A Sea of Stories: Preserving Cycladic Maritime Culture

Manolis Zisimopoulos from Paros, remembers taking journeys on kaikia (conventional picket boats) from the age of seven, recalling the times when his grandfather and father transported barley for the manufacturing of beer to Athens. Captain Kostas Prasinos on the island of Ano Koufonisi recounts how he has transported hundreds of vacationers on his boat, the Rousseto Prasinos. His father was one of the vital completed captains within the space. “The storm brings good luck,” Prasinos says. “However you need to turn into buddies with the ocean, and you may’t attempt to trick it.” In Amorgos, Nikolaos Vekris additionally follows the household custom. “I’m a third-generation sailor,” he says. “Perhaps much more than that, as a result of I don’t know what my great-grandfathers did.”

A brand new mission from the Archipelago Community, “Maritime Trades of the Cyclades,” options movies, images, audio recordings and archival materials, in addition to properly as interviews with dozens of people that have formed, and proceed to form, the Aegean expertise with their picket boats. Twelve months of analysis and documentation had been wanted to finish the mission, leading to 19 archival collections with hundreds of images, dozens of hours of recordings, three-dimensional fashions of chosen woodworking instruments, and over 500 digitized images and uncommon archival paperwork, in addition to a 12-episode documentary sequence. Guests navigate the exhibition utilizing an interactive digital map to discover Amorgos, Koufonisia, Paros, Santorini and Syros, the place they encounter tales like those talked about above, advised by ship carpenters, fishermen and sailors.

There may be materials on the fishermen of Paroikia; the shipyards in Amorgos; the captains of Koufonisia; the legendary Skopelitis household, recognized all through the Lesser Cyclades; and the fishing vessel Timios Stavros, that also units sail from the bay of Aegiali. The mission appears to be like on the ships, the individuals who work on them, and their lives at sea and on the land.

The mission goals to discover how picket boatbuilding, small-scale fishing and transport are linked to Cycladic id and tradition. Concurrently, by the documentation and dissemination of custom, the Community additionally serves one other objective: to lift consciousness of this heritage in an effort to put an finish to the coverage of withdrawing and destroying the outdated picket boats of Greece.

For plenty of years now, the Greek authorities has backed the withdrawal of fishing licenses as a part of a European coverage to scale back the environmental impression of fishing. As a part of this program, conventional fishing craft are damaged up, by no means for use once more. By way of their efforts, the Community seeks to advertise another, sustainable strategy to fishing that doesn’t require destroying the nation’s maritime legacy.

In keeping with the Archipelago Community, picket boats have at all times functioned as connecting hyperlinks between the islands and the encircling space; their development and upkeep steadily developed into a definite artwork kind requiring particular abilities and experience. Over the centuries, shipbuilding, small-scale fishing, and the transportation of products and other people has engendered a wealth of data in regards to the sea, and that data hascontributed to the survival and empowerment of generations of individuals.

The archive collections, which can be additional enriched all through 2024, are provided on an open-access foundation for examine and use by all audiences, together with researchers. On the identical time, the Community is making ready a sequence of actions on the aforementioned islands (together with exhibitions, movie screenings, and lectures) with the intention of “honoring these practices and defending their continued survival and evolution.”