Kristina Inčiūraitė, “Residents” (“Gyventojai”), 2017, video, 7 min, silent
The past and the present are “composted”, and the main characters in the work, the turtles in Varosha, are revealed. They inhabit the abandoned southern quarter of the Cypriot town of Famagusta, Varosha, which has been occupied by the Turkish army since 1974. There are lots of sea turtles foraging in this area, and fishermen regularly catch them in their nets. But nothing is known about nesting numbers in this ghost area.
The film shows not only this gloomy part of the city of Famagusta, but also tourists vacationing in another part of Cyprus – playing cards or practicing Tai Chi. The film records how tourists glance at the watch, as if they were in a hurry or waiting for somebody, though in both locations time runs slow as a turtle.
