Island In The Sun
Description:
Island in the Sun is an audio-visual installation that traces fragmented life stories of migrants living in Cyprus. Through voices, images, and sound, the work reflects on how global migration unfolds on a small Mediterranean island that has become a threshold to Europe for many who arrive from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
For some, Cyprus is the first place their journey touches European soil. For others, it becomes a place of waiting—between work visas, asylum procedures, and uncertain futures. Lives unfold in the spaces between departure and arrival. Families remain far away, while new communities slowly take shape through everyday encounters and through the invisible threads of mobile phones and social media that keep distant worlds connected.
“I am very lucky because the couple I work for treats me well and pays me fairly, compared to other girls.
I hope everyone experiences that kind of respect—but I don’t think so. I am lucky.”
These individual stories exist within Cyprus’ layered history. After the island’s division in 1974 and the economic growth that followed in the south, labor shortages led to the opening of foreign labor pathways in the early 1990s. When Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004, the island became further embedded within regional migration routes.
Today, Cyprus remains both gateway and boundary. Many who arrive carry the weight of financial risk—families taking loans, homes placed as collateral, hopes invested in promises of work abroad. Public conversations often frame migration through fear or suspicion, while the quieter realities of labor, care, resilience, and longing remain less visible.
Island in the Sun invites viewers to linger with these lived experiences. Rather than offering answers, the installation opens a space for listening—where stories of uncertainty, endurance, and imagination emerge, and where the search for dignity and possibility continues to unfold.
Exhibition: Island In The Sun
Video and Photography by Maren Wickwire
Text by Melissa Hekkers
Past Exhibitions:
Goethe-Institut Nicosia, Exhibition Hall
10 – 18 November 2016
Restart Europe | Cyprus Youth Council
23 – 24 of May 2017
Cultural Center Mills in Kaimakli, Nicosia
April 2017 | Nicosia