THE RIGHT TO HOME: DIARIES OF LIMASSOL'S GENTRIFICATION
30 October – 2 November 2025
Limassol, Cyprus
Curated by Androula Kafa
Presented by The Island Club in the framework of the Art Explora Festival and Limassol Art Walks, with the collaboration of the Synergeio Performing Arts Centre and Tapper Bar. Hospitality partner: EKA Group.
In recent years, a combination of geopolitical shifts and state policies has brought a surge of foreign investments, businesses, and residents to Cyprus, with Limassol arguably at the centre of these developments. As a result, the city has undergone unprecedented urban change, triggering rapid gentrification and a prolonged housing and living crisis. While dominant discourse celebrates an exciting new future for Limassol, many long-term residents, particularly members of vulnerable communities and disadvantaged socioeconomic groups, face displacement and financial instability due to skyrocketing rents and living costs. They grapple with the radical transformation of their neighbourhoods, the dismantling of social bonds, and the urgent need to renegotiate identity and belonging. Limassol’s art scene has also been deeply affected, as insufficient state and institutional support has put artists in a precarious position, with many having already left the city or witnessing their communities fragment.
The Right to Home bears witness to the struggles of staying, resisting, and imagining the future in Limassol amid rapid urban development and gentrification. Focusing on voices among the city’s local creative community and bringing together over twenty artists, academics, activists, journalists, and social practitioners, the programme unfolds around a group exhibition that serves as the stage for screenings, performances, concerts, open discussions, workshops, podcasts, and publications. Hosted at EKA Group’s landmark garage and the Synergeio Performing Arts Centre, the project bridges Limassol’s contemporary cultural scene with its artistic and industrial legacies.
Contributions range from personal testimonies to critical dialogue, addressing issues of precariousness and survival, displacement and belonging, resignation and resilience, positioning Limassol both as a local case-study and as a node within global conversations on violent urban change. Together, participants trace Limassol’s layered histories, document a present marked by loss yet sustained by community, and attempt to envision more just and sustainable futures in the place they call home but can no longer live in—making The Right to Home a collective diary and living archive of a city, and its people, in transformation.
Participants
Ria Alexandrou, Eleni Anastassiou, Adonis Archontides, belie baou, dj harama, DJ Katta, Dolores, Franc Archive, Aggela Ioannidou, Androula Kafa, Kalaqs, Koullou|Makka (Angela Stavrou, roz), Theodoros Kouros, Niki Laou, Maria Hadjimichael, Mava, Mono, MUSHA, Santa Nomeni, Shuffle, Christina Papakyriacou, Marios Pavlou, Nnocxela, Phivos Philitas, Acid Reflex, Elena Savvidou, Something Messy, tria plin tria, ΚαππαΧι.
Parallel Programme
Walking, Wheeling and Writing in the City, a workshop by Koullou|Makka Collective [URL]
In the Shadow of the Towers, a screening programme with new works by Phivos Philitas, Adonis Archontides, and Androula Kafa [URL]
Τrapped in Wordscapes and Staged Territories, a participatory poetry session hosted by Aggela Ioannidou [URL]
Exhibition tour with the artists and curator
Limassol: an open conversation about gentrification and culture, with contributions by Dr. Maria Hadjimichael, Dr. Theodoros Kouros, and participating artists [URL]
Live concert: Something Messy, MUSHA, Mava + ΚαππαΧι + Nnocxela [URL]
Afterparty at Tapper Bar with Mono, belie baou x tria plin tria, Kalaqs, Shuffle, dj harama, DJ Katta, Dolores, Acid Reflex