Hermitage Sykaminea
Onassis AiR Collaboration
The Hermitage Sykaminea was founded as a place for retreat, and to rethink modes of life and production.
The Hermitage Sykaminea is situated in a terraced olive grove on a slope of Mount Lepetymnos, Lesvos. In 2020 the Hermitage was reconfigured to include an independent artist-run Summer Program as a space for untamed creative work away from metropoles. The Summer Program encourages individual and group-work, and initiates collaborations that continue beyond the summer. A continuing collaboration is the wool project which works on what can be done with discarded wool waste from sheep farming. The project produces new connections with the local area through recontextualising traditional techniques, and has started discussions on models for new employment and opportunities in the region.
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Photo: Hermitage Sykaminea
The Hermitage Sykaminea Gathering at Onassis AiR.
Participants: Fani Bitou, Nuno Cassola, Maria Christoforidou, Fanis Dalezios, Antonia Economou, Tomas Eyzaguirre, Walter Götsch, Anna Housiada, Electra Karatza, Efi Latsoudi, Leslie Lawrence, Petros Lolis, Julie Loi, Matina Nikolaidou, Eliana Otta, Eleni Papazoglou, Léo Ravi, Leonardo Ruvolo, Andreas Sell, Lucy Stein, Xenia Tabourlou, Dimitris Theodoropoulos, Eirini Tiniakou, Pan Tzannetakis, Theodoros Tzannetakis, Nikolas Vamvouklis, Emma Williams.
In March 2022, Οnassis AiR collaborates with Hermitage Sykaminea, to host the Gathering in Αthens, that will unfold through a series of events put together by previous residency participants and newcomers. Emerging out of the Hermitage Sykaminea Summer Program, the Gathering collectively explores possibilities of how to live and work in supportive cοmmunities in non-urban areas of Lesvos and beyond.
Through a practice of collective investigation, the Gathering gives space to share, gather and develop experiences and knowledges on how to live and work closer to nature, and the land. Focusing on themes of isolation, displacement, hospitality and planetary responsibility, it question forms of organisation, financing, how to work with commons and connect to neighbouring cοmmunities. The Gathering is seen as opportunity to build a supportive, nourishing and long-standing network which engages with the local surroundings of Lesvos and similar areas, whilst staying connected to urban-lives.
The Gathering will conclude with a two-day public program at ERGO Collective on March 21-22, 2022, that is open to all who wish to join in, exchange and add to this collective process.
The Hermitage Sykaminea Gathering is organized with the support of Goethe-Institut Athen, Οnassis AiR, Protoulis Master Olive Oil Makers, ERGO Collective and Dolce Publishing.
