Athens | Part I
Lily Hassioti + Athens Open Studio
Over the summer, we spent some time in Athens meeting climate-focussed creatives working in this bustling city. We’ll hear soon from artist Becky Campbell (a Scottish artist working in Athens) and from two project managers involved during the construction of the city’s National Opera (a feat of sustainable design). But first, we’re delighted to introduce artist Lily Hassioti.
Describing herself as “artist & sailor”, Lily Hassioti recently co-founded Athens Open Studio: a space for creativity and education. Her recent exhibitions include Kinono Art Gathering on the island of Tinos (2018), Athens Digital Arts Festival (2017), RSA New Contemporaries (2017) and Paradigm Electronic Arts (2016).
For the most part, Lily looks at the cultural, emotional and spiritual impact that rapid technological development is having on our everyday lives. She creates artworks describing human manipulation of the environment and often navigates what she calls the “integrated post-digital landscape” of today, producing installations and interactive projects. Lily encourages audience engagement, even asking studio visitors to contribute to her projects.
Working with a variety of natural and found materials, Lily combines analogue and digital processes. Her working space in Athens Open Studio is jam-packed full of her finds, each in varying states of transformation. Her workspace – which she shares with studio co-founder, artist Ileana Arnaoutou – is a sea of rope, tape, sailcloth, thread, sand, printing-tools, a sewing machine, paints…
Resistance
Lily’s Sails highlight society’s need to embrace renewable sources of power.
By considering how ancient and analogue technologies can be re-appropriated to provide contemporary solutions, Lily’s latest body of work explores alternative sources of clean energy. Her Sails discuss wind power, hinting at Greece’s staggered movement toward renewables.
In this series, Lily is laser-cutting the pattern of barometric fields upon sailcloth. This creates a paradox: the wind is physically depicted on the sail but of course the sail itself does not function; the wind makes no useful impact on the cloth. The comment here is that Greece is yet to tap into the full potential of wind power, on its islands and at sea; partly because of government policy, partly as a result of resident resistance groups.
Looking out from Tinos (Cyclades)
Many of Greece’s islands are effectively off-grid and reliant on expensive diesel-fired generation.
The island of Tinos, where Lily spent large parts of her childhood, is known for its wind. The wind is part of daily life for the islanders, so much so that they have their own way of charting its strength: categorizing the ferocity of each gale by the weight of object it might carry: chapel, chair, table, bell…
Yet, Tinos has only one wind turbine. And resident protests have been held on the island against any wind farm expansion.
Islanders believe wind farms will spoil the charm of their near timeless landscapes. We would argue that the opposite is in fact true. Let tourists admire Greece’s forward thinking; let these islands be examples of sustainability.
The New York Times tells us ‘the residents of Aegean islands are opposing the drive [for wind farms], afraid that towering turbines will mar the natural beauty of their communities and offend the tourists on whom they rely.’
On Serifos, protests by locals recently derailed a project for the installation of a wind farm with 87 turbines, each 150 meters tall. Councillor Antonis Antonakis said “there's no way we're going to let this happen – it would destroy the island.”
The environmental council for the Cyclades said that turbines should be placed in the sea: “they won't bother anyone there”, said council spokesman Panayiotis Vouros. But (private) offshore developments – which have become familiar in other parts of Europe such as the North Sea – have been prohibited by the Greek government since 2010.
While huge investments have been made in the country toward the harnessing of alternative energy, and some experimental sites (such as on the island of Agios Georgios) have proved successful, government policies and hampering by protest groups are blocking grander advances. From what we can gather, many believe, quite simply, that development in this sector will harm Greece’s powerful tourist industry.
Islanders seem more open to the idea of fields of solar panels than forests of wind turbines. “Solar parks are not so intrusive”, said Antonakis.
While we can understand the desire to preserve the natural beauty of these locations – for the Greek islands are indeed stunning – it is clear that urgent need for change, in the face of climate crisis, far outweighs these aesthetic reservations.
Greece is still heavily reliant on coal – despite having the ideal environment to harness renewables – with a set of its power plants fired on Lignite, a type of brown coal, which releases higher than average volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
These types of plants are set to be phased out over the next decade. Will the closure of such plants herald transition, and how can those resistant to such change be brought onboard?
If the country comes together, a turning point may be ahead.
Athens Open Studio lies nestled in the city’s Ilisia district, fifteen minutes from the Museum of Cycladic Art and close to iconic Lycabettus Hill and Syntagma Square. Lily & Ileana’s venture is inspiring: they’re confidently presenting themselves as approachable, open minded creatives, contributing to the Athens art community. The studio – which has both served as a medical dispensary and mechanic’s workshop – offers life drawing sessions, portfolio preparation tutoring, writing assistance, studio time and other on-demand workshops. Their philosophy is to ‘make work restlessly, be open to new people and possibilities, learn along the way, and share it with others’. If you’re in Athens, check out what they have going on.
