The Through the roadblocks: realities in raw motion conference is co-organised by NeMe, the Department of Multimedia and Graphic Arts (Art History and Theory Research Lab) of the Cyprus University of Technology, and the Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture.

Through the roadblocks: realities in raw motion aims to examine the complex dynamics and often overlooked inter-connections between inclusion and exclusion, sharing and denial, identity and borders, the status of citizenship and the fundamental aporia of democracy in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The conference is held during the Cypriot Presidency of the European Union, which is not only a motive to examine the recent history of the divided island of Cyprus, but also a perfect occasion to spotlight the roadblocks, whether real, implied, concealed and repressed which still exist within this region.

After the "Arab Spring" and Occupy movements, the enthusiasm which existed only one year ago has now turned into a long-lasting process of restructuring and reverberations of different policies and developments. Does everything, as Tomasi di Lampedusa's famous saying reminds us, have to change, so that everything can stay the same, or can we really say some roadblocks were knocked down and passed through? Whatever the answer may be, what is the role of art and what happens when art meets politics, and vice versa?

Roadblocks and borders exist to exclude and stop crossings; yet, people, ideas, culture and in many cases, trading of political 'products' expose the porosity of these enforced demarcation lines. What is the nature of, and the transformations that take place during, these crossings? And, are roadblocks of any kind simply division/obstruction 'lines' or are they spaces that contain (in all meanings of the word) activities that are unique to them?

To answer these, and many other questions, philosophers and artists, theorists and activists, from different professional fields and from different parts of the world will meet in Limassol, showing that already this unique event helps to create a shared engine which puts in question different roadblocks.

Keynote speakers: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Tariq Ali.
The conference programme includes a total of fifty speakers.

The language of the conference is English. Attendance is free and open to all.

Venues

23 November 2012, Berengharia Room, Evagoras Lanitis Centre, Limassol, Cyprus
24, 25 November 2012, Pefkios Georgiades Amphitheatre, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

Sponsors to date include: The Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture, Cyprus University of Technology, Embassy of Israel in Cyprus, Australia Council of the Arts, Roberto Cimetta fund.