Despina Theocharidou is a Cypriot visual artist based in Nicosia. She was born in 1987 in Sofia, Bulgaria, to Greek Cypriot parents with roots in Kontemenos/Kılıçarslan, Lakatamia, and Gerolakko/Alayköy. Growing up between Cyprus and abroad, with four languages as part of her daily life (Greek, English, French, and Bulgarian), she came to see Cyprus as a place of memory and loss, but also as a place of possibility for digni fied coexistence. She studied Fine Arts in So fia, Strasbourg, and Athens, where she continues her academic path today.
For over ten years, she worked in advertising and public relations, specialising in digital communications, as a copywriter, illustrator, and creative director; until personal circumstances, including her experience with chronic illness, led her to rethink her priorities. Since mid-2025, she has fully dedicated herself to her artistic practice, which engages in dialogue around memory, identity, collective and personal trauma; with painting always remaining at the core of her work. She is running with Volt Cyprus, hoping for a fairer, more dignified, more inclusive, and more humane Cyprus.
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