The authors' contribution to the book 'Fluid Territories' takes the form of a series of Artist Pages that document two different works that have contributed to 'Nomadic Dialogues' undertaken by an international inter-disciplinary research group: the Creative Centre for Fluid Territories (CCFT) of which they are members. CCFT comprises artists, architects, designers and cultural theorists from England, Scotland, Norway and Cyprus whose practices, individually (and collectively), seek to consider the role of artistic research in shaping the legacies of place within the contemporary social and geo-political landscape.
CCFT’s research is constituted through the methodology of 'Travelling Colloquia' (ongoing 2016 to date in UK, Norway and Cyprus), constructed as interwoven, overlapping and interrelated meetings; and 'Nomadic Dialogues', investigations and dissemination points, carried out in specific places as cases for study.
Nomadic Dialogues have so far taken place as follows:
NOMADIC DIALOGUE 1 – Difficult histories, MARCH 2018
Agios Sozomenos, Cyprus - The place of barley
In collaboration with the Department of Architecture at the University of Nicosia, CCFT initiated a series of creative interventions and events within the ruined village of Ayios Sozomenos and the nearby village of Potamia. Given the historic significance of the area, and the ruined village’s more recent complex history leading to its abandonment, along with its proximity to the UN Demilitarised Buffer Zone, it provided powerful and poignant conditions for CCFT's enquiries.
NOMADIC DIALOGUE 2 – Formulation of national narratives, NOVEMBER 2018
Telavåg, Norway - A sense of self
In collaboration with the University of Bergen, Faculty of Art Music and Design and The North Sea Maritime Museum, CCFT responded to the layered history of Telavåg, Norway - a village raised to the ground in World War II by the German army and rebuilt on its original footprint, by villagers after returning from prisoner of war camps, with the exception of the Telle house. The Telle family had provided refuge for Allied agents involved with the 'Shetland Bus'. The Nomadic Dialogue questioned the relation between memory, place, and the constructed self.
Work produced by the authors as part of these 'Nomadic Dialogues' are reinterpreted as Artist Pages for the space of the book, 'Fluid Territories'. 'Beside the Yialias River (2018)' and 'Telavåg, Sotra Island, Norway (13th November 2018)' find form as photographic, propositional and text works.
