With the seemingly limitless public appetite for festivals and cultural producers increasing addiction to the eye-catching big event, more and more of these are being promoted as international or cross-border events. In the context of recent events in Cyprus, Christopher Gordon examines the pitfalls.
If the stone falls on the egg, alas for the egg: if the egg falls on the stone, alas for the egg. old Cypriot proverb
Artists and curators, generally having broad liberal sympathies, have been at the forefront of exploiting the potential for cross-border events particularly where this can demonstrate solidarity with people in conflict zones or emerging from decades of political oppression. Yet the current predicament of Manifesta 6, one of Europes high profile and most innovative art biennials, should give cause for everyone to pause and consider perhaps with more modesty than is customary whether the idealistic cultural intentions and the likely outcomes are in constructive balance.
Division
The Manifesta Foundation, based in Amsterdam, promotes its biennial on contemporary art and society as a three-month event. From mid-September until Christmas, Manifesta 6 was due to take place in Cyprus with divided Nicosia as host city. Had all gone smoothly, it could have been a wonderful bi-communal event on this island. But on 6 June the local partner Nicosia for Art Ltd., (NFA) specially-created by the municipality terminated its contracts with the three international Manifesta curators (who are respectively German, Egyptian and a Russian-born New York resident). Since then, websites have been spawning wild accusations and comment by artists and others who seem to have little understanding of the situation on the ground. Neutral attempts to salvage something through mediation have failed. Expensive and damaging litigation looks inevitable.
The timing and location for Manifesta 6 appeared to be perfect. The Republic of Cyprus entered the European Union in April 2004, and Turkey has now been accepted as a candidate country for future accession, with the negotiations ironically about to reach the cultural chapter. The EU has declared 2008 as its Year of Inter-Cultural Dialogue. Furthermore, since April 2003 the UN- patrolled Green Line which runs across the island has been opened at a number of crossing points allowing for movement that had been denied since the Turkish invasion of 1974. The people of the illegal and wholly unrecognised (except by Turkey) Turkish Republic of North Cyprus subsequently succeeded in disposing of their intransigent President Rauf Denktash and his increasingly-questioned isolationist stand in an election.
So what went wrong with Manifesta 6 after months of careful planning and preparation? Accusations and counter-accusations are flying, and the flames are being fanned by ignorant outside commentators who automatically assume political and nationalist reasons, but this is gross over-simplification. Clearly there have been political mistakes, and maybe administrative shortcomings, but the core of the problem would seem to lie in misunderstandings, inadequate communication and insufficiently sensitive understanding of the day-to-day realities of the local situation.
Historical context
A little background is necessary to aid understanding. The lasting but hugely unhelpful designation of Greek and Turkish Cypriots was actively fostered under divide and rule British colonial control after the island was ceded to it by the debilitated Ottoman Empire in 1878. Many so-called Turkish Cypriots are in fact descended from Greeks who converted to Islam in Ottoman times. Left to their own devices, these two communities geographically isolated since 1974 in a way they never previously had been could probably find a way of living side by side again. After all, they share the common history and culture of the island over more than 1,000 years of foreign domination Byzantines, Crusaders, Genoese, Venetians, Turks and British. But the real problem issue for the citizens of the legitimate Republic is that Turkey since 1974 has had a deliberate policy of colonisation by settlers, mostly poor farmers from Anatolia. Some of these stateless families may now be in their third generation on the island. Nobody, it seems, can tell how many of them there are. They are by culture and tradition hugely different from the Turkish Cypriots, yet share the same territory seized in warfare, and still protected by a substantial and all-too visible Turkish military presence. An EU accession candidate state still maintains a hostile standing army on the territory of an existing member.
In a last desperate throw of the dice by the UN to resolve the partition conflict before the Republic formally joined the EU in May 2004, a Referendum was held in both parts of the island in December 2003. For reunification to take place, both sides had to deliver strong positive support. The desperate citizens of the beleaguered North duly did, but the Greeks in the South already secure in their EU accession and encouraged by their President and Orthodox Church leaders delivered an overwhelming no. Given the very strong feelings about the inadequacy of proposals for key issues such as land and property restitution and compensation, the wonder is that there were courageous Greeks who disregarded self-interest and openly campaigned against the massive tide of public opinion for the long-term yes solution. Amongst these were the Mayor of Nicosia, the Director of NFA Ltd and the main official in the Culture Ministry associated with Manifesta. These individuals are now subject to ill-informed accusations of acting politically against the interests of Turkish Cypriots.
Impasse
The main pretext for the termination of the Manifesta curators contracts seems to be an impasse reached over the location of a school in northern Nicosia. NFA were entirely supportive of bi-communal activities, but to them the curators plans on this element seemed to be tending towards institution-building beyond any agreed framework. At that point, you are into politics, and possibly liable to be seen as legitimising the internationally illegitimate. Besides, one has to bear in mind that the majority of Cypriots in the Republic despite their enormous desire and curiosity have never travelled to the north because on principle they refuse to show passports at checkpoints to armed soldiers of an occupying foreign power in their own country. A major element of Manifesta might therefore, in reality, have been inaccesible to citizens of the sponsoring country. A difficult call.
What lessons, then, emerge from this tragic story? Firstly, that we simply dont understand enough about the role of art in conflict zones, when it may assist understanding and reconciliation, and when it unwittingly exacerbates division. We do have evidence of good practice in the Balkans at a local level following the Yugoslav collapse, but clearly this is different from a high profile international manifestation landing on foreign territory. Secondly, that although cultural bridge-building is extremely important in all sorts of ways, it is only likely to succeed and deliver long-term improvement when accompanied by the sensitivity and timescales for all the parties to be fully aware of what it is they are entering into.
Christopher Gordon is an independent consultant in cultural policy who led for the Council of Europe on its Evaluation of Cultural Policy in Cyprus (report published in 2004).
e: christophergordon@compuserve.com