The archaeologist Yannos Koyrayos and his team posing at Mary Chatzaki’s camera. The photographer shot the restoration work in Despotiko in 2017-18. This project is presented in an artistic bilingual album published by Melissa editions under the title "THE PEOPLE OF DESPOTIKO".
A famous festival, two active associations and two museums at a village of 300 inhabitants, not to mention the renowned Performances on Good Friday – a good reason for celebrating Easter at Paros.
Achilleas Christidis started his career as a painter with an exhibition at the “Medusa” Art gallery of Maria Demetriades. He lived the Paros of the 80’s, adored the cuisine of Arghiro Barbarighou and this year he is coming to Antiparos for his third exhibition at the “anti” gallery of Mary Chatzaki on 8/6-3/7.
In Paros the word Routes means “Routes in Marpissa”. If you are from Marpissa you know the first name of everybody involved in this renowned festival. However, if you read articles or interviews with the mass or social media you won’t find even a single name. Here the ‘I” has given way to the “We”: the volunteer group of the Routes.
Despotiko is a small island that lies west of Antiparos, across from Ag. Georgios and it’s only one out of 190 uninhabited islets and 30 major islands that form the Cyclades. This unique group of islands has given us some of the most exciting works of Greek art.
Fifty years ago, this title would have sounded like a joke. Then, the plastics, light heartedly and cheerfully entered our life for multiple use naturally –a plastic flask for the excursions and a plastic folding glass in every schoolbag!
People, Herodotus has told us, travel for three reasons: political-military, commercial or religious reasons. Till the end of the Middle Ages, journeys by Europeans were undertaken mainly for military and commercial purposes or as pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher or other Holy Shrines.
The Cyclades are a Greek archipelago in the middle of the Aegean Sea. Some of the islands are uninhabited. Others are wonderful holiday paradises. In ancient times, several of them were important religious and holy places.
Paros and Antiparos have gladly played host to sports as the high number of sporting events available at the islands can testify.
Around this time every year, the hands of Time creak. Like cogs, they snag on the withered flowers that slow down their circular upward course. The soul breathlessly roams across the steepest paths and the vastest horizons, in an endless dialogue with the great charmer Sun that slowly, leisurely, almost in stillness, carries the day down to the sea. Sifneikos, Livadia, Akonitos, Monasteries, Trahilas, Despotiko.
