One Face

Nicosia , Cyprus 2017/2018

“We are beautifully different as two halves of a face and beautifully similar as a whole.”

One Face was developed through multiple visits to Nicosia between 2017 and 2018, the last remaining divided capital city in the world. The project emerged from a desire to understand how two communities living on the same island, yet separated by a physical and symbolic border, experience identity, division, and coexistence.

“When arriving in Nicosia, discovering its people and attempting to experience the city beyond the presence of the separation wall, I began to see it as one face. I encountered many differences between both sides, but what stood out most through conversations with locals were the similarities.”

The project unfolded in two phases.

During the first phase, two large portraits of the same woman were installed on opposite sides of the separation line. Each portrait showed half of her face covered by one hand, mirrored across the divide. Her eyes were closed, suggesting introspection, distance, and a partial inability to fully see the other side. Together, the two images formed a fragmented whole, inviting viewers to mentally reconstruct a single identity across the wall.

A year later, the artist returned to continue the project. The same portraits were installed again on both sides of the city, maintaining the gesture of the hands covering half of the face. This time, however, the visible eyes were open.

This shift marked a transition from introspection to awareness. The open gaze becomes an invitation to recognize shared humanity, to confront inherited divisions, and to reconsider how the other is perceived.

Throughout the project, blue and red function as recurring visual markers associated with inherited national identities and political division. In the second phase of the work, these colors were intentionally reversed across both sides of the city, disrupting fixed associations and questioning how identity and territory are visually constructed.

Installed directly within the city of Nicosia, One Face transforms the city into a site of reflection, where the border is not only a line of separation but also a surface onto which identity, perception, and projection can be reconsidered.

One Face | South side of Nicosia, July 2018