IMCA: Natalie Demetriou

Name: Natalie Demetriou
Country Of Origin: Cyprus
Country Now Residing: Cyprus
Title:

I could not imagine the emotional impact of the dead zone to be so strong. I have seen photos of the zone a million times in school textbooks but in truth it never actually seemed real, it was always merely a picture, illustrating a building from the past; a phantom.

Everything is frozen in time. The contrast between the forbidden zone and the rest of the city is remarkable.

The ruins of the hotels and buildings could have been due to a natural cause, but the fence and the bolted wires with the forbidding signs soon make you realise that it has been caused by the war. The bold red sign with the stenciled soldier force you to understand the severity and presence of the armed forces. The sign is not even a meter away from you. You can stand there but you cannot cross. It is the same air that flows in both places; exactly the same soil and they are under the same sun, but yet, you cannot cross.

It is a ghostly area in which nature has retaken her claim on the land. A few meters further down, children’s playground is buried in sand and you can just about see the rusted poles of the swings.
One of the first things that I asked was how people got permission to construct new buildings in the dead zone. The unfinished constructions that were abandoned stood there for more than thirty years without a single indication of time, at least from a distance. It seemed as if the builders were on their lunch break and soon enough they would return to their job, sweating under the strong August sun, and shouting “moro mou” or “yavrum” at beautiful women passing by.

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