Scenes from a recent past: landscape, production and society of Santorini in the 60’s

Based on the documentary film 'Thirean Matins ' (Thiraikos Orthros) by Costas Sfikas and Stavros Tornes, made in 1968, the exhibition presented aspects of the social history of the island, and investigated the transformation of the agricultural landscape and its relationship with the everyday life and culture of its inhabitants. Nine scenes from the film were selected to give the nine themes of the exhibition, connecting the past with the present through text and images. There was also continuous screening of the film Thirean Matins shown in the same gallery.

The inspiration for the exhibition came from a screening of the film to the pupils of the primary school of Pyrgos. The children were watching with amazement as unrecognisable places and unusual, weather-beaten, faces passed in front of their eyes, with little resemblance to the island and the people they know today. Scenes from a distant past, yet very close since we, the older island population, have experienced this past.

The passage to prosperity has alienated us from the very landscape to which tourism owes its success, and has also distanced us from the lives of the people who shaped that landscape. Thus the idea for the exhibition was born - as an exploration through images which contrast scenes from an old and almost vanished past, with contemporary scenes from the familiar present. It investigates the idea of cultural continuity as a process, and what levels of conscious and unconscious processes may connect the past with the present.

The material for the exhibition comes from fieldwork and literature research, but at this stage there is no attempt of any interpretation. The texts and the images are intended to complement the scenes of the film and to place them into a socio-spatial context.