Queering the soil: Reimagining landscape and identity in queer artistic practices in Cyprus

Challenging Legacies in Post-Colonial and Post-Socialist Notions of Place

Abstract

This article concentrates on the work of artists who identify as queer in Cyprus, a place marked by colonialism, rival nationalisms and ethno-political division. More specifically, it examines the ways their work disrupts confining perceptions of nationhood, gender and sexuality that suppress difference and delimit identity in a conflict-ridden, ethnically divided society. These ideas are discussed in relation to the examples of Krista Papista, a Greek Cypriot visual artist, musician and performer, and Hasan Aksaygın, a Turkish Cypriot artist, whose work encompasses elements of painting, performance and installation. As I argue in this article, by calling forth interpretations of “queer” that go beyond the term’s common application as an adjective or a noun, these artists employ tactics of queer use. In so doing, they inscribe queer life and experiences into landscapes, traditions and symbols, as in “over” the soil, used here as a metaphor to point to those elements that are commonly invoked in delineating the physical and imaginary topos of the nation from which people identifying as queer are often excluded as non-conforming others. As such, they make space for an alternative topos to emerge, where expanded notions of gender, identity and belonging are cultivated away from established stereotypes and divisive, nationalist narratives.