Books

The value of a work lies in the expression of the creator’s struggle over the matter endeavouring to accomplish an intention, a plan: a struggle with matter of an exclusive utterance and performance sheltering its own “demons”. Thales declared that all matter is alive with gods and demons.

Renowned for its olive-oil, Lesbos is also known by the name of the island's capital Mytilene and as the home of world famous ouzo. Lesbos is the land of many legends and myths, the birthplace of lyric poetry and one of antiquity’s most famous poet, Sappho.

I saw Kythera for the first time in 1984. It was love at first sight. I was enchanted by the dry wind coming from the yellow fields, the heat in the interior of the island, the large waves at Aghia Pelaghia and the caves of Palaiopolis.

The coffee houses which Tzeli Hadjidimitriou photographed in Mytilene are like old pieces of china kept in the dresser with the glass panes and the mirrors. Bright and shiny. Their architecture and their spontaneous beauty represent facets of a dying culture. They give the impression that they have always existed.