This leaflet was published in January 2012, by Occupy Buffer Zone, in Nicosia.
Our Cultural Centre
Since New Year’s, the Occupy the Buffer Zone Movement has its own cultural space. The old shop of a luggage maker and the larger shop next door on the corner of the formerly vacant part of Ledra/ Lokmaci Street, between the two checkpoints, are becoming our activity and events centre.
Our aim is culture creation. Not just in the narrow definition of culture that includes the arts and public events, but in a wider sense as well. The centre provides the potential for people to exchange and disseminate knowledge through books and ideas, play music, exhibit artwork and hold workshops and discussions of a social, political and educational nature. It is a space for finding the words, images and sounds to describe and understand who we are, but also redefine ourselves, our values and cultures and to learn from each other.
Here the various communities living in Cyprus can meet and exchange ideas, something that has been denied to them all these years. Our aim is to facilitate the creation of fresh political thought stemming from pancyprian grassroots. By recognising the alienating effects of capitalism, we offer a fertile environment for the emergence of alternative forms of community.
Our cultural centre works parallel to the mainstream and is open to diverse influences, collaboration and the intersection of various forms of expression. We remain free of commercial mediation and the profit-seeking mentality of the market, allowing the generation of cultural values, community bonds and untainted creativity. The space is open, as we are. The cultural centre calls on you, to come and take part in creating our community, in shaping our reality and in shaping a different future.