RESISTANCE THROUGH SOUVLA AND KREMALA – PERFORMATIVE ACTS AND ACTIONS IN A PROTEST IN CYPRUS 2013
Issue: 2018 N 4
Mike Hajimichael
University of Nicosia
Abstract: This article explores the an actual and online street protest which unfolded over a series of weeks in the Spring of 2013 when Cyprus experienced an economic crisis following the ‘bailout’-‘haircut of March 2013. In an effort to contextualize and explore the performative aspects of these events the author links this to art and protest as an expression of alternativeness and an avant-garde spirit embodying resonances of 1960’s and 1970’s art and protest as performative happenings. It is argued, unlike other similar contemporary contexts of economic crisis in the EU, such as Greece, Portugal and Spain, protests in Cyprus may not have been so massively populated but the spirit of performative art was expressed in innovative ways, as documented and shared through social media as an alternative platform of expression, which ultimately fills a void that exists in the contemporary Cypriot political landscape.
Keywords – Performative, Art, Protest, Cyprus, Crisis