Larnaka 2030, as part of Mahalar’t ’26, invites us to discover fascinating aspects of the Agioi Anargyroi neighborhood through the activities of the “Neighborhood ’26” festival.
For two days, on October 30 and 31, the neighborhood’s streets, courtyards, squares, and everyday spaces will be transformed into venues for gathering and co-creation.
Performances, visual and sound installations, photography exhibitions, participatory walks, workshops, and musical events invite the public to experience Synoikismos as a dynamic Common Space.
The “Synikismos” festival marks the culmination of a unique process of co-creation. Since early October, eight artists from Mediterranean countries have been living and working in the neighborhood, getting to know the residents, listening to their stories, and creating original works of art together with them—works born from the place itself and its people.
“Synikismos” means “we live together.” In the neighborhoods created after 1974 to house displaced people, the experience of being a refugee, collective memory, and the struggle for a new beginning are a living part of everyday life. The Settlement, however, is not merely a place of memory. It is a place of life, resilience, human connections, and creativity.
A place where the past meets the present and sparks a conversation about the future.
The festival is the first major artistic initiative of the Larnaka 2030 project of the same name, which aims to bring contemporary artistic creation to the city’s refugee neighborhoods and forge new connections between residents, artists, and public spaces.
The initiative is taking place as part of the European project MedSEA: Socially Engaged Arts in the Mediterranean Area, which is co-funded by the European Union’s Creative Europe program, with the participation of the organizations Larnaka 2030 (Cyprus), Al Badil (Tunisia), Li.vi.ng (Italy), and Busart (Greece).
The eight artists hosted at the Settlement are as follows:
Theodora Andreou, a performer from Cyprus; Maria Alvez, a light installation artist from Portugal; Martina Sedda, a photographer from Italy; Francesco Gech, a writer from Malta and collaborator with Victoria 2031, the European Capital of Culture in Malta; Šćepan Popovic, an architect from Niksic 2030, the European Capital of Culture in Montenegro; Libertad Pozo, a choreographer from Spain; Aymen Goubaa, a musician from Tunisia; and Anastasia Pavlenko, a director and refugee from Ukraine living in Larnaka.
General Information:
• Festival Dates: Friday, October 30, and Saturday, October 31, 2026
• Location: Agioi Anargyroi II Neighborhood, Larnaka
• Main starting point: Endymionos Street (former cafes)
• Free admission
Festival program:
Friday, October 30, 2026
• The program begins at 6:00 p.m. with the installations “Roots Behind the Barbed Wire” by Anastasiia Pavlenko and “Stop” by Aymen Goubaa, which will be open to visitors until 9:30 p.m.
• From 6:30–7:15 p.m., Francesco Grech presents the multisensory performance “The Lemon Tree Bears Roses,” featuring the Larnaka Technical School, the “Anorthosis” Choir of Famagusta, and Spyros Georgoullas, a resident of the Georgoullas Settlement.
• From 7:30–9:00 p.m., the sensory walk “The Paths We Carry” by Maria Alvez follows, with live music by Andreas Georgiou; the event also features the outdoor photography exhibition “A Place to Belong” by Martina Sedda and the works “Forms of Memory: The Paths We Travel” and “A907” by Šćepan Popović.
• The evening concludes from 9:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. with a concert by the rebetiko band Anaren Burek, featuring Michalis Kontovourkis, Panagiotis Agathokleous, Onisiforos Onisiforou, and Nikolaos Nikolaou.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
• The program begins from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. with Martina Sedda’s participatory cyanotype workshop for all ages, “From the Garden to the Print.”
• Throughout the day, the installations “Roots Behind the Barbed Wire” by Anastasiia Pavlenko, “Stop” by Aymen Goubaa, and the photography exhibition “A Place to Belong” by Martina Sedda will also be on view.
• From 6:30–7:15 p.m., Francesco Grech presents the multisensory performance “The Lemon Tree Bears Roses.”
• From 7:30–8:00 p.m., Theodora Andreou presents the participatory performance “Which Place?” featuring local residents Lenia Dimitriou and Katina Michael, in the park behind the Church of Saint Thekla.
• From 8:15–9:00 p.m., Libertad Pozo presents the collective memory performance “Memories of the Body,” featuring Dance House by Kalia, the “Anorthosis” Choir from Famagusta, Artemis Vassiliou (violin), and residents Toulla Vyra, Anna Moustafa, Androulla Kapari, Elena Papadopoulou, and Pavlos Papadopoulos.
• The festival concludes at 9:15 p.m. with a party at Synikismos featuring Aymen Goubaa.
You can find information about the festival at https://larnaka2030.eu/activity/maxalart-2026/
Media sponsor: Phileleftheros
