ΜαχαΛart 2026

MahalArt 26 – the flagship programme of Larnaka 2030 – returns to where the city becomes an everyday experience: to the neighbourhoods, the streets, the courtyards and the communities where relationships are born, memories are passed on and the sense of belonging takes shape.

MahalArt began in 2023 on Princess Zehra Street, in Turkomahalas, with a basic principle that remains at its core to this day: culture is not delivered to a neighbourhood as a finished product. It is created together with it. It starts from its stories, its everyday practices, its people and its places, and brings them into dialogue with artistic creation.

In autumn 2026, the MahalArt journey expands with four different activities in Ais Yiannis, in the Stavrodromi area, in Dromolaxia–Meneou–Kiti and in the Agioi Anargyroi refugee settlement. Each place has its own history, its own people and its own dynamic; that is why each activity follows a different artistic and participatory process.

Our neighbourhoods, again

MahalArt invites us to return to the neighbourhoods not out of nostalgia, but in order to look at them again. To recognise what they carry, to listen to the stories that often remain unseen and to create new possibilities for encounter. For Larnaka 2030, the neighbourhoods are not the backdrop of the city. They are one of the most vibrant places where the idea of Common Ground can be tested in practice: people with different experiences share a space, listen to one another and create something together.

So let us walk the streets of Larnaka and its district with a different gaze. Let us stop in a courtyard, on a street, in a settlement; listen to a story we did not know; meet people we may have walked past until yesterday. Because a city does not become a common ground only through its buildings and infrastructure. It becomes a common ground when its people rediscover the space, the time and the desire to meet.

The MahalArt 26 programme

All activities are free of charge.

3rd Culture Festival in Ais Yiannis (8–10 October)

The neighbourhood celebration becomes the starting point for activating public space and creating new relationships and artistic collaborations. The programme is developed in direct relation to the residents, their experiences and the particular character of Ais Yiannis, turning the neighbourhood from a venue that hosts an event into a place of shared creation.

Thursday 8 October 2026 | 20:00

Cinema Night – Agios Ioannis Square

Screening of Ken Loach’s film The Old Oak, in English with Greek subtitles. Running time: 113′. The film is suitable for ages 15 and over.

Friday 9 October 2026 | from 19:00

Festival Night – Agios Ioannis Square

Artistic walks through the neighbourhood starting from Agios Ioannis Square, with the participation of Ars Nova Choir Cyprus, Sofia Kalli in the theatre piece “Our friend Lata” on a text by Marina Vronti, the Dance House by Kalia dance school, photographer Filippos Sotiriou and Artemisia Vasileiou. The programme also includes the audiovisual screening “Myths of Cyprus”, in collaboration with the Press and Information Office.

In the square, 19:00–21:00, there will be a tote-bag printing workshop with Lyolya Filimonova and Ariana Zakou, the creation of a collective artwork, an interactive music workshop with Narcie Hadjiconstantinou and METRO live cooking with Ioannis Petros Eleftheriadis.

At 21:30 the evening closes with a concert by THE TEASE in Agios Ioannis Square.

Saturday 10 October 2026 | 10:30

Open participatory discussion about MahalArt at the “Politikos Omilos Vasilitzia” club house, with free coffee and treats.

“Ploutonos 71” (17–18 and 24–25 October)

A street music-theatre performance based on the stories of Costas Mannouris and the musical dramaturgy of Salome Paraskeva, directed by Petros Charalambous. The performance returns to the Larnaka of the 1980s and to the very street where its stories were born: to the courtyards and the evening gatherings, the weddings that closed off the streets, the family stories, the loves, the losses and the expectations of an entire neighbourhood. Words and music bring the past into the present, in search of what can still turn a street into a neighbourhood and mere proximity into real coexistence.

Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 October
Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 October
Time: 20:00
Venue: 71 Agiou Georgiou Kontou Street (formerly Ploutonos 71), opposite the Agios Georgios Kontos Primary School, Larnaka
Credits

Direction: Petros Charalambous | Musical Direction: Salome Paraskeva | Text: Costas Mannouris

Actors: Dimitris Anagiotos, Valanto Charalambous, Gioula Maliou

Musicians: Andreas Georgiou, Kyriakos Costa | Video art: Michalakis Georgiou

Agioi Anargyroi Settlement – MedSEA Artist Residencies (29–31 October)

Eight artists from different Mediterranean countries will stay in Larnaka from 5 October to 1 November, getting to know the refugee settlement and its residents, listening to their stories and observing everyday life there. The works will be created on site and in collaboration with the people of the neighbourhood, and will be presented towards the end of the residency. In parallel, the collaboration with the Department of Architecture of the University of Cyprus, led by Natia Charalambous, links the artistic process with participatory mapping and small-scale interventions in public space.

Thursday 29, Friday 30 & Saturday 31 October

The festival is part of MahalArt ’26 and takes place within the framework of the European programme MedSEA – Socially Engaged Arts in the Mediterranean Sea.

Participating artists: Anastasiia Pavlenko (director, educator – Cyprus), Aymen Goubaa (musician, composer, sound engineer – Tunisia), Francesco Grech (poet, cultural strategy consultant – Malta), Libertad Pozo (choreographer, contemporary dancer – Spain), Martina Sedda (photographer – Italy), Maria Alves (light designer – Portugal), Šćepan Popović (architect, interdisciplinary researcher – Montenegro) and Theodora Andreou (actress, theatre educator – Cyprus).

“Pathkia-Pathkia” (7–8 November)

The group continues its work in the Dromolaxia–Meneou–Kiti area, through a process based on exploring the place, on participation and on the gradual building of relationships with the local communities. The 2026 activity continues this journey, confirming that in participatory art the relationship with a community is not merely the way the work is produced, but part of the work itself.

Saturday 7 November | Pervolia – Pervolia Settlement | starts 15:30

The programme includes a walking route with stops at the fields, at the community’s women’s initiative and at the story of the lighthouse keeper (actor: Panikkos Anastasiou, script: Stelios Tzivas), storytelling with Gioula Malliou, Common Ground Kafeneio, a short theatre performance with Androulla Nicolaou, Panikkos Anastasiou and Evgenios Evgeniou, a film screening and live music with the band Anaren Bourek.

Sunday 8 November | Kiti – Angeloktisti neighbourhood | from 11:00

At 11:00 an interactive performance for babies by the Anemelia group will be presented, along with a treasure hunt with Theodora Challouma. At 12:00 a walking route follows, with ceramics creations with Eri Papadopoulou.

For more information: info@larnaka2030.eu