A portrait of a divided Nicosia.
The book
Foxtrot Gate – Cyprus is part of a series of publications about nations at
war, or in crisis; conceived by Giovanna Silva, they tell the stories of different countries through photographs of their multifaceted landscapes. In the case of
Cyprus, Silva has attempted to decipher Nicosia's recent past and contested present, their symbols and physical structures – along with related erasures, which are inscribed in the landscape of the divided capital itself, and in particular the so-called Buffer Zone (or Green Line) which cuts through the center of the old town of Nicosia, separating the city into southern and northern sections. “The two different views of Nicosia's past and future are evident in the contrasting physical structures which comprise each side of the Green Line,” writes Yannis Papadakis. “On the Turkish Cypriot side these are permanent walls, walls which create abrupt dead ends on roads that once continued; on the Greek Cypriot side, they are temporary constructions, made of sand-bags and barbed wire which can easily be removed. Both sides put forth fervent claims of independence and sovereignty […] The very fact of its division makes Nicosia a peculiar kind of place.” The publication includes a selection of essays by Yannis Papadakis, Konstantina Zanou, and Giorgos Charalambous, and a guide to the UN Buffer Zone.
Giovanna Silva lives and works in Milan. As a
photographer, she exposed at the Venice Biennale 2006 her work about the city of Bogotà, Colombia. She is the author of
Desertions, a chronicle of an american trip with designer
Enzo Mari. From 2005-2007 she contributed to
Domus and since september 2007 until september 2011 she was the Photo Editor of
Abitare. She photographed Renzo Piano and Zaha Hadid for the Abitare's special issues
Being Renzo Piano and
Being Zaha Hadid, 6 month experience of architecture in the making. In 2011 she published the book,
Orantes, ed. Quodlibet. In 2012 she published
Narratives/Relazioni: Baghdad, Green Zone, Red Zone, Babylon,
Mousse Publishing.
She is in the editorial board of
San Rocco Magazine. She is the editor of
Humboldt Books. She has a column on Doppiozero.