Bunkerologies
Pame Kaimakli promotional materialOur performative installation explores the dead ends that punctuate Kaimakli. Through ethnographic research and drawing on existing scholarship on the edges of demilitarised zones, we navigate the duty of silence surrounding these tight, haphazard spaces. How does this duty vary along gendered lines, and how do we belong alongside their artefacts?
Reading participatory scripts with visitorsThis research was also presented at the ‘Everyday experiences of conflict: the daily life, legacies & textures of war’ symposium at the University of Oxford.
Exhibition catalogue excerpt. Written by Ibrahim Ince and Rosanna O’KeeffeBelow are some slides outlining the artistic practice the duo, Andriana and Sophie, had undertaken for their Pame Kaimakli activation:
Mesaoria waits
People say, “think
outside the box all the time,
but I’m tired of all the options;
they overwhelm me.
I don’t know where to start from.
What if I need a box to understand
what I haven’t been given
the agency, the ok go;
to my agency to understand.
What if I needed a box within a
box within a box
A frame within a frame within a
frame to experience a portal
of Cypriot stalemates.
Where memories stay stale
and mates are only those
from leftist parties (Comrade mates)
and those who speak of
friendship in folklore commonalities
(primordial mates)
–
What if through frames
of frames of frames; time
gets decolonised (not on
purpose ofcourse) but in
bystanders.
The vacuum of Mesaoria is
being gazed upon from bunker frames
and it gets shy.
Bystanders can’t stand to
look closely. They’re afraid
of their own breath,
as they were very well taught to do so.
Alive in paradoxes
Mesaoria on the other hand
experiences itself in a different way.
She wakes up as a valley and sleeps as one.
No human steps on her so she has no complaints.
Other species flourish more, they move.
Yes the soil could’ve been turned a bit more but no complaints.
She’s not complaining cause she is gazed upon like she’s on a stage, and there’s audience on both sides admiring, anticipating her every move.
She is spoken of in Cypriot roots, Turkish - Greek weeds, English, Arabic, Romanian, African,
you get the jist.
She is sober by sobering up and facing the seasons
She is the field, the portal
and the distance to be crossed over.
Do you think her audiences will catch onto the fact that her bufferings are invitations for participation?
Nicosia, October 2025
Andriana Lagoudes
~ performed at ‘Bunkerologies’ performative installation by Andriana Lagoudes and Sophie Fetokaki at Pame Kaimakli Festival.
People say, “think
outside the box all the time,
but I’m tired of all the options;
they overwhelm me.
I don’t know where to start from.
What if I need a box to understand
what I haven’t been given
the agency, the ok go;
to my agency to understand.
What if I needed a box within a
box within a box
A frame within a frame within a
frame to experience a portal
of Cypriot stalemates.
Where memories stay stale
and mates are only those
from leftist parties (Comrade mates)
and those who speak of
friendship in folklore commonalities
(primordial mates)
–
What if through frames
of frames of frames; time
gets decolonised (not on
purpose ofcourse) but in
bystanders.
The vacuum of Mesaoria is
being gazed upon from bunker frames
and it gets shy.
Bystanders can’t stand to
look closely. They’re afraid
of their own breath,
as they were very well taught to do so.
Alive in paradoxes
Mesaoria on the other hand
experiences itself in a different way.
She wakes up as a valley and sleeps as one.
No human steps on her so she has no complaints.
Other species flourish more, they move.
Yes the soil could’ve been turned a bit more but no complaints.
She’s not complaining cause she is gazed upon like she’s on a stage, and there’s audience on both sides admiring, anticipating her every move.
She is spoken of in Cypriot roots, Turkish - Greek weeds, English, Arabic, Romanian, African,
you get the jist.
She is sober by sobering up and facing the seasons
She is the field, the portal
and the distance to be crossed over.
Do you think her audiences will catch onto the fact that her bufferings are invitations for participation?
Nicosia, October 2025
Andriana Lagoudes
~ performed at ‘Bunkerologies’ performative installation by Andriana Lagoudes and Sophie Fetokaki at Pame Kaimakli Festival.
Andriana Lagoudes & Sophie Fetokaki © 2025