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.
Last summer was unlike any other. Paros unveiled its dynamic activist face by uttering a vocal “No” to the illegal exploitation of its beaches and every other public space. Behind that massive non-partisan movement that received media coverage all over the world is the Citizens’ Movement. One of its representatives, Mr. Damianos Gavalas, tells us about that strange summer...
We all know that fish is one of the most loved foods and, in fact, this has been so since the old days. What is not so well-known is that the approximately 300 fishermen of Paros have recently dropped to 200, and keep dwindling in number. As a result, in the summer, we here on Paros often eat fish from nets of unknown origin, unless we eat out at tavernas that have their own caique boat. But these are just a handful. A lot has changed in the fishing sector in recent years, and work has become easier, but the number of fishermen is constantly declining and the subsidies they receive are eating up their boats.
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.
