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Yesterday was the grand opening of Eugenie Coumantarou's black and white photographic exhibition at the old Ursuline school at Loutra. The exhibit is part of the summer long festival of the Municipality of Exombourgo. I was interested in going but I felt a little hesitant since I didn't know exactly where it was or if I would know anyone there. Little did I know.
The opening started at 8 pm and I set out from Aetofolia with the kids at around quarter to. I arrived at Loutra, turned the car around at the end of the road and then parked at an incline on the side of the road at the head of a line of parked cars. More cars were arriving and passing inches from the cliff on the one side and the parked cars on the other, turning and coming back to park ahead of me.
I strapped the baby in the bjorn and took Faviana by the hand. She didn't want to hold my hand. "I will stay next to you. I don't need to hold your hand. I'm old enough!" I took it anyway until we reached to top of the stairs to the school because the drivers here don't pay attention to kids on the road .
Elisabet, my 70 something year old neighbor, told me that she used to board at the Urseline school as a young girl. The creme of Athens and all of Greece used to attend the private school. Every two weeks she would walk home through the foothills for a day to see her family. The Urseline school operates in Athens now and the municipality uses the old school grounds as a public elementary school for the Kato Meri.
The school is nestled in the groove of the hill and the wide stairs descend to an open courtyard. The building has beautiful window moldings. One window has a wood frame of different shapes and different colored panes fitted to each shape. The interior has tall ceilings and large rooms. There was no furniture and the starkness of the white walls emphasized the dark tones of the pictures bringing out the contrast.
It was free admission. There was a young man seated at the entrance with books and a receipt book. He also had a price sheet. 12x16 were 200 euro, the middle size was $400 euro and the large, which looked around 4 feet by 5 feet, was 1000 euro. The book was 35 euro. The exhibit (and the book) was entitled A Humble Paradise (after a line in an Elytis poem).
I took my time walking around giving each piece its due consideration. It was all familiar topography viewed from familiar vantage points. The first wall had vistas and scenery. The next wall had livestock, pigs, cows, horses etc. The room adjoining this one had all the large photos. There was one in particular I wouldn't have minded in my family room. It was of an aloni (a threshing pit).
Back into the main room, the next picture moved me. It was of a sheep farmer with the sheep behind him. He was looking into the distance holding a burlap sack over one shoulder with one hand and his dog had bounded up and the man was hugging him to him with the other hand. As I was gazing at it, I realized that the sheep farmer was actually someone I knew! It was Donado.
The next several photos were of livestock, then a photo of a man in the crook of an olive tree. Wait, that was Loran, Eleni's dad! The next photo was a great shot of a couple gathering olives with a dovecote in the distance behind them. Oh, that was Eirene and Loran, Eleni's parents! As I approached the fourth wall, it was all shots of places I knew.
The last wall was all portraits of Kato Merites (people of the four villages, Komi, Kalloni, Kato Kleisma and Aetofolia) in their everyday clothes going about their everyday business. Look, there's Pippino! Fragkoula! Popi and Ianni Darmis! etc.
I walked out of there admiring the collection. The photo exhibit may have been black and white but I was a bit green on the inside. She had just done what I had been doing for the past several years. Do I not walk around with a camera everywhere I go? Do I not snap photos of everything and everywhere? She just beat me to the punch and I felt a little ko'ed.
I ended up buying a book as I wanted to be able to leaf through the pictures at my leisure and admire them one by one.
The courtyard was all full of Kato Merites. And here I thought I would know no one! I saw Pippino and went over and asked him if he knew her and he took me over and introduced me to her.
I felt an instant kinship to her. She was a Greek American like me with two sons around Faviana's age. She was nice and down to earth. She told me that the book came about from her daily walks with her sons when they summered in Tinos. She wanted to preserve the heritage of her children in photos before it aged and disappeared. Wow. Her husband is from Kato Kleisma (Dimitris Pavlakis, they have the house with the dovecote just at the V crossing from Kato Kleisma to the road that connects Komi with Kato Kleisma. Her aunt started the Musum of Cycladic Art in Athens. The book was in cooperation with the museum). The book itself is only pictures of the people, places and vantage points of the Kato Meri.
Dad came to the exhibit later and he walked around. He was a little unimpressed. "Kai esu den na ta kaneis auta?" "Don't you do the same thing?" though I did walk in on him this morning going through every page of the book one by one looking at all the pictures and reading the introduction, which was written by Pavlaki (her husband). He was touched by the text and enjoyed the pictures.
Last night on the drive home I saw Popi and Ianni Darmi. I stopped and made a comment on how they're famous now. I even told her that I bought a book so I can admire her from the States. She said to me, "Oh and I was going to give you a book. (She had gotten two as a present as both she and her husband were featured separately in the book.) I asked her, "Don't your children want a book?" She responded, "Ti na to kanoun?" (What will the do with it?)
The opening started at 8 pm and I set out from Aetofolia with the kids at around quarter to. I arrived at Loutra, turned the car around at the end of the road and then parked at an incline on the side of the road at the head of a line of parked cars. More cars were arriving and passing inches from the cliff on the one side and the parked cars on the other, turning and coming back to park ahead of me.
I strapped the baby in the bjorn and took Faviana by the hand. She didn't want to hold my hand. "I will stay next to you. I don't need to hold your hand. I'm old enough!" I took it anyway until we reached to top of the stairs to the school because the drivers here don't pay attention to kids on the road .
Elisabet, my 70 something year old neighbor, told me that she used to board at the Urseline school as a young girl. The creme of Athens and all of Greece used to attend the private school. Every two weeks she would walk home through the foothills for a day to see her family. The Urseline school operates in Athens now and the municipality uses the old school grounds as a public elementary school for the Kato Meri.
The school is nestled in the groove of the hill and the wide stairs descend to an open courtyard. The building has beautiful window moldings. One window has a wood frame of different shapes and different colored panes fitted to each shape. The interior has tall ceilings and large rooms. There was no furniture and the starkness of the white walls emphasized the dark tones of the pictures bringing out the contrast.
It was free admission. There was a young man seated at the entrance with books and a receipt book. He also had a price sheet. 12x16 were 200 euro, the middle size was $400 euro and the large, which looked around 4 feet by 5 feet, was 1000 euro. The book was 35 euro. The exhibit (and the book) was entitled A Humble Paradise (after a line in an Elytis poem).
I took my time walking around giving each piece its due consideration. It was all familiar topography viewed from familiar vantage points. The first wall had vistas and scenery. The next wall had livestock, pigs, cows, horses etc. The room adjoining this one had all the large photos. There was one in particular I wouldn't have minded in my family room. It was of an aloni (a threshing pit).
Back into the main room, the next picture moved me. It was of a sheep farmer with the sheep behind him. He was looking into the distance holding a burlap sack over one shoulder with one hand and his dog had bounded up and the man was hugging him to him with the other hand. As I was gazing at it, I realized that the sheep farmer was actually someone I knew! It was Donado.
The next several photos were of livestock, then a photo of a man in the crook of an olive tree. Wait, that was Loran, Eleni's dad! The next photo was a great shot of a couple gathering olives with a dovecote in the distance behind them. Oh, that was Eirene and Loran, Eleni's parents! As I approached the fourth wall, it was all shots of places I knew.
The last wall was all portraits of Kato Merites (people of the four villages, Komi, Kalloni, Kato Kleisma and Aetofolia) in their everyday clothes going about their everyday business. Look, there's Pippino! Fragkoula! Popi and Ianni Darmis! etc.
I walked out of there admiring the collection. The photo exhibit may have been black and white but I was a bit green on the inside. She had just done what I had been doing for the past several years. Do I not walk around with a camera everywhere I go? Do I not snap photos of everything and everywhere? She just beat me to the punch and I felt a little ko'ed.
I ended up buying a book as I wanted to be able to leaf through the pictures at my leisure and admire them one by one.
The courtyard was all full of Kato Merites. And here I thought I would know no one! I saw Pippino and went over and asked him if he knew her and he took me over and introduced me to her.
I felt an instant kinship to her. She was a Greek American like me with two sons around Faviana's age. She was nice and down to earth. She told me that the book came about from her daily walks with her sons when they summered in Tinos. She wanted to preserve the heritage of her children in photos before it aged and disappeared. Wow. Her husband is from Kato Kleisma (Dimitris Pavlakis, they have the house with the dovecote just at the V crossing from Kato Kleisma to the road that connects Komi with Kato Kleisma. Her aunt started the Musum of Cycladic Art in Athens. The book was in cooperation with the museum). The book itself is only pictures of the people, places and vantage points of the Kato Meri.
Dad came to the exhibit later and he walked around. He was a little unimpressed. "Kai esu den na ta kaneis auta?" "Don't you do the same thing?" though I did walk in on him this morning going through every page of the book one by one looking at all the pictures and reading the introduction, which was written by Pavlaki (her husband). He was touched by the text and enjoyed the pictures.
Last night on the drive home I saw Popi and Ianni Darmi. I stopped and made a comment on how they're famous now. I even told her that I bought a book so I can admire her from the States. She said to me, "Oh and I was going to give you a book. (She had gotten two as a present as both she and her husband were featured separately in the book.) I asked her, "Don't your children want a book?" She responded, "Ti na to kanoun?" (What will the do with it?)
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