the book is out!

Cornelia Mittendorfer uses photography to pose questions about how to perceive and depict traumatic events. Taking Cyprus as an example, green line examines the complexity of one of the violent and still unresolved conflicts of the present day. The focus is on how spaces change, including their repurposing and secularisation during the more than 40 years since the occupation of the North. The photographs are accompanied by portraits of the people who have entrusted their stories to the artist. This work deals not only with destructive power, but also with a resistance to destruction. Together, the photos and essayistic texts create a space that is fragmented yet resonant, where memories echo with fault lines and contradictions. 

Rolf Sachsse follows the common thread of doubling in Mittendorfer’s work to develop his interpretation of the pictures and text. Yiannis Papadakis locates the conflict in its geopolitical framework.

Cornelia Mittendorfer. green line. evocative of an archeology of desperation and desire EDITOR Rolf Sachsse TEXT Cornelia Mittendorfer, Rolf Sachsse, Yiannis Papadakis DESIGN Martina Gaigg DETAILS English/German, Paperback, 25 . 21 cm, 192 pages, 105 ills. in b/w. Euro 33,– ISBN_978-3-903153-57-8  

VfmK, Verlag für moderne Kunst, Vienna, AT. 

You can also buy the book from the artist. Please write an email to: c.mittendorfer (at) chello.at. 

The Book was kindly supported by Bildrecht GmbH, Land Oberösterreich and Verein Ausstellungshaus für christliche Kunst e.V. Munich.

sorry, some corrections are to be done:

p. 22: 

Malia | Bağlarbaşı (South). The graves in the small cemetery all have the same date: 10. 3. 1964. Malia was a mixed village. The Turkish Cypriots always constituted the clear majority up to 88% of the village’s population. At the beginning of March 1964, following an attack by Greek Cypriot forces in which several Turkish Cypriots were killed, approximately 1000 Turkish Cypriots—both those from Malia and those who had taken refuge there—fled the village. By December 1970 the Republic of Cyprus government claimed to have spent 6719 pounds repairing 103 Turkish Cypriot houses in Malia that had been damaged and burned in March 1964. In 1974, once again the entire Turkish Cypriot population of Malia fled the village. (2013)

p. 138:

Kalo Chorio Soleas turned out to lay in the North and not in the Buffer Zone. Lately some people start to live there again.

p. 144-145:

Rustem's Bookshop in Lefkoşa (North) is the oldest bookshop in Cyprus, which also used to be a publisher. It was founded by Kemal Rustem in 1938. Upstairs, unsold inventory of publications in various languages is stored. Lunch is now served in the sky-blue former publishing rooms. (2014)