Abstract: This article asks why mural culture has not developed in Kyrenia despite the presence of local artists, an art and design university, and documented mural projects. What does this absence tells us about the conditions that are needed to encourage public art and embed murals into everyday urban culture. Murals should not be seen as just decorative additions to the public space, they are a representation of a community’s artistic values, cultural identity and creative expression. Cheung, Smith and Craven (2021) argue that public art in shared spaces has a unique capacity to bring people together and leave lasting impressions on the cities and communities they inhabit. Kyrenia can be described as a city with quiet walls, public art and specifically murals are largely absent. This article follows a qualitative, practice-led and case-based methodology, combining secondary literature, visual documentation and my direct experience as a practising muralist, examining five cases: Heerlen, Philadelphia, Paphos, North Nicosia and Kyrenia. The findings identify three key conditions behind Kyrenia’s visual quietness: Limited public familiarity with mural art, insufficient and geographically concentrated institutional support, and the absence of a self-initiated wall culture. This article contributes to existing research by examining a context that has received little academic attention. Rather than focusing on cities where mural culture thrives, it shifts its focus to areas where mural culture has not taken root. The study concludes that meaningful change in Kyrenia requires sustained institutional commitment, broader distribution of mural activity across the city, and greater public visibility of the creative process.
Keywords: Kyrenia, murals, Northern Cyprus, public art, community engagement
Batu Gündal, Arkın University of Creative Arts and Design (ARUCAD), Faculty of Art, batu.gundal@arucad.edu.tr
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