The Identity Conundrum

By Anna

It's difficult to utter the word identity in Cyprus without engaging in a long endless discussion surrounding specifically national or ethnic identity.

There is a misunderstanding of permanence when it comes to our self-identity. Who we are is continuously contested and renegotiated based on new knowledge, contacts and movements. Therefore there is a misunderstanding that a Cypriot identity can only be one thing or the other it doesn't have the flexibility to contain more than one thing ie. you cannot be Cypriot if you speak Turkish, or you are Greek if you are from the south of the island. This is where your personal identity is challenged based on a communal idea of what your identity should be. It is threatening to those who are grasping their identity too tight to understand its movement cause their worldview and their existence is based on this idea of Cypriotness that it is too fragile. Thus, they cannot accept its change or movement which is inevitable. I believe that this project will be a starting point for young people to discuss and renegotiate their identity within the complicated context of Cyprus. A flexible mindset will be their asset to understand themselves as growing through a continuous movement and thus their identity moves with them along with the communal identity. Identity is a movement you can only understand if you understand its nature. Identity is a 1000 or more moving Layers.

#1000layerseu