Art meets Tourism in Santorini

Crescent-shaped Santorini (also known as Thera in Greek) is perhaps the most popular Greek destination and a worldwide famous island. Boasting a unique landscape, Santorini is an island immortalized by poets and painters thanks to its celebrated light, multicolored cliffs, and picture-perfect sunsets. However, Santorini is an island that has much more to offer to its visitors than the ordinary tourist attractions. As visual artist-curator of the exhibition “3e: Element – Environment – Energy”, Georgia Trouli, puts it: “Today, apart from tourism, Santorini is a place for encounters and a melting pot”.

Through their numerous dynamics, the “3e” components (namely, element – environment – energy) encompass and influence life, action and development. Through the exhibition – which will be running until September 30, 2020 at the Santorini Arts Factory– 16 contemporary artists seek out the basic elements’ encapsulating form, the environment, which brings them out, and the energy from where they emerge as one. In a reality where things evolve so fast at a personal, local and global level, each and everyone is called on to locate the energy through which one communicates, assimilates and reflects later on the environment. An exercise in awareness, the orchestration of space and the expansion of experience.

The show presents artworks by: Sotirios Antoniadis, Yiannis Kaminis, Alexandros Karozas, Stella Koza, Elli Lampadaridou, Christina Michalopoulou, Marilena Bitzani, Maria Nenadi, Titina Rodogianni, Costas Spyropoulos, Maria Stamati, Bessi Syrou, Yiannis Stebilis, Georgia Trouli, Stella Haviaropoulou and Kirsikka Soustiel, many of whom are participating artists of the Restart Cultural Tourism Platform, an innovative institution running under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Tourism and the National Tourism Organization. The organization’s aim is to promote Greek artists abroad, by showcasing their work to the international audience that visits the country. It also offers tailor-made production of cultural events to tourism industry businesses that wish to develop their intellectual identity, rise up their cultural awareness and differentiate from their competitors through Art.

Special mention should also be made to the space where the exhibition is being hosted, that is the Santorini Arts Factory which is housed at the Tomato Industrial Museum “D. Nomikos” in Vlychada. The Museum offers visitors a journey back to the industrial past of the island, by guiding them through the cultivation, processing and production of one of the most famous and traditional products of Santorini, the cherry-sized tomato that has been cultivated on the island since the end of the 19th century. Moreover, the Arts Factory was given a full facelift in 2014 in order to serve the island’s cultural life, by hosting exhibitions and concerts, offering residencies to international artists, and providing educational activities and art lessons for children.