Yilan Zhao

The spatial division and increasing estrangement effects of this displacement manifest in a form of nostalgia, which Svetlana Boym has described as a longing for another time (Svetlana Boym, 2007). From a metaphorical, transcendental homelessness to a literal sense of loss, nostalgia becomes experiences as an abstract relationship between past and present, between home, nationhood, and culture, a longing for the last and device through which to mediate the estrangement of aspects of daily life and links to identity, home, and country that have arisen as a result of the conflict and ongoing division.

The Museum of Estrangement, located in the moat next to the old walled city of Nicosia, intends to explore the concept and experiences of estrangement though daily objects, arts, and installations that invoke the notions of division, and nostalgia. Through the exploration of the architectural environment, the museum spaces displace estrangement from everyday contexts into an ironic and artistic framework. This spatial play on estrangement reinvents the rhythm of time slowing it down, speeding it up, to create a sense of the uncanny. Detached from reality, the museum creates a ‘third place’, and a formal and ritual space in which to reflect on exile, unsettling remains, and the estrangement of conflict and division.