Ellada Evangelou

• Project Coordinator, Anna Lindh Foundation
• Co-Founder, Rooftop Theatre
• 2020 Global Fellow, International Society for the Performing Arts
• Artistic and Cultural Director, Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2019
• Member, Leadership Circle of the IMPACT Project

In the context of Cyprus, a division is being made by Cypriots to remember or to forget, to remember the chance for unification and laboring towards a peaceful society, and the option to forget that, and stay in a permanence, infused with priorities related with materialism and consumerism. It has become a struggle, especially as one goes through time, indifference and a distance from remembering has become normalized more and more. Divisions between people, lifestyles and their priorities is now how we chose to live, no longer imposed by external forces. In the context of peace education, I start addressing these issues firstly by adopting the correct geographical definition, referring to the island as a whole (and not only mentioning half of it), and defining its inhabitants as multilingual and multicultural (as opposed to Greek speaking and Greek-Cypriot culture). This way, we offer the possibility to construct an artistic reality through this spectrum with the inclusion of multiple narratives and an acknowledgment of their value.

I couldn't do otherwise, turning a blind eye would have made me physically ill.

There were many striking ones, through the change in people's perspectives, but the most noteworthy is still on its way: it's institutional change.