Trauma, space and embodiment: the sensorium of a divided city
Journal
Journal of War & Culture Studies
Date Issued
2008
Author(s)
DOI
10.1386/jwcs.1.3.309_1
Abstract
This paper investigates the ways in which the divided city of Nicosia (Cyprus),
scarred by wars and ethnic conflicts that have left open wounds in the fabric of the
city, tries to heal itself and incorporate its traumatic memories within its spatial
organization, and asks if such an incorporation is possible. The visual and sensorial language of the city of Nicosia is examined in detail in relation to its ‘politography’, concentrating on issues of space, borders (both physical and psychic),
memory and trauma. Their interactions with hegemonic and personal narratives
are discussed in order to interrogate artistic intersections in the spatial and psychic parameters of the city. The paper aims to demonstrate that artistic production in the city of Nicosia is embedded in the space of the city. Like the space of the
city, these works demand our participation, our interaction through all our
senses. Encounters with these works, like encounters with the city, produce
embodied experiences that are no longer framed as representations. In experiencing these works and the city, one is unable to rely solely on vision, as they call for
our hearing, smell and tactility in comprehending spatially and artistically the
impact of war and conflict. It is only by understanding the sensorial impact of
trauma that one can begin to comprehend the political and social conditions in the
city of Nicosia and its artistic production.
scarred by wars and ethnic conflicts that have left open wounds in the fabric of the
city, tries to heal itself and incorporate its traumatic memories within its spatial
organization, and asks if such an incorporation is possible. The visual and sensorial language of the city of Nicosia is examined in detail in relation to its ‘politography’, concentrating on issues of space, borders (both physical and psychic),
memory and trauma. Their interactions with hegemonic and personal narratives
are discussed in order to interrogate artistic intersections in the spatial and psychic parameters of the city. The paper aims to demonstrate that artistic production in the city of Nicosia is embedded in the space of the city. Like the space of the
city, these works demand our participation, our interaction through all our
senses. Encounters with these works, like encounters with the city, produce
embodied experiences that are no longer framed as representations. In experiencing these works and the city, one is unable to rely solely on vision, as they call for
our hearing, smell and tactility in comprehending spatially and artistically the
impact of war and conflict. It is only by understanding the sensorial impact of
trauma that one can begin to comprehend the political and social conditions in the
city of Nicosia and its artistic production.