The Little Land Fish: Experiencing Place, Homeland, and Identity in an Exhibition of Contemporary Cypriot Art

‘Penned by Samad Behrangi, The Little Black Fish is the story of an old fish telling his 12,000 children and grandchildren a tale themed around justice, equality, questioning dogma, and swimming against the tide. The tale concerns the efforts of the little black fish in his troublesome voyage to the sea and eventual freedom’ (The Little Land Fish 9). Taking Behrangi’s tale as the starting point, two Cypriot artists’ associations (Turkish Cypriot EMAA and Greek Cypriot EKATE) put out a call for artists to submit works for an exhibition that took place between June 19th and July 19th, 2010 at the Sanat Liman space, within the framework of the ‘Portable Art’ project of Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture. The works were selected by the author and Zeynep Yasa Yaman, who also co-curated the exhibition.