Nisos

The project Nisos draws from anthropologist Margaret Kenna’s extensive research on the island of Anafi, where she studied the dynamics of three key communities: political exiles, the local residents and migrants who relocated to Athens. These communities, though distinct, share Anafi as their common point of identity, influencing and shaping each other’s evolution. The project visualizes these interactions and histories through a woven textile and three 3D-printed ceramics.

At the heart of Nisos is a woven textile whose pattern encodes the numerical influx of political exiles to Anafi during the 1930s, a period when their population surpassed that of the locals. The loom’s warp threads reflect this influx, creating a motif that also incorporates three traditional embroidery designs found on Anafi textiles: two peacocks and a deer. These motifs meet in decorative bands, symbolizing the exchanges and connections between the three communities. The woven textile serves as a material record of these interactions, blending numerical data with Anafi’s craft traditions.

The project extends its exploration of social structures through 3D-printed ceramics inspired by the uniquely shaped beehives (formed to protect bees from the strong wind) used on the island until the 1950s. The hive, a space embodying functional social organization, reflects the community structures developed by the exiles to ensure their survival. The design of the hive incorporates the same woven motif as the textile.

Another element of the project references the baskets used for exchanging goods between Anafi’s locals and its migrants in Athens. These baskets, sealed with fabric and inscribed with sender and recipient details, symbolize the island’s networks of exchange. In Nisos, the ceramic hives are sealed with fabric bearing Anafiot proverbs—phrases preserved in their original Greek by Margaret Kenna, underscoring the cultural continuity embedded in her archival work.

Nisos questions how community and identity are shaped through shared histories and material exchanges, offering a narrative that intertwines personal, cultural, and communal dimensions of Anafi’s past.

Ceramics: Nikos Athanasopoulos – Sealed Earth Ceramics Studio

Photographer: Stathis Mamalakis

• exhibition

  Weaving Histories: Margaret Kenna and Anafi

• curator

  iLiana Fokianaki, Phenomenon

• production

  Phenomenon

• venue

  State of Concept, Athens

• year

  2021

• acknowledgements

  Nikos Athanasopoulos, Sealed Earth Studio, Polymnia Theodoraki