The interview of Maroulia Kontou took place the day after the 1st Choir Meeting held by the Mythodia Conservatory. She was exhausted but exhilarated; she had managed to realize yet another plan, yet another dream of hers. Two highly competent mixed choirs had travelled all the way from Athens to meet the audience of Paros and, along with the choir of Mythodia, offer them a sensational musical evening.
6,885 nautical miles! That’s the distance that lies between San Francisco and Paros. That venture also comprised other, shorter journeys, but it mainly entailed a long inward journey for Dimitra Skandali which, thankfully, keeps on going...
Susan Daboll was a familiar face and name even before we actually met. I had noticed her tall juvenile figure pass through the Holland Tunnel Gallery, the old Azari house and I had seen her photos in an exhibition at the same space. The interview with Susan Daboll opened for me a window to two worlds: the world of the artist and the world of the wife of the late Takis Dimitrakopoulos who passed in 2020 and their home, the iconic mansion of this historic family, right in the heart of the town of Parikia.
At the heart of Drios, in a space that lives and breathes the sea even without facing it, Myrto Tabouratzaki has set her dream into motion: putting forward solutions that turn a mere dwelling into a home. And successfully so, as she carries fond memories of Paros while being open to what the future may hold.
In the case of Nikos Synodis, at least, this is what happened. He passed from life to death and back to life again. And he started over from scratch. Several of his life files, including that of speech, were corrupted and had to be reconstructed from the beginning. But others, such as painting and his passion for the theatre, remained intact and good to go, though in a different form.
The “anti” art gallery first opened its doors in the summer of 2012, in a Lilliputian 6x3x3m space right by the entrance to the Castle hosting painting, sculpture, ceramics, jewellery, photography, graphic design and video art exhibitions until the autumn of 2022, when it closed. For more than ten years, it gave us a host of memorable moments. Both the gallery and the Antiparos International Photo Festival marked the island’s cultural life for as long as they lasted. In the following interview, Mary Chatzaki, the gallery’s founder, talks to us about these ten high-impact years.
Angelika Vaxevanidou is based in Lefkes keeping her studio in the centre of the village. She is a painter and sculptor endowed with the full range of gifts that art bestows upon its disciples – talent, anguish, concern, constant questioning, constant seeking…
Hidden in the picturesque alleys of Lefkes, right before the great church of Aghia Triada (Holy Trinity) lies the workshop of Todd Marshard. In perfect harmony with the surroundings, the shop –and workshop- lets you into the world of the artist who left New York and a successful career as a fashion photographer, and landed on Paros where he opened his shop and dedicated himself on the art of ceramics. His pottery, unique and personal, his photos on the walls echo his past as a fashion photographer and his creations with pebbles or other materials picked up from the beaches of Paros, speak of his relation with nature.
Paulien Lethen is a visual artist from Holland and a citizen of the world. As the true artist that she is, she turns every space she lives in, into an art space; the Azari house in Parikia, her summer house in Kounados as well as her winter main house in Newburgh, New York. In this interview we follow her life across Paros, Japan, Paros again and finally New York in her own words.
As I’m writing this text, with Lefkes lying at my feet and the windmills around the village crowning my head, I’m wondering how to fit 40 years into an article.
