Extraction in the Cyclades: Digital Traces | Project Launch

What stories do the echoes of Cycladic mines and quarries tell? What histories come to light through photographs, videos and oral testimonies recovered from the past? And what visions for the future emerge through new artistic interpretations of the Aegean’s industrial heritage and labor history?

Archipelago Network’s new project, Extraction in the Cyclades: Digital Traces, is a living archive that brings together historical research and contemporary artistic creation. It invites viewers and listeners to discover untold stories of extraction in the Cyclades and explore the layered experiences and memories of extraction—stories that continue to shape island life within an ever-changing landscape. The project focuses on five islands of varying scale and geological composition with significant extractive activity over the last three centuries: Antiparos, Milos, Naxos, Serifos and Tinos.

In partnership with local historians, museums, labor centers and other community partners, Archipelago Network presents a constellation of photographic and audiovisual collections, contributing to dissemination of the historical memory and cultural heritage of mining and quarrying from the late nineteenth century to present day. Two commissioned digital artworks, a documentary photo series by visual artist Ignacio Acosta and a video essay by visual artist Sofia Dona, offer contemporary interpretations of the interplay between labor, memory and landscape across the archipelago.

The project was realized under the auspices and with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, and with the support of the J. F. Costopoulos Foundation.