on th e Islan ds - Schwarz Foundation

on the Islands
Art
Athens Insider travels to the islands and picks out a few
highlights on the summer arts calendar.
A
s the summer begins, art imitates life in the mass exodus from the city into the world
of mainland Greece and its islands, as summer art programs and festivals across the
country prepare to do what Greeks do best (for better or for worse): Express themselves.
HYDRA
Starting with Hydra, Greece’s traditional artisan retreat, where cars have no place and
donkeys control the island’s cobbled streets, get ready for some serious arty activity.
Urs Fischer: YES
Deste Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Until September 30
Commissioned by the DESTE Foundation, internationally renowned Swiss artist Urs
Fischer will be carrying out a major participatory project on Hydra in the island’s
former slaughterhouse. The artist invites all local schoolchildren and adults, tourists
and visitors alike to the exhibition to create objects out of colored clay. The produced
sculptures – the result of diverse visions and motives, different skills and methods –
will eventually comprise a single work, the trace of an open collective performance to
be displayed in fragments inside and outside the old abattoir. This anonymous collection of objects by many a named participant, a ‘symphony in clay’ so to speak, is at once
a game for all age groups and a collective take on the island and its history.
The DESTE Foundation Project Space in Hydra was established in 2009 in the island’s
former slaughterhouse, a strange and evocative place, freighted with an eerie history.
Although the space was recently restored and renovated, it retains many of its former
features. Its past is still visible and its original identity largely preserved. Every summer since 2009 a different artist has been commissioned to present an exhibition that
has been designed specifically for that particular space and the island itself.
Alain Lefevre, July 20
While on the island, take the time to attend a piano recital by internationally renowned
pianist Alain Lefevre, in cooperation with the Canadian Embassy and the Cultural Association of Hydra and to visit until late September an amazing painting exhibition featuring works by the renowned Greek painter who lives and works in Paris, John Kotti.
Sudha Nair-Iliades
36 insider athens | July & August 2013
Summer Art
9FR
SIFNOS
The Greek House by Christian Brechneff
An interesting read for the summer, Christian Brechneff presents a funny, touching narrative
about his relationship to the Greek island of Sifnos, writing with warmth about its unforgettable
residents and the house he bought in a hilltop village. This is the story of how a twenty-oneyearold painter searching for artistic inspiration and a quiet place to work fell in love with Sifnos,
and how it became a haven from the complexities of his life. It is the story of his village and of
the island over thirty-odd years—from a time when there were barely any roads to the arrival of
the modern world with its tourists and high-speed boats and the euro. And it is the story of the
end of this love affair—how the island changed and how he changed; how he realized he had
outgrown Sifnos, or couldn’t grow there anymore.
The Greek House is a celebration of place and an honest account of self-discovery. In its pages,
a naïve young man filled with longing comes into his own. Weaving himself into the life of the
island, painting it year after year, he finds a place he can call home.
Christian Brechneff was born in the Belgian Congo in 1950 and was educated in Switzerland
and the United States (St. Olaf College). In 1975 he received his Master of Arts degree from the
Royal College of Art in London. He has exhibited in Switzerland, Spain, England, Germany, Sri
Lanka, and the United States, and his paintings appear in public and private collections all over
the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Brechneff is also the author
of Homage: Encounters with the East, a book of travel drawings published in 2007. He lives in
Hadlyme, Connecticut. www.christianbrechneff.com.
Clairy Tsalouchidis
POROS
In the Ancient Way
Kostas Papanikolaou and Tasos Mantzavinos, Citronne Gallery in Poros,
Until 26 July
Tsarouchis said something similar: There is undoubtedly a difference between
Eastern and Western painting […]. I have always been drawn to Greek painting
because it gives me, if nothing else, the illusion that in it the two manners meet.
This may well be the ideal perspective for initiating ourselves into the painting of
Kostas Papanikolaou and Tasos Mantzavinos, for it points to a certain suspended
‘on-the-cuspness’ in both. Their work exists at the point where East and West
merge, and their painting manages to rise out of these vast traditions fresh, pure
and with an apparent simplicity.
An exhibition by Alekos Kyraninis follows the July exhibition and runs until endSeptember.
Alekos Kyrarinis deals with a complex, strictly personal quest. The “dragon”, symbol of evil, dominates in his artistic language. From classical Greek mythology,
dragons have frightened, threatened, and destroyed until they meet up with the
redeemer, the liberator in the form of a hero, a bold man, a saint. The senses come
alive with the iconography, the chants, the candles and frankincense, Holy Communion and the antidoron. The dragon is exiled through faith, virtue prevails, the
soul becomes calm, the heart “becomes vigilant”.
Penny Apostolidis
insider athens | July & August 2013 37
Summer Art
9FR
Tinos Jazz Festival 2013 - Jazz
Universal Language, 30,31 August & September 1
Since that first edition of the festival few things have changed, but not the festival’s spirit and identity that, together with its top-quality programs and its warm
and friendly atmosphere, have been at the heart of its success. For the fifth edition
of this festival, George Kontrafouris, the artistic director of the festival, presents a
programme with a repertoire ranging from traditional jazz standards to more contemporary and modern jazz. The highlight of this edition, Manfred Schoof, the founder
of European free jazz.
The Tinos Jazz Festival presents an outstanding showcase of jazz music that attracts
fans from a wide-range of ages and nationalities. In a short period of time, the Tinos
Jazz Festival has become a unique forum for both contemporary and future jazz and
is an opportunity to get familiar with jazz in all its forms, to experience the confrontation between styles and artistic views.
The festival features 5 live shows over 3 nights with the Manos Theodosakis sextet
(Tribute to Cole Porter) , Alekos Vretos Quintet, Petros Klampanis & J.P. Pilk Duet,
Leonidas Sarantopoulos and the Manfred Schoof Quartet.
Patricia Graire
SAMOS
Samos Young Artists Festival, August 7–13
A small, familiar yet elegant meeting of international artists at the crossroads between the Orient and Occident, the Samos Young Artists Festival
“wishes to contribute to international understanding via the universal
language of music”, according to Chiona and Kurt Schwarz, the founders of the festival. Financed exclusively by private donations and local
organizations and associations, especially the Cultural Association and
Municipality of Samos, the artistic director this year is violinist Daniel
Nodel. Nodel was born in Minsk and is a member of the Bavarian Radio
Symphony Orchestra.
With concerts held in the evening in an old amphitheater under the
starry heavens, the programme at the Samos Festival has an extremely
interesting repertoire performed by young talent from across the world.
Gisela Petropoulou
Enjoy a mix of art and island life and if all else fails, there is also
the summer sun, the silver light of the moon, the soft lapping of the
Mediterranean Sea, the murmur of cicadas, and the view of the infinite
horizon to contemplate. Some might say those incredible views that
rise and fall from the sea make up the true artistry of Greece.
38 insider athens | July & August 2013
For more information visit the following websites
(in order of appearance):
Deste Foundation, Hydra Slaughterhouse: www.deste.gr,
Citronne Gallery: www.citronne.com, Tinos Jazz festival:www.tinosjazz.com,
Samos Festival: www.samosfestival.com