Crafts of the Sea: Exhibition Series
June 14 – 22, 2024
AMORGOS
July 4 – September 21, 2024
ATHENS
Curated by: Maurizio Borriello & Jacob Moe
Realized by: Archipelago Network
in collaboration with
the Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos
&
the Goethe-Institut Athen
with the support of the Costas M. Lemos Foundation, Goethe-Institut Athen, and Archipelago Network’s benefactors’ circle
Islands, linked by a shared sea. Currents, coastlines, boats, marine life, captains, fishers, and boatbuilders: a network of interacting forces, extending into the past and future.
Archipelago Network, in collaboration with the Professional Fishing Association of Amorgos and the Goethe-Institut Athen, presents the exhibition series Crafts of the Sea in Amorgos and Athens in summer 2024. The exhibitions will take place from June 14 to 22 at the Athletic, Sailing, and Cultural Association of Amorgos and from July 4 to September 21 at the Goethe-Institut Athen.
Curated by Maurizio Borriello and Jacob Moe, Crafts of the Sea maps the rich maritime traditions of the Cyclades and explores today’s boatbuilding, fishing, and seafaring communities across the islands of Amorgos, Koufonisia, Paros, Santorini, and Syros through archival materials, contemporary photographic documentation, sound collages, and short documentaries.
Through a grassroots approach to sourcing and preserving community heritage, the Crafts of the Sea exhibition series celebrates less tangible and monumental forms of maritime culture, advocating for their continued relevance and existence in the years to come.
Both the historical archival material and the contemporary audiovisual documentation are the result of on-site research conducted by Archipelago Network throughout 2023-24 as part of the Maritime Trades of the Cyclades project, also presented on the organization’s online platform as an interactive digital map.
Crafts of the Sea: Amorgos
June 14 – 22, 2024
Opening: June 14, 19:00
Athletic, Sailing, and Cultural Association of Amorgos
Katapola, Amorgos
Aegiali, Katapola, Agia Anna, Kalotaritissa: four main hubs of fishing activity across the island of Amorgos.
In conjunction with the annual “Fishers’ Feast” in Katapola, Archipelago Network inaugurates the Crafts of the Sea exhibition, which takes place from June 14 to 22 at the Athletic, Sailing, and Cultural Association of Amorgos. The exhibition focuses on the island’s long tradition of fishing activity as well as the new models for cultural and environmental action necessitated by radical transformations in social and environmental realities of the region.
The exhibition on Amorgos invites residents and visitors to explore the island’s maritime heritage via photographic archival installations by Jacob Moe and documentary photographs by Maurizio Borriello, which contextualize the marine environment of Amorgos as a palimpsest of knowledge and culture.
On June 16, in collaboration with the Amorgos Cinema Club in Vroutsi village, a screening program will be presented featuring a series of documentary films about fishing practices and boatbuilding activity in Amorgos and beyond.
Crafts of the Sea: Athens
July 4 – September 21, 2024
Opening Reception & Screening I: July 4, 20:30
Screening II: September 11, 20:30
Goethe-Institut Athen, Athens
Amorgos, Koufonisia, Paros, Santorini and Syros. Five islands of the Cyclades interconnected by routes of trade, craft and culture.
For the first time in Athens, Archipelago Network presents the rich and multifaceted maritime traditions of the Cyclades through the multimedia exhibition Crafts of the Sea, held from July 4 to September 21 at the Goethe-Institut Athen. The exhibition traces interconnections between these maritime communities of past and present through archival material and contemporary photographic, sonic, and audiovisual documentation.
Highlighting the concurrent value and precarity of the wooden boatbuilding, fishing and seafaring crafts in the region, this exhibition in Athens invites the public to reorient their senses towards a future seen with, and from, the sea. Visitors will encounter a universe of objects, landscapes, boats and portraits spanning historic locations such as the Tarsanas boatyard in Syros, Ai Giannis bay in Paros, the Armeni boatyard of Santorini, and the fishing ports of Amorgos and Koufonisia. The exhibition also features historic archival materials from the Historical Folklore Museum of Naoussa (Othon Kaparis Collection) in Paros and various private collections from Syros, Amorgos, and Santorini.
As part of the exhibition, a two-part screening series takes place on July 4 and September 11, presenting archival, ethnographic, and narrative short films resonating with maritime communities in Greece and beyond.