Mustafa Batıbeniz’s solo exhibition “Post-Colonial Humanoids” at ARUCAD Art Space in Nicosia does not merely open Cyprus’s multi-layered post-colonial memory like an archive; it translates that memory into the bodies of hybrid beings living in an alternate universe. Here, remembrance is not a linear narrative: it constructs an uncanny yet captivating scene through forms fused with architecture, mutated bodies, and existences caught “in-between.”
Batıbeniz’s interdisciplinary background (architecture, photography, illustration, and academic production) is evident in the exhibition’s language: the figures’ origins extend to cinema, architecture, and fashion; thus, the humanoids’ “costume” functions not as a superficial style but as a direct technology of identity. The exhibition’s world simultaneously carries hyperreal, surreal, and childlike spatialities, producing two emotions in the viewer at once: on one hand, a familiar nostalgia; on the other, a discomfort that precisely disrupts that familiarity. Freud’s concept of the “uncanny” (Unheimlich) and Turner’s idea of “liminality,” referenced in the text, transcend mere theoretical labels and become visual atmosphere: there is a sense of “home,” but home is no longer a safe refuge; there is a sense of “machine,” but the machine is not a cold externality; the two are articulated together with the human archetype.
The exhibition’s greatest strength lies in not confining Cyprus-specific historical layers to a “local story.” Batıbeniz expands post-colonial memory toward a global post-modern mythology; the axes of identity, body, and remembrance connect not only to Cyprus’s questions but to those shared by today’s world: When does the body become a “home”? When does it turn into a “recording device”? Is memory a narrative, or a shape-shifting organism?
From Apartment No:26’s favourite perspective: this exhibition does not use the word “future” as a shiny utopia. Instead, it treats the future as a design problem worked through with the residues of the past. For this reason, the exhibition does not expect a single reading; it compels the viewer to wander along the shores of their own cultural memory, forcing them to rethink the boundaries of the “human” category.
Exhibition: Mustafa Batıbeniz — Post-Colonial Humanoids
Venue: ARUCAD Art Space, Nicosia (Müftü Raci Efendi Street, within the walls)
Dates: Until 31 January 2026
