UNSETTLED – a live documentary performance by Argyro Nicolaou

In UNSETTLED, filmmaker and writer Argyro Nicolaou presents a one-hour live documentary performance combining still and moving images to explore displacement, intergenerational memory, and the unresolved history of Cyprus.

The performance centres on the town of Varosha on the island’s eastern coast, where Nicolaou’s mother grew up. After the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Varosha was fenced off and abandoned, turning into a “ghost town” for over four decades. In 2006, a family member secretly entered the area and recovered a childhood diary belonging to Nicolaou’s mother — offering the artist a rare glimpse into a life interrupted by conflict.

In October 2020, Varosha was partially reopened, allowing Nicolaou and her mother to visit together for the first time. UNSETTLED weaves personal narrative with political history to trace the contours of memory, loss, and return.

This performance is part of Nicolaou’s larger documentary project Unsettled (My Sea), currently in production.