YAS! x Allospos
The project is a collaboration between Allospos and YAS!. Allospos is a community of artists and social activists who try to engage and empower community participation through arts in order to achieve social change. The project designs and implements socially engaged art projects in communities and public spaces, and provides people of different ages, knowledge and interests with the opportunity to question, acknowledge, and re-consider their roles as active political citizens. YAS! - Youth for Action and Sustainability - are a group of volunteers of a European Solidarity Corps (ESC) funded by the European Commission, initiated by YEU Cyprus, an NGO based in Nicosia. Their aim is to promote the values and principles of the SDGs, firstly proposed by the UN through the Agenda 2030. These goals are the blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all. They address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate and environmental degradation, prosperity, peace and justice. With a focus on sustainability, the group attempts to promote youth activism as well on the island of Cyprus through a different set of activities, both online and in person.
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The collaboration aims at producing a series of images and murals around Cyprus that address issues of sustainability in the island. The series of images represented were an attempt to raise public awareness on topics connected to the SDGs, which is the input of YAS!, with the artistic side, used to engage the wider public, taken care of by Allospos. Through a series of workshops the two teams have realised an array of socially aware images that target all Cypriots and invites everyone to work towards a specific goal, in order to achieve one specific objective: a sustainable society. The murals were created with the stencil technique and they aim to communicate environmental and societal issues while also improving the aesthetic of the cities as they harmonize with the urban environment.
Image 1: Papamouflon. The image represents the election poster of a candidate for president of the Mouflon community in Cyprus. The Mouflon is the national animal in Cyprus and a recognizable symbol of the endemic fauna, but it is also an endangered species suffering especially due to the loss of their natural habitat. The message of the candidate, Mr. Papamouflon, is a provocative one that calls against the loss of protected areas, in particular due to “development projects” and to the increase of mass tourism that is disrupting natural ecosystems fundamental for the life of wild species. The picture intends to be a provocation and at the same a transposition of the current rhetoric of many politicians, adapted to the point of view of the Mouflons, that are calling for the protection of their habitats from an unsustainable kind of tourism.
Image 2: We are. the image represents a political figure giving a speech. The anthropomorphic character, half human and half mouflon, has a quote on the top, intended to convey the message that we are all connected as part of the ecosystem we live in. On top, the sentence in Greek reads “We are the forests, earth and water”, a slogan used in Cyprus to protest on the issue of the development of the Akamas peninsula. The idea we want to transmit is one of harmonious coexistence and of a political agenda that cares about the natural environment and that commits about its protection.
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Image 3: Cats and wire. The image has taken inspiration from the Disney movie “Lady and the Trump”. The two cats are out on a date, near the green line in Nicosia, but instead of pasta they are connected from eating a wire. The picture wants to represent in an ironic way the normalisation of the post-conflict situation and the division of the city. The cats are common habitants of Cyprus at large, unaffected by the division, but they can also represent the two communities that are united by a wire that hurts them, yet undeniably there is a longing for the other.
Image 4: Cruise. “We are all in the same boat”, the saying goes. Picturing a paper boat made out of money bills we dare to question this saying and ask “Are we all in the same boat”?
While some people risk their life crossing the Mediterranean waters to reach Cyprus’ coasts others make a “smart investment” and are welcomed on the island. It seems, the boat that’s carrying them here is indeed not the same.
Image 5: Hanging in here. In this image in an old school cartoon style a person doing laundry is pictured. The woman is hanging up clothes- on a barbed wire. Just another day.
In context of the “Cyprus Problem” we hereby aim to depict the surreal normalization of a city (and country) that is divided by an armed, militarized border. The conflict literally became part of daily life.
Image 6: The New Normal. The Cypriot issue has become more prominent and normalized in the Cypriot community, and that is exactly what this image represents. Similarly to Image 5, women hanging clothing on a barbed wire represents the normalization of this issue into our daily lives. The presence of the beach and types of clothes emphasize the casualty of our daily actions, which became the New Normal.
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Image 7: Plastic Sea. Every day around 8 million pieces of plastic makes their way into our oceans. Negatively affecting the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants. This picture aims to spread awareness about sea pollution and one of its many destructive consequences. Sea turtles are one of the many animals affected, especially when they see a plastic bag and mistake it for their food, jellyfish, which leads to the death of many of them. The black rectangle symbolizes the darkness they live in areas such as trash islands when very little light gets through the sea surface.
