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Christos Bokoros - “Odos Eleftherias”
Exhibition at The Office Gallery
T
he Office Gallery is tucked deep within
the Venetian city walls of Nicosia, having
taken root at the edge of town but standing at
its innermost centre. Located on the eerie and
removed Kleanthi Christofidi Street, at number
32, it walks a tightrope over the divide of his-
tory. Before it became a war zone, Kleanthi
Christofidi was an industrious street lined with
stable shops – now time is imprinted in disin-
tegration and rust on the shuttered storefronts
standing in an almost military formation along
this narrow, high street. To look down Kleanthi
Christofidi is to trigger a visceral connection to
history, to implicitly feel its former crowded-
ness. It is a place both disconcerting and in-
triguing. It is open to redefinition.
An evocation of the craftsmen of old Nicosia
The Office Gallery was deliberately conceived in
this setting in an attempt to shake the foundations of
conventional urban living in Nicosia, to stimulate
its nervous system from the centre. The premises of
the Office Gallery were used for over half a century
as the workshop of shoemakerAndreasMatsas and
even today the space is home to the aura Matsas
created; his signature is visible in the space, an evo-
cation of the craftsmen of old Nicosia.
National Memory by Christos Bokoros
Candles (at the memory front)