Presented at Ikastikos Kiklos exhibition, in 2005.
I was born in Piraeus and I grew up next to the sea until I was ten years old. I remember its beaches and its shining waters as it is today the waters of the Cyclades. Much later, at the end of the 1950s, when I discovered the island of Sifnos, the memories of my childhood in Piraeus came back to me. Since then, there hasn’t been a summer of a holiday I haven’t met with Pepi in one of these Islands. In 1966 we stayed on the island of Milos. The island cut off from the tourists for its time made us feel we were somewhere where all our desires were fulfilled.
The back and forth to Piraeus those first years happened by sea, and the adventures of these transportations were unforgettable. I can’t forget in the 1960s, the difficulties and the problems we and the Cyclades were facing. Large boats were loaded in Perama with passengers and with them the most mischievous objects: cement, building bricks, gas bottles, cartons, food baskets, furniture, dowels, kitchens, mattresses and more.
However, this link between Piraeus and the Cyclades has had its charm with all these difficulties. It was the expectation of departure, the journey to the Aegean, the longing for arrival and then the isolation from the hum of the city, stimuli and impressions that were written in small projects and drawings.
I tried to replicate all these things, to see them again, the port with its old and new face, the charm of the journey and, above all, the happiness of the stay with the metaphysical tranquility of the Aegean world.
Dimosthenis Kokkinidis
December 2004
