Nicosia: NOW!

Notes about Nicosia/ Reality Check.

1. Nicosia is a city of two cities. A physical border seperates and connects them. However the reality of the city is not only that and is much more complicated than that. So when we focus only on the division line, we exclude the living city, its inhabitants. We assume that the identity of the city is constructed only by the history of its division. 

2. Recently a theoretical congestion is taking place over Nicosia's particular condition. Being the last European divided capital city, a number of exhibitions, workshops, lectures, competitions etc. are organized, 'celebrating' and anathematizing the border-line condition at the same time. a similar intellectual interest was exhibited during the start of 20th century. British and other travelers visited the unknown island and include in their written narratives significant information about the city and themselves.
3. The city is in transition. Especially, since the Ledra street opening property prices are rising, buildings are renovated, new shops are opening. The city is changing and is going from sleep mode to stand by mode...  
4. The city's present condition, is affected by the political negotiations and could last for years or could change in the next months. When change happens it will be fast and a total regeneration will take place.

5. Separation and lack of communication are not depended solely on the physical borders. They are now and have always been part of the way identities were conceived and constructed in every-day practices and official discourses.  

Could it be that an interesting thing to do now is to make a reality check? To document and map the current situation in detail? To step back and create a still image of the city and try to grasp not the monument-the border- but the ephemeral, the movements and the practices, the dynamic formation of identities? 

to create an archive of the present consisting of:

stories/ 

inventories/ 

mappings/ 

image records/

Workshop: Archive of the present

1. This creation could take advantage the EASA network inside the city. The participants are going to be traveling and crossing the border and will be living in the city for 10 days. 

Part of the workshop archive, could also be the individual narratives of the participants. Students should consider collecting fragments of their own experience of the border, the city and the INCM meeting, the spaces, the discussions...

[TIME: DURING THE INCM MEETING]

2. Markets spaces and exchange: Record the spaces of the two separate markets. Record stories of the sellers, map the goods inside cyprus, where they come from...

[TIME: SATURDAY-SUNDAY-MONDAY 08-09-10.11]

3. Ephemeral identities: record migrant(south) and ?(north) stories and spaces. Maps of migrant move inside the city. from the place they work to the center of the city. 

[TIME: SATURDAY-SUNDAY-MONDAY 08-09-10.11]

Covered markets

1.Tirana 2.City of Mexico 3.Athens

3. Damascus 4.Istanbul 5.Aleppo

On marketplaces

This is a first attempt to list some important parameters on marketplaces.
Functional parameters:
- Types of goods and specialization of marketplace (e.g. food, clothes, computer …)
- Retail / wholesale commerce
- Ways of goods’ exchange
- ….
Spatial parameters:
- Spatial characteristics (kiosk, shop, covered market, arcade, shopping center, shopping mall, vending machine, market square, street market, shopping street, flea market, street vendor…)
- Role in urban fabric (land uses, movements, public/private space…)
- Immovable, movable, e-market
- ….
Social parameters:
- Socioeconomic networks
- Labour
- Gender
- …
Economic parameters:
- Connection with production
- Centrally controlled / Free market
- Formality / informality / illegality
- Scale and type of businesses
- …
Time parameter:
- Permanency / temporality
- …
Historical - cultural parameters
(agora, arcade, forum, suq, bazar, carsi, bezesten, mercado...)

P.S. Waiting for contributions....

2 Αγορές και το όριο - 2 markets and the boundary

In 1964 the Green line separated the city in two sectors. The historical market of Nicosia (shown in the aerial photo as a complex of roofs) remained in the North sector. The need for a similar market in the South led to an architectural competition. Stauros Economou, designed in 1965 the new modern building for a second market (shown as a square building lower part of the photo) of a separated city. 

Agora

Agora in ancient Greek cities is an open space that served as a meeting ground for various activities of the citizens. The name, first found in the works of Homer, connotes both the assembly of the people as well as the physical setting; it was applied by the classical Greeks of the 5th century bc to what they regarded as a typical feature of their life: their daily religious, political, judicial, social, and commercial activity. The agora was located either in the middle of the city or near the harbour, which was surrounded by public buildings and by temples.
Britannica

Inventory of Nicosia Markets 1873 (from Louis Salavator)

1. Manufacters
2. Tailors
3. Calico, rugs, hides
4. European shoemakers
5. Shoemakers
6. Turkish shoes
7. Yarns
8. Cabinet makers
9. Carriages
10. Copper articles
11. Silversmiths
12. Ironware
13. Earthenware
14. Haberdashery
15. Taverns
16. Vegetables and meat
17. Fish
18. Halva (sweets)
19. Women
20. Cotton
21. Flour
22. Wheat and barley
23. Mules

on physical borders No2:

Sometimes, physical borders are constructed in a violent way. They are imposed on space, due to political, economic or other reason. They are spatial symbols of power. They split social and economic networks, by controlling flows and movements. Social inequalities become visible and, possibly, grow because of the existence of physical border. Apart from loss of communication, borders mean exclusion and loss of access for some groups to new opportunities, e.g. exclusion from goods, labour, services and land. Inequalities create formal and informal flows that cross borders and develop new networks of exchange (migration, investments, trade, etc).

In this framework borders divide and connect at the same time. Borders exist for some groups of people and do not exist for others. They divide space in “here” and “there”, “inside” and “outside”. This also means social division between “us” and “others”. Fear is created, but also curiosity about “others”. Division of space is further established by daily practices, but also new ways of border-crossing are invented by the desire of communication.

Could the development of intermediate (public?) spaces of meeting, spaces of inclusion and exchange, spaces of participation, make the distinction between “us” and “others” less effective and reduce social divisions of space?