Twice a Stranger

‘Twice a Stranger’ is an exhibition about the greatest forced migrations and population exchanges of the 20th century, when millions of people were uprooted and forced to move to new homelands.
Personal testimonies and rare archive footage are combined in multimedia video installations that bring visitors face-to-face with the survivors of these traumatic events. Designed by the Swedish architect Johan Annerherd, the exhibition encourages visitors to explore the space through a virtual labyrinth to create their own narrative through eyewitness accounts, audio-visual archive material and unique period photos.

Through four themes: History, The Tourney, Home and Trauma, the exhibition travels from the Greek-Turkish exchange in 1923 to the German-Polish forced migration at the end of World War II through the Partition of India and to the Cyprus crisis of 1963 and the Turkish invasion of 1974.

These stories uncover the common human experience of lost homelands and of communities ripped apart. These are the stories of being ‘Twice a Stranger’.

ORGANISATION
The exhibition was created by the Greek production company Anemon (www.anemon.gr) with the support of the Culture Programme of the EU. Co-organisers are The Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, the University of Oxford, the Benaki Museum (Athens), the German firm Tolle Idee! and Istanbul-Bilgi University. It is being supported by the Goethe Institut, the British Council, the Greek Refugee Council and the Centre for Asia Minor Studies (Athens). The project’s historical advisers are Emeritus Professor Roger Zetter (University of Oxford) and the writer and editor at the Economist newspaper Bruce Clark.
In Cyprus, the exhibition’s media sponsor is Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (RIK) and is being organized with the support of CCMC (Cyprus Community Media Centre), the Association for Historical Dialogue and Research (AHDR) and with the support of Asia Minor Cypriot's Association.

WEBSITE www.twiceastranger.net
The website twiceastranger.net includes personal testimonies and rare archive cinematic and photographic material. Users can navigate through the themes of the exhibition in English, Greek and Turkish. For the latest information about events, special screenings or to post a comment about the project, visit the ‘Twice a Stranger’ Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/twiceastranger

THE EXHIBITION’S JOURNEY
‘Twice a Stranger’ was shown at Istanbul-Bilgi University in Istanbul between February and May 2012. It will be shown in Cyprus, at the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia (29th May – 2nd September 2012) and in Athens, at the Benaki Museum (October – December 2012).

THE EXHIBITION ‘TWICE A STRANGER’ OPENS AT
THE LEVENTIS MUNICIPAL MUSEUM OF NICOSIA 28th May 2012, 19:30

The Greek Ambassador in Cyprus, Mr. Vasilis Papaioannou will open the exhibition.