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Monday 09:00 - 18:00 Tuesday 09:00 - 18:00 Wednesday 09:00 - 18:00 Thursday 09:00 - 18:00 Friday 09:00 - 18:00

Buffer Fringe Performing Arts

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Buffer Fringe Performing Arts

Buffer Fringe Festival, which was born out of a unique local situation, has established itself as a highly respected international festival.

Buffer Fringe Festival by Home for Cooperation, showcases new and experimental work by local and international artists, challenges physical and artistic barriers, and creates opportunities for artists to meet and exchange ideas. The festival was developed by the Home for Cooperation team in 2014, with the idea of providing a platform to question sensitive topics, expressing ideas in new and creative ways. This will enable people to engage with one another regardless of the dominant historical narratives, ideologies or identities which are very much politicized and often divisive for the peoples of Cyprus. The performing arts festival has proven to be the best tool to trigger discussions about personal or collectivistic traumas that the people of Cyprus have experienced in the past and to promote understanding, respect and finally trust in one another. You can find detailed information about all the editions of Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival since the first edition organized in 2014 on the Home for Cooperation's website: https://www.home4cooperation.info/our-work/buffer-fringe/

08/09/2026

2, 3, 4 October in Nicosia! Buffer Fringe Performing Arts Festival 2026!

02/09/2026

🌟 The wait is over! Buffer Fringe 2026 is one month away!
📅 Browse the festival program and get ready for an unforgettable lineup.✨
Home for Cooperation

30/08/2026

🔛Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: “One Sunday Morning” by Yeva Sai and Matteo Marongiu (UKR/IT)

Project Description:
Two humanoid figures, dressed entirely in white, wander through a park like aliens trying to belong to a world they have accidentally landed in. They gaze in wonder at the urban landscape, interact with passersby, hide among the trees, picnic on the grass, and dance as if dance were a vital act necessary for their very existence. Despite its melancholic and timeless atmosphere, the performance is deeply ironic. Music plays an essential role: a sequence of well-known pop songs punctuates the action, prompting the characters to respond with dances and playful interactions.

The work combines research on character, physical expression, and humor with a formal exploration of how the audience experiences the performance. Spectators are positioned at a fixed point in space, observing the landscape before them like a painting by Bosch, in which the two figures belong just as much as the unsuspecting passersby—if not for their distinctly recognizable costumes. The performers work with dizzying shifts in depth, from the extremely near to the very far, staging impossible appearances and disappearances. Narrative is merely an accident. The park becomes a theater, the passersby become both scenery and actors, and the characters—like in Pirandello—are nothing other than characters.

Masks by Tommaso Radaelli.

29/08/2026

🔛Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: “In Our Bubble(s)” by Koullou Makka Collective (CY)

A a small “island” is created through gradually unfolding a bubble wrap - a protective material used to wrap fragile objects. The performers are positioned on this island having as a score to move extremely slowly and gently in an attempt not to burst the bubbles beneath them. If a bubble breaks, the moment of rupture turns into a small manifestation of hope. The work treats fragility not as failure but as a generative moment: each burst releases both air and potentiality, producing a soundscape reminiscent of waves touching the shore.

Drawing on José Esteban Muñoz’s understanding of hope as emerging through and alongside negativity, where hope and hopelessness exist in a dialectical relation and hope becomes a risky orientation toward a “not-yet” future, the performance approaches hope as something produced collectively through vulnerability, rupture, and persistence rather than optimism. Affirmations in this context identify themselves as futures that live and act in the present moment, shameless sharings and as dreams that have audacity.

Photo credit: Loucas Stavrou

28/08/2026

🔛Buffer Fringe 2026 presents:“Witness: Past and Present” by Lüsen Işık (CY)

Project Description: “Witness: Past and Present” is a photography installation that explores the intersection of people and places; examining the intricate relationship between the still and fluid, past and present. As people in the photographs engage in corporeal movements, their historical and traditional setting become a witness to them.

Juxtaposing photography, story-telling and philosophical contemplation, the installation concerns humans’ relationship with their surroundings and their altering perceptions. The installation further offers critical dialogue and reflection about the transformation of our communication with one another, and opens up a space for dialogue on exploring where tradition, stability and history fit into that domain.

27/08/2026

🔛Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: “deep inside.” by Antonis Christ (CY)

Project Description: An up-to-date installation performance, a journey inside our juices.

Fragmented, misplaced, altered.

Rather than proposing unity or resolution, the work remains within the tension of being together without fully understanding one another.

Be okay with me re. I'm not breathing your air. It's not even yours. We can both breathe.

Perhaps now is the right time to dig into your insides and your fractures; after you've met mine. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity anyway. Probably.

26/08/2026

🔛Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: "Don’t look at the Dead Cat!” by Beatrice Mariani, Skyla Buchanan, Chiara Capizzi, Jitske Cosemans (CY)

This piece aims to investigate ignorance as a survival mechanism, a condition that is shaped by social, political, and emotional forces. Created and performed by four dance artists, the work asks whether it is immoral to remain willfully ignorant and how as individuals we balance awareness with self-preservation in a world that overwhelms us.

Contained within the parameters of a meticulously constructed garden, the performers are sedated by comfort, nostalgia, and beauty. Beneath this cultivated surface, a constant tension is present as they move through states of numbness, forced joy, quiet detachment and overstimulation. The dramaturgy does not unfold as a linear narrative, but allows the audience to be immersed in a fragmented story where there is no single perspective.

Don’t Look at The Dead Cat! does not offer a resolution but an ominous promise that things go on, people continue with their lives in spite of what occurs around them or perhaps in motivation that there is a light on the other side. It sustains a disturbing unease, confronting audiences with their own responsibility of caring, their complicity in the pain of others, and how easy it is to sink into the softness of denial. Within a world that feels too vast to hold or often leaves us feeling helpless, it asks what is worth ignoring in order to preserve our own sense of peace?

25/08/2026

🔛 Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: “folkLOL:more” by Maria Savva (CY)

Project Description:
folkLOL:more is a site-specific performance created through the presence of one performer, a collection of sound props and the encounter with the audience. It transforms the street into a folkloristic space where weirdness, awkwardness and absurdity are re-negotiated and used as tools of joy and empowerment.
folkLOL:more is inspired by Cypriot folklore and built on the creature of Kalikanjari that emerges from underground during the twelve liminal days of Christmas. Kalikanjari are portrayed differently depending on who you ask, but are usually seen as monstrous, threatening, chaotic and unsettling. The project attempts to reclaim these creatures through excessive behavior, humor, absurd sound and confrontation with the audience. folkLOL:more becomes a living framework where it’s possible to question how cultural and social values are constructed, performed, negotiated and policed.

Credits: Maria Savva (Co-creation, Performance), Brunella Sabatino (Co-creation, Dramaturgy), Photo: Julian Duprat Petrich, Performer on photo: Djamila Polo

21/08/2026

📍Locations of Buffer Fringe 2026: Rüstem Bookshop (Rüstem Kitabevi)

EN
Rüstem Bookshop returns as one of Buffer Fringe's beloved venues. Established in 1937, the historic bookshop has been nurturing Nicosia's cultural life for generations, serving as a gathering place for readers, artists and community members. Its timeless atmosphere reminds us that stories, ideas and encounters are at the heart of every thriving cultural scene, and we are delighted to share its spaces with you once again.

TR
Rüstem Kitabevi, Buffer Fringe'in sevilen mekânlarından biri olarak bu yıl da festivale ev sahipliği yapıyor. 1937 yılında kurulan bu tarihi kitabevi, kuşaklar boyunca Lefkoşa'nın kültürel yaşamına katkıda bulunmuş; okurları, sanatçıları ve düşünürleri bir araya getiren önemli bir buluşma noktası olmuştur. Buranın zamansız atmosferi, hikâyelerin, fikirlerin ve karşılaşmaların canlı bir kültür ortamının merkezinde yer aldığını hatırlatıyor. Bu özel mekânı bir kez daha sizinle paylaşmaktan büyük mutluluk

GR
Το Βιβλιοπωλείο Rüstem επιστρέφει και φέτος ως ένας από τους αγαπημένους χώρους του Buffer Fringe. Ιδρύθηκε το 1937 και εδώ και γενιές αποτελεί αναπόσπαστο μέρος της πολιτιστικής ζωής της Λευκωσίας, λειτουργώντας ως σημείο συνάντησης για αναγνώστες, καλλιτέχνες και περαστικούς. Η διαχρονική του ατμόσφαιρα μας υπενθυμίζει ότι οι ιστορίες, οι ιδέες και οι ανθρώπινες συναντήσεις βρίσκονται στην καρδιά κάθε ζωντανού πολιτιστικού τοπίου. Είμαστε ιδιαίτερα χαρούμενοι που έχουμε την ευκαιρία να μοιραστούμε και φέτος αυτόν τον ξεχωριστό χώρο μαζί σας.

19/08/2026

🔛 Buffer Fringe 2026 presents: “Lingo Lingo Şişeler” by Selsu Solman (CY)

Project Description:
Using the Cypriot wedding as a symbolic space, a single blindfolded performer embodies both singer and bride to explore where belonging lives. Operating under a gesture of chosen blindness, the singer lip-syncs to Turkish alternative soundscapes. This physical experiment of navigating voice and body without sight serves as a catalyst: in the pauses between songs, her original voice breaks through into spoken improvisation. The work asks: within chosen blindness, how do we truly meet each other?Seeking genuine connection over separation, the performer removes the blindfold and steps into the audience, using the traditional greeting ritual, she invites the audience into a whole, shared presence.
Photo credit: Inês Corrêa

Address

28 Marcou Dracou Street
Nicosia
1102

Opening Hours

Monday	09:00 - 18:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 18:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 18:00
Thursday	09:00 - 18:00
Friday	09:00 - 18:00

Telephone

+35722445740

Website

http://www.bufferfringe.org/

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