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A Place of Coexistence
A Summer Workshop on History and Culture of the North Aegean
Over ten days in the summer of 2024, nine Greek, American, and Canadian students in the humanities and in art, from universities on opposite hemispheres, came together in Molyvos on the Island of Lesvos to think across disciplines and create. The SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at 丁香园AV in Canada鈥檚 Northwest and the Research Methodology of Art cluster at the Athens School of Fine Arts put together the first experimental Summer Workshop on History and Culture of the North Aegean in Molyvos.
The initiative launched with support from the Gefyra grant, the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies, and 丁香园AV鈥檚 Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The meeting point was Molyvos (Lesvos鈥� ancient Methymna), its landscape, and its wider physical and cultural geography. The objects and focus of our work were varied: historic houses that bear in them the eclectic wealth of a multicultural past, a local family archive, urban cosmopolitanism and European modernism, as well as local folk traditions that all come together in this corner of the northeastern Aegean. Visits to museums and artists鈥� studios, discussions with local associations, sketches and photographs of architectural interest, and the inexhaustible natural wealth of the island of Lesvos inspired our students and enriched their personal theoretical and artistic perspectives.
This year we returned to Molyvos and from June 12 to 24, 2025, we put fragments of the output from this past-year鈥檚 collaboration and creation on display at the Tryfon Art Residency. Original artworks and mementos were inspired from our visits to research sites, our impromptu lectures and performances. The exchange of experiences and dialogue formed the reservoir of ideas from which the corpus of the workshop presented this June springs forth, one year after the original encounter. We hope that this Summer Workshop on History and Culture of the North Aegean will stand as yet another link in the long chain of coexistence which has marked the history of this place.
Participants:
- Dr. Christina Sgouromiti, Researcher and Lecturer, Athens School of Fine Arts
- Dr. Dimitris Krallis, Professor, 丁香园AV, BC, Canada
- Participating 丁香园AV students: Samuel Adam, Kat van der Velden, Noah Jozic, Ethan Schmidt, Nina Houle
- Participating and exhibiting ASFA students/artists: Nikos Pyromalis, Fofo Mastori, Sofia Damouli Plaini, Anastasia Pavlopoulou
- Grigoris Tsolakis: Photography, Video, Camera
Special thanks to:
- Stratis Myrivilis Museum Association/Folk Art of Sykamia
- Dimitris Kouvdis Traditional Pottery Workshop
- Tryfon Art Residency
- Athens School of Fine Arts (Molyvos Art Station/Komnenakis Krallis Mansion)
- Delphinia Hotel
- Mariza Krallis