‘MOICANES’: photo exhibition by Nicolas Lucas at Serena in Protaras
When: 03.07.2026 00:00
Where: 35.126400, 33.938800
Organizer: Admin
The exhibition presents local social practice through a single photographic exhibition with installation
In summer, a few days before joining the National Guard, young men from the Red Villages of Famagusta Province turn their hair into elaborate moicanes, painted in the characteristic colors of reggae (green, yellow, red). The exhibition "Moikanes" by Nicolas Loukas, a visual artist with the main means of photography, presents this local social practice through a single photographic exhibition with installation, at Serena in Protaras, in a one-day presentation on July 3, 2026.
Preparing for mohawks begins months ago. Young people let their hair grow long in order to shape them into moicanes, after the end of their schooling and just before their compulsory enlistment in the army. The creation of combs can last six to eight hours and is done using improvised techniques and materials such as glue, reeds, twines.
Most of the time it takes place in rural slums and rough accommodation that are set up in privately owned fields in the area, which are converted by participants in spaces of creation and conciliation.
Moikanes are a collective creation, since they are done with the help of the company and older ones, who have experienced the same practice before. Thus this tradition, the beginnings of which seem to be placed in the 1980s, is transmitted from generation to generation and acquires symbolic extensions.
In the exhibition "Moikanes", the artist approaches moikana not merely as an impressive hairstyle, but as a social event and act of transition from school and puberty to military service and adulthood. Moikana suggests a last moment of singularity, before personal image and free expression give their place to uniform, military uniformity and discipline. Moikiana, by its nature temporary, becomes a ephemeral sculpture on the body, a form completed with its disappearance (the shaving), marking the passage to the next stage of life. At the same time, it emerges in expression of collective experience and field of memory and community.
The project "Moikanes" illuminates a less recorded side of local youth culture, which is presented through portraits, illustrations of the process, and emphasising on body details, materials, gestures and waiting moments. In this way, photography acts as the means of documenting this particular “ ritual”.
On the day of the exhibition, the project will be presented in the space of Serena through photos and installation, creating an experience that connects the image to the environment and the atmosphere of the day.
The exhibition will remain open throughout the day and will be completed with parties in the space, as a natural continuation of the energy and atmosphere of the project.
Short CV artist
Nicholas Lucas is a visual artist with the main means of photography. His style balances between stylized and raw, with emphasis on the intensity and truth of the moment. He studied photography in Athens and in 2011 he settled in London. In 2017 he founded E2 Studios in East London, through which he worked with international brands, literature and creative organizations such as British Vogue, i-D, Dazed, Prada and Sony. His work has been presented in cultural areas and international environments. His solo exhibition "Beyond the Blur" was presented at the Cyprus High Commission London, while the exhibition "2033 Miles" was presented at Shoreditch High Street in London. His photographs were also part of the project "Anew" at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.
Since 2024 it has been based in Cyprus, where it continues to develop new projects in Cyprus and abroad. The exhibition "Moikianas" is the second individual and third total..
Tags: photo, mosque, exhibition
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