A research project takes shape as an exhibition this weekend presenting queer stories and memories, collected on the island. Titled My Journey Through Your Memories, the exhibition is part of the ongoing research project Collecting Queer Memories from Cyprus, supported by Celadon Centre for Arts & Ecologies and funded by the European Union – Goethe-Institute.

It brings together personal stories from queer individuals living on the island through the objects that carry those stories. This week, it presents its findings so far in an exhibition held at Koraï Space in Nicosia, running from Friday to Monday.

Initiated in February 2025 by Italian art historian and independent researcher Alessandro Cazzola, the project invites participants to select, from their ocean of memories, one tangible testimony of an episode that holds particular significance in the formation of their non-normative and/or non-conforming identities.

Through one-on-one conversations and private moments of sharing, Cazzola encouraged each participant to accompany their chosen object with a text (in any language, length or form) to help situate and contextualise the memory. These textual contributions reflect each participant’s process of revisiting and reinterpreting past experiences in light of who they are today.

To date, 20 contributions, each comprising an object and a text, have been collected and will be presented publicly. Rooted in Cyprus, these memories are naturally interconnected, and were shared in cafés, homes, pubs, art spaces, and the middle of the street. Some memories capture precise, vivid moments, while others extend across longer periods.

Together, they form fragmented tiles of the larger mosaic of Cyprus’ recent queer history, which in turn opens up to a wider view – one that looks back in time and remains largely unexplored, having neither been institutionalised nor historicised, and which risks losing its traces as time passes and lives move on.

Bringing these testimonies into a public space gives a possibility of preserving them – not only by making them visible, but by entrusting them through collective memory. In doing so, they interact with each other, transgress dominant narratives and encourage the sharing and the safeguarding of more stories that stay hidden from public view.

This initiative seeks to contribute to the renewed sense of cohesion within queer communities in Cyprus, through a flexible, yet enduring platform: a space for sharing, empowerment, care and remembrance.

My Journey Through your Memories

Exhibition on queer memories based on research project by Alessandro Cazzola. March 27-30. Koraï Space, Nicosia. Opening night: 6pm-9pm. Guided tour: 5pm. Open daily: 3pm-7pm. www.koraispace.com.  [email protected]