European Mediterranean Art Association (EMAA)

The European Mediterranean Art Association (EMAA) was officially established in December 2002, bringing young people to its centre under the leadership of artist Nilgün Güney. Since its inception the association has been against any kind of discrimination and has built its work based on this philosophy. For this reason, instead of being an organization formed by artists related only to a certain field of art, the Association has continued its formation by choosing to be interdisciplinary, and taking in members from creative fields like art historians, educators, curators, and beyond that, anyone who had strong intellectual foundations and an interest in art.

The Association, which has expressed efforts for peace on the island since its establishment, has been active in joint projects and events since 2004, when the checkpoints were opened, and has carried out numerous projects and activities in uniting and integrating island artists. Some of these are the Out of Line event held in the buffer zone with the opening of the checkpoints, Art Aware artist talks and exhibition, From Sunset to Sunset artist camp, Zero Visibility exhibition in Diyarbakır, and the Little Black Fish exhibition as part of the Istanbul 2010 cultural capital projects. In addition, the association has won four project applications with Stelios Foundation and European Union (EU) via financing within the scope of joint projects. Confrontation through Art and (Im)permanence: Famagusta White Nights are among the projects that have been carried out recently.

In addition to advocating peace in Cyprus and its artistic activities, the Association shows sensitivity towards gender equality and environmental events and participates in these struggles.

The Association strives to be innovative and has developed itself in line with contemporary art forums and understandings. In addition, it has shaped projects by considering the relationship between art and society as well as art-based projects. In this context, by housing the Association in its current location at the EMAA Capital Art Center in 2010, it has been able to increase its relationship to and influence within society. The Art for All project featured in the above cover image was created with this understanding with the funding support from the EU.

The lack of art institutions in the north of the island also mobilized the Association’s work on archives and memory creation. For this reason, an active role in art publishing has been adopted since the day the Association was founded, promoting art history and documentation. In this context, in 2003, the EMAA Art Newspaper evolved into the bilingual EMAA Art Magazine in 2004. The Association, which is trying to make its activities and projects permanent, has published numerous catalogues and books and its studies are ongoing.

Contributor: Zehra Şonya