims to develop a discussion of the theoretical transformations of a common identity, of a reciprocal becoming, of borders and of transformations.

© 2009 Hurriyet Daily News
URL: www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=contemporary-art-from-turkish-and-greek-cyprus-2010-06-24

“THE LITTLE LAND FISH” ART EXHIBITION
Nicosia

Penned by Samad Behrangi, The Little Black Fish is the story of an old fish telling his 12,000 children and grandchildren a tale themed around justice, equality, questioning dogma, and swimming against the tide. The tale concerns the efforts of the little black fish in his troublesome voyage to the sea and eventual freedom. Swimming against the tide, breaching the oppressive barriers, going beyond our limits, leading the society and shedding light on the unimaginable horizons, are the major themes of the book.

The Little Land Fish art exhibition project,inspired by the book, is centred on multiperspectival interpretations and discussions of several concepts and problems, thereby fostering new artistic creativity. Our time is marked by a tension between the historical and the contemporary, which could be relieved by adopting an intermediary position that makes the past subservient to the present. This position, alongside new perspectives, is grounded in the creative domain of art. The relationality, the oscillation, the strata between the past and the present, the historical/geographical/cultural fractures, and the connections and disconnections, call for a politicisation of art, and a re-reading and re-interpretation of the role of political power.

The history of civilisation is marked by tension between various ethnic groups and communities, islanders and continentals, the settled and the nomad. The cultural phenomena of a world that is getting smaller, have precipitated discussions around “local culture” and “global culture.” As the differences of individual and collective “cultural identity” remain un-debatable small individual stories have become important in revealing and materialising these notions.

Conceived with the collaboration of EMAA and the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts (EKATE), The Little Land Fish Exhibition is supported by İstanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. The Exhibition aims at discussing the theoretical enhancements of the common identity, reciprocal becomings, borders, and transformations, via the story of a little fish on the island of Cyprus and its adventure to reach wide-open seas, from multiple theoretical perspectives.

Historic Meeting of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Artists in Gotland

På svenska tack!
(Page updated August 3, 1999)

Read the declaration of the participants, see some photos and
visit the Art Exhibition and look at a videoclip from the Theatre Performance.
News from the first day: Opening message from UNESCO | Snapshots

Participants | Contact

During the last week of July (26 July to 1 August) a historic meeting was hold on Gotland, the Swedish Island in the middle of the Baltic Sea. 17 Greek Cypriot professionals in different cultural fields was blend together with 12 Turkish Cypriot colleagues on Gotland for a week of joint creative expression in various workshops. Due to the current situation in Cyprus, Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot Artists met in Gotland in the service of peace and friendship.

Satisfied with the successful meeting on Gotland the three poets Neshe Yashin, Peter Curman (chairman of KLYS) and Niki Marangou pose in front of Muramaris at the closing party July 31, 1999.
Niki and Neshe took the initiative to the unique cultural meeting hosted by KLYS and the University College of Gotland.
Photo: Mart Marend / Mare Balticum
But culture knows no borders. Thanks to Internet, the creative forces of both parts of the island can communicate with each other. When KLYS, the Umbrella Organisation of the Swedish Artistic Unions, hosted a parallel conference to the big Ministers of Culture Conference entitled "Power of Culture", UNESCO’s Director General Federico Mayor chose to give the opening address at the KLYS Conference. The theme was "The Role of Culture in Areas of Conflict". One example of important cultural efforts given were the two international writer and translator centres on Rhodes and Gotland islands. At the same time the situation on Cyprus was also illuminated as an example of a region where culture plays a fundamental role in identity.

At the KLYS conference both the female poets Niki Marangou - a well-known Greek Cypriot author from Nicosia – and Neshe Yashin - much talked-about Turkish Cypriot poet from northern part of Cyprus - took the scene. They told about a Greek-Turkish magazine that they had created on the Internet, which the authorities could not stop, "Hade" (meaning "Beginning"). It is also Niki and Neshe that are behind the unique cultural meeting that took place in Visby on Gotland during the last week of July. The objective was not to hold a conference or to discuss culture in general. The objective was to work together and thereafter take the result home to Cyprus and exhibit what has been accomplished together in both parts of the island. Of course there was also a number of meetings with Swedish professionals in the arts in connection with the various workshops. It is our hope that this meeting will lay the foundation for a deepening cultural exchange between Swedish and Cypriot professionals in the arts and culture.

The project has gained great respect and sympathy from many corners. UNESCO’s Assistant Director General, cultural sector, Mr. Hernán Crespo-Toral, an art historian from Ecuador, was present for the Cyprus meeting in Visby as well as UNESCO’s Deputy Head of Proceed, Mr. Genc Seiti. UNESCO has also opened a special account for donations and advanced the basic funds necessary to make the meeting possible.

Front Page of the Cypriot Artists meeting
Timetable | Programme | Participants | Portraits | Contact
The Gotland Declaration
Art exhibition | Video from the theatre

First day of meeting - Message from UNESCO | snapshots
Moore photos

http://www.klys.se/cyprus/index.htm
Organisers are KLYS and Gotland University College, Visby

Other contributors: UNESCO, PROCEED, Municipality of Gotland, County Administration of Gotland, Mare Balticum

The Art Exhibition
(Page updated August 2, 1999)

At the end of the week the result of the painters workshops was presented at the Art School of Gotland. Below you find all the artists presented.

artists participating :Emin Cizenel, Andreas Charalambous, Niki Marangou, Doros Heracleous, Andreas Karayan, Asik Mene, Ruzen Atakan, Efithymia Andrianou

http://www.klys.se/cyprus/art-exhibition.htm

05/03/05
Kolektif Productions


Leaps of Faith
An international arts project for the Green Line and the city of Nicosia, Cyprus.

13 - 29 May, 2005

Curated by Katerina Gregos and Erden Kosova

Project partners: Kolektif Productions, Istanbul Foundation for Arts and Culture, Artists-and-Artists

http://www.leaps-of-faith.com




Leaps of Faith is an international exhibition and multi-disciplinary arts project that will be held in Cyprus in May 2005 and will mark the first time in 30 years that a part of the UN controlled Green Line (buffer zone) dividing the island is opened up for use in an international event.

The Theme of the Project
This project aims to animate and activate public spaces, buildings and sites in the divided city of Nicosia and the war-ravaged Green Line, partitioning the capital of Cyprus, through an international public arts event. The purpose of the project is to reinforce communication and exchange but also to encourage an alternative discourse which diverges from the political perspective that has been largely limited to the internal issues surrounding the perennial Cyprus Problem. This means exploring the parameters of the islands unique geographic position being poised, as it is, between three continents, and situated within a region marked by ongoing political conflicts. At the same time, it aims to shift its attention to a host of existing socio-cultural issues and problems that have been marginalised as a result of the realpolitik such as gender and class issues, minority rights, the ill effects of tourism, de-regulated urban expansion, skewed notions of development and economic and sexual exploitation of immigrants. Rather than focusing solely on issues of opposition, division and closure the exhibition and its parallel events hope to focus on the possibilities for such openings political and cultural co-habitation, communication, and social change, as a way of imagining a peaceful and hopeful future for the island.

Venues
For more than 30 years, the UN controlled buffer zone, with its shelled out homes and shops left in ruins since the armed conflict in 1974, has run through the heart of Nicosia, a visually dramatic and alarming reminder of the hostilities that split the island and prevented Cypriots from interacting with each other until April 2003. The exhibition will be held in the charged site of the so-called Green Line in the abandoned buildings and on the street - and will spill into public spaces, buildings and venues on both sides of the divided city, thus calling into question the function of public space as well as of boundaries, visible and invisible, of the past and of the future.

Structure
Leaps of Faith will include a main exhibition organized by its curatorial team, which will feature 22 international and Cypriot artists whose work has conveyed an understanding of the notion of a contested territory, is engaged with a strong sense of social responsibility, operates site-specifically, and is in a position to be able to highlight the particular physiognomy of the city of Nicosia. The exhibition will be comprised of new, site specific works, which have been based on local research and communication.

A series of film screenings, lectures, artists workshops/talks and a conference have been planned to coincide with the exhibition. The artists workshops and talks are being organized by Noise of Coincidence, a Cypriot collaborative artists group. The film screenings will take place at the Weaving Mill in South Nicosia, the Goethe Institut in the UN buffer zone and Arabahmet Cultural Centre in North Nicosia.

A tri-lingual (English-GreekTurkish) catalogue, designed by Cha Cha Cha Design, is being produced for the exhibition. It will include texts by the exhibition curators as well as by Rana Zincir (project initiator, political scientist/economist), John Nassari (artist and academic), Neshe Yasin (poet), and Maria Hadjipavlou (political scientist, lecturer at the University of Cyprus)

Participating artists in exhibition:
ARTLAB (Great Britain), KATERINA ATTALIDES (Cyprus), MARC BIJL (Netherlands), CALL#192 (Cyprus), HUSSEIN CHALAYAN (Cyprus), PHIL COLLINS (Great Britain), MINERVA CUEVAS (Mexico), KENDELL GEERS (South Africa), SEJLA KAMERIC (Bosnia), SERAP KANAY (Cyprus), SIGALIT LANDAU (Israel), PANAYOTIS MICHAEL (Cyprus), DAN PERJOVSCHI (Romania), SUSAN PHILIPSZ (Great Britain), PLATFORMA 9,81 (Croatia), MINNA RAINIO & MARK ROBERTS (Finland), AKRAM ZAATARI (Lebanon)

Participating artists in film/video screenings and presentations:
ARTISTS WITHOUT WALLS (Israel/Palestine), LONNIE VAN BRUMMELEN (The Netherlands), MARINE HUGONNIER (France), DAVID MASSEY (Israel), ANGELA MELITOPOULOS (Germany), KATARINA REJGER & ERIC VAN DEN BROEK (Netherlands) HITO STEYERL (Germany), ZELIMIR ZILNIK (Serbia)

Artists/groups participating with parallel projects:
DEEP, EMAA Group, Maria Anaxagora, Emin Çizenel, Inci Kansu, Ismet Tatar, Katerina, Neophytidou, Mehmet Yashin, Neshe Yashin, Nilgün Güney, Pembe Gaziler, Phanos Kyriacou, Rüya Resat, Sophia Kakoulli & Chara Savvidou & Constantinos Evangelides, Vicky Pericleous, Dr.Yiannis Papadakis, Zehra Sonya & Nicholas Panayi, Hourig Torossian, Horst Weierstall, The 242 Art Group, Mustafa Hulusi, 2/2n (Skevi Afantites, Hein van Dam, Jessica Goes, Meric Kara, Christos Kyriakides Alexis Marinis, Matalou@home, Jorge Moitas, Daniella Pais, Yiorgos Tsaggari, Zenios Tselepis U4EA, Ayca Tuyluoglu, Kyriaki Costa Hadjipierri, Carolien Vlieger), Serhat Selisik, Anil Ozgurun, Anber Onar

Sponsors
Leaps of Faith is supported by the Open Society Institute, the European Cultural Foundation, the Chrest Foundation, the United Nations Bi-communal Development Programme, which is funded by UNDP and USAID, and executed by UNOPS.

Additional support has been received by the Mondriaan Foundation, FRAME (The Finnish Fund for Art Exchange), the British Council, Technical Chamber of Cyprus (ETEK), The Royal Netherlands Embassy, Cyprus Mail, Yeni Düzen and Politis newspapers, Vakiflar Bank, Goethe-Zentrum Nicosia and the Pharos Trust.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of the Republic of Cyprus is giving support to parallel events organized by Greek Cypriot artists groups.

Contact
For more information: Rana Zincir, Project Initiator. E: rzincir@yahoo.com T: 90 533 734 5886
For press material/images: Göknur Gündogan, Kolektif Productions, Project Assistant
E: pr@ifistanbul.com T: 90 212 243 7433
Exhibition opening times: daily 11 am 8pm

http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/1966

zehra şonya

FAMAGUSTA EXHİBİTİON
Posted by: zehra şonya
Produced By: zehra Şonya


isimsiz
Posted by: zehra şonya
Produced By: zehra şonya


isimsiz
Posted by: zehra şonya
Produced By: zehra şonya

www.artcitizens.net/ zehra-sonya

TELEMACHOS KANTHOS (1910 -1993)

http://www.cyprusembassy.fi/main/formmanager/gallery/Pictures/files/Telemachos_Kanthos_Exhibition/thumbs_Thumbnail12208577166_Rachel.jpg




Among the thornbushes of Tillyria (1978) Woodcut


http://www.cyprusembassy.fi/main/index.php?&p=Latest_News/1&artid=1216993261_915

Theodoulos

Title:Resolusion, Year:1995, Media:sculpture / cement,metal, Exhibition-Collection:Green Line / Lydra Street , Nicosia, Dimentions:diam 600 h 600 cm







Title:Resolusion, Year:1995, Media:sculpture / cement,metal, Exhibition-Collection:Green Line / Lydra Street , Nicosia, Dimentions:diam 600 h 600 cm

http://www.theodoulosart.com

Hambis Tsangaris

A self-portrait of Hambis just after the invasion of Cyprus in 1974 - a darker mood.



Hambis Tsangaris: History and fable in print
Hambis Tsangaris the celebrated printmaker, story teller and chronicler of the Cyprus’ modern political history, talks to MELISSA REYNOLDS exclusively for Neos Kosmos
23 Nov 2009
MELISSA REYNOLDS
Legendary printmaker Hambis Tsangaris loves stories. His enchanting illustrated tales of heroes and dragons, fairy enchantresses and nocturnal demons have delighted readers and earned him critical acclaim. Equally skilled in chronicling life's harsher realities, Hambis' work has drawn inspiration from love, war and nationalism. His candid and expressive works provide a visual narrative of time and place infused with a range of raw emotion, from grief and pain to sensual pleasure.

Born in the now occupied village of Kontea in 1947, Hambis grew up in an age of political upheaval, a young witness to the tumultuous events that changed the island's social landscape forever.

The son of a farmer, Hambis began making sketches and prints while working in the family fields, later drawing inspiration from politics and war.

Some of his earliest work deals with the military takeover of Greece in 1967 and is featured in a six-metre long triptych, 'After the Independence,' chronicling almost every pivotal political event in the fourteen years between Cyprus' independence and its invasion in 1974.

The Greek dictatorship placed severe constraints on the arts leading to a decisive meeting between Hambis and A. Tassos, a preeminent Greek printmaker who came to exhibit his work in Cyprus in 1971 at the request of President Makarios.

The printmaker extended an unprecedented invitation to Hambis to study with him in Athens.

"He really changed my life, I became a printmaker because I had his help," he says of his teacher who got him 'completely hooked' on printmaking and prepared him for six years of disciplined graphic art study at the Surikov Institute of Moscow.

Hambis was in Moscow at the time of the Turkish takeover of Famagusta in August of 1974. Desperately worried he travelled to Cyprus by ship for a brief visit in October, bringing with him a tent and vital supplies for his displaced parents and sisters "living under the trees" in the village of Xylotymbou.

After graduation Hambis returned home to a divided country working for a short time as a culture and arts writer for Haravgi newspaper although his thoughts were never far from his artistic aspirations.

Hambis continued to document political and social events in his own way, paying homage to martyred patriots and illustrating the collateral damage of war.

He depicts a grim tragedy that will never be salved; of death, grieving mothers, refugees yearning to return home and of the missing for whom hope has all but vanished.

On a personal level an anguished self-portrait of 1979 reveals his own emotional state at the time and he describes an experience familiar to many, "I lost a lot of my pictures, everything. But the place and the pictures are nothing.

What is really lost are our loved ones who were killed in the war and the people who are still missing.

We hope there will be a solution but nobody can bring back the persons missing or killed, so it's nothing that we lost some things."

Like many refugees Hambis has crossed the checkpoint to make the pilgrimage to his childhood home but is frustrated to view it as a mere outsider, sadly reminiscent of a life he remembers consigned forever to the past, "I went there and saw the village and my house - it was very hard.

Everyone understands that a lot of memories return and all our lives before 1974 are in our memory and we never forget this," he says.
Hambis produced a series of prints which serve as an unofficial record of that time, using sketched memories of the old days working in the fields of his father's farm, of buildings, the Catholic church and even village football matches which the entire community once gathered to watch.

Many of his later series reveal his desire for peace, the imagery capturing the emotional bond between the communities, particularly women, who have reached beyond politics to reconnect through a shared sense of loss.

"All the symbols are the same, right and left, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and their feelings to be together," he explains,"On both sides the women dressed in black cry for the war, there are destroyed homes and two doves, the symbols of peace in Cyprus. These are my feelings and I hope that this day will come."

Reluctant to speculate on the outcome of the country's current settlement negotiations, Hambis is firmly committed to his personal dream of reunification, "Some like partition and some don't; I am with the people who would like my country to be one part."

Hambis demonstrates remarkable creativity in drawing from a diverse range of muses, from war and erotica to folk tales and in doing so generates new ideas and techniques in printmaking.

"If it was not for the coup and invasion my inspiration, my thoughts, would have been on other things. For example for many years I have made a lot of prints about the villages and traditions of Cyprus. I hope that there will never be another war to make prints because it is a normal situation to be (inspired by) what is around me," he explains.

His treatment of old folk tales has identified Hambis as a master storyteller, his beautifully illustrated books of myth and legend treasured by adults and children alike. The first, Spanos and the Forty Dragons, was published in 1986, followed by The Prince of Venice, The Fey Enchantress, and two volumes of Kalikandgiari stories. His tale of the Leprechaun and the Plaything was awarded the state prize for literature in 2007, an accolade bestowed on his illustrations for Kalikandgiari - Cypriot Tales, the following year.

Influenced by 'the language of the story,' Hambis' illustrations are in perfect harmony with scenes and characters and have become their accepted incarnation emulated on stage and in film.' He has conferred on each a unique style, from black and white linocut designs for Spanos, to bold Prince of Venice collages designed to reflect the splendour of the city in which the tale unfolds.

His last, skilfully recounts the testimonies of the old generation and their brushes with the Kalikandgiari, the spectral imps which terrorise housewives and create mischief during the twelve nights of the dodecameron.
In 2008 Hambis finally realised a long term dream of establishing a national printmaking centre and museum to share his skills and promote the art form in Cyprus,

"It was my need to make this museum, to teach people about what I have learned about printmaking," he says passionately.

The remote Turkish Cypriot village of Platanisteia is an unlikely location for one of Cyprus' most intriguing art collections and printmaking school, yet Hambis was instantly attracted by its beauty and solitude as a place 'to be free to create.'

Until just a few years ago the buildings were in ruins.

Today the tranquil ambience and light-filled space provide creative stimulation to students and visitors who flock there to learn from the great printmaker.

In August the centre offers free classes in honour of Tassos and hosts an annual documentary and animated film festival organised by Hambis' son Yiorgos.

The museum houses a global spectrum of contemporary artworks along with prints and tools dating from the 16th century illustrating the history of printmaking techniques.

A second exhibition space is a convergence of works by Greek, Turkish and Cypriot artists, featuring striking prints by Stelios Votsis, Tilemahos Kanthos and Costas Averkiou along with several by Hambis' own students.

Managing the museum and school is a full-time job for Hambis and his wife Helen, and though the demanding schedule leaves little time for creativity he has set himself the ambitious task of completing another book of folk tales while continuing his 'My Friends,' portrait series.

To date Hambis has completed nine personalised tributes to cherished friends including President of the Union of Cyprus Journalists, Andreas Kannaouros, and President of the Republic, Demitris Christofias.
Their relationship goes back years, including their time as fellow students in Moscow.

Hambis strongly believes his friend has both the strength of character and determination to lead the country to an appropriate solution to the Cyprus problem, "I believe in him one hundred per cent, he's a real patriot; he loves the people, he loves Cyprus and all Cypriot people. I am sure about this."

These days Hambis is happy to leave politics to others preferring to focus on the museum and the future, "I have quieter thoughts, I have other things in my head," he admits.

Despite past adversity the artist dwells on the positive aspects of his life which he summarises in just a few simple words, "I feel very good. I say many times that I can die anytime happy because I have so many experiences of life.

I am happy with my work and I will never stop working," he vows, "I feel fulfilled."

"All the symbols are the same, right and left, Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and their feelings to be together. On both sides the women dressed in black cry for the war, there are destroyed homes and two doves, the symbols of peace in Cyprus. These are my feelings and I hope that this day will come." - Hambis Tsangaris -

http://www.neoskosmos.com/news/en/Print-making-Cyprus-Arts-Hambis?page=show