Open Call for participation in the refugee and migrants integration “Face Forward…into my home”

Nicosia 2030 and the Nicosia International Festival 2024 invite adults and young people above 15 years old who were forced to leave their homelands and who are currently rebuilding their lives in Cyprus, to participate in the workshop titled “Face Forward…into my home”.

The workshop forms part of the Parallel Program of the 5th edition of the Nicosia International Festival (NIF) co-organised with ΕΜΣΤ (National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens) with the kind support of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Cyprus. The program forms part of Nicosia’s bid to become the European Capital of Culture in 2030.

“Face Forward…into my home” is an interactive art program including experiential workshops, and a photography exhibition of the same title presenting the participants’ portraits alongside with their stories. The participants are invited to share amongst themselves feelings, memories, hopes and aspirations, inspired by artworks from the ΕΜΣΤ collection and the Cypriot collection of the State Gallery, which include works of art related to migration and other contemporary issues

The ΕΜΣΤ Education Curator Marina Tsekou stated that “through this process, a series of personal narratives gradually emerged, stories od individuals of different national of ethnic origins, religious backgrounds and beliefs, family status, social standing, age, sexual orientation and gender identity. Taken as a whole, these narratives exhibit a diversity of character, outlook, intensity, emotional colouring and ways of thinking. The common care of all these stories, however, is the profound need to communicate and the dreams of the future”. “Face Forward…into my home” as a project and exhibition, approaches the refugee issue in a way which is best described in the words of Emmanuel Lévinas: "To see the face is to speak for the world".

The first meeting will take place on Wednesday, 3 July 2024 (4pm) at the Nicosia Municipal Theatre (6 Mousiou Street 6, 1097 Nicosia). Translation will be provided to facilitate communication between participants and the workshop team.

To submit their interest to participate in the program “Face Forward…into my home”, participants are required to contact Claudia Konyalian from UNHCR Cyprus at +357 22 359 043 or by email cypni@unhcr.org by 1 July 2024.

The work is part of the artistic project “Face Forward...into my home”, by the ΕΜΣΤ | National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens in cooperation with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and funded by the European Commission.

Photo by Yiannis Vastardis, 2017