ART ISLANDS: Mykonos-Women’s of Mykonos Clothes

Recently there is a debate in the streets and the corridors of Art about whether and how can the old to inspire new, raising again the question of what is defined as old or new. The artists themselves are led to this quest now perhaps more than before. When the debate is limited to women artists and their relation with the old and new, unfortunately the question is another. How often the female artistic position is presented towards the male and not what is the form.

By Mina Karagianni
Photo: Mina’s Karagianni Archive

As stated by the art historian Ch. Kanelopoulou in the catalog of the exhibition Women artists 1960-1980 in October 2014. The contribution of the female artists in the Greek avant-garde, is certain and entrenched by the dynamics of their work. In this critical period for the course of Greek art, concepts such as modern art, avant-garde, novelty had specific gravity, they had chosen to claim more freedom of expression and pioneered presenting avant-garde projects. Nevertheless, the female artistic production appears specified in the context of a historiography that has put forth the work of male artists compared to that of women, so it is treated as a special category, following frequently the developments. Let’s keep the limited but remarkably dynamic presence of women because the approach with the gender perspective is not a goal of this article. A today’s sample of the remarkable female artistic presence aims to be the exhibition Women’s of Mykonos Clothes: A study in Aegean Civilization. The visual exhibition, which was designed to occur in Athens and Mykonos, was inspired by the reconstruction of the not surviving Women’s clothing of the island in 1700, by the costume designer John Metzikof. The material culture of the island, which is preserved by the local collectivity, became a canvas for 18 women from the Greek and the International art scene, which had the opportunity to confront with: institutions, habits and feelings and express a new artistic position. The works brought into light experiential situations, memories, blending of cultural characteristics and materials, votive practices, intergenerational relations and everyday women’s habits for ages. All of these women’s elaborations were expressed with multiple visual forms, modern and older. The search for sites to exhibit these artworks, led to the happy coincidence to find two urban houses with a strong presence in the landscape of every city. First the House-Museum of Angelos and Leto Katakouzenos, located in Syntagma square, in the center of Athens, was the largest philological salon of the generation of the ‘30s, in that house had the good fortune, to share their lives the most notable people of culture and science of that era. The other exhibition space, is also a bourgeois house in the center of Mykonos Town, built by α renowned architect, a unique sample of architecture in the port. The artworks were integrated successfully in both rooms that had much in common and harmonized with the bygone lives of women within them. The artistic new clothes gave a breath to these spaces and took a loan from the aura of the women of another old era. Cabinets, chests, walls, sofas and items of the space, hosted and revealed the thoughts and the experienceς of contemporary women.

Info: Women’s of Mykonos Clothes: A study in Aegean Civilization, Curating: Mina Karagianni, House of Venieri-Kornilaki, Matogianni in Chora, Mykonos Island, Duration: 11-20/7/15, Days & Hours: Daily, 19:30-22:30

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