Stefanos Kouratzis
Photography
SOPAZ Requiem
The silence is deafening. Where once the hum of machinery filled the air, now only the rustle of pigeons' wings and the skitter of mice break the stillness.
How does it feel to walk through an abandoned complex that once fueled a community's economy and agriculture?
A place built by a leading figure of Cypriot Modernism, architect Stavros Economou, now left to rot, a health and safety hazard.
What happens when a symbol of progress becomes a symbol of neglect?
The contrast is stark: ΣΟΠΑΖ - SOPAZ (The Cooperative Food Production Organisation), established in 1961, a vibrant hub of animal feed production, closed down in 2015 after a fire.
For nearly 6 years, the complex, owned by the Nicosia Municipality, has stood silent.
Since a fire in 2015 forced its closure, this once-vibrant hub has become a health hazard, a blight on the landscape. While whispers of academic or artistic futures circulate, the reality is a lifeless landscape inhabited only by pigeons, mice, lizards, and the ghosts of a productive past.
This is the abandoned SOPAZ complex, a testament to both the promise of progress and the tragedy of neglect.
The SOPAZ (The Cooperative Food Production Organisation) was established in 1961 and was producing compound animal feed. It was permanently closed down in 2015 when a fire broke at the power distribution panel.
When the cement was still fresh as SOPAZ, several pigeons left their footprints
On the last floor of one of the buildings
They were sending animal feed ingredients to the conveyor belts
On this belt animal feed ingredients was carried
Tubes run the entire building as they were carrying animal feed ingredients
Covered in dust for many years
Old machinery is still there covered with dust and spider web
A spider used this old worker's glove as a nest
A pigeon's carcase inside the factory