This work draws inspiration from the long history of Serifos’ mining industry and depicts
the now visibly weathered façade of the administration building at the Megalo Livadi mine.
It reflects on the period during which mining shaped the island’s identity, landscape, and
economy.
This historical trace of memory is interwoven with mythological references associated with
Serifos. Many of the wild plants spreading across the right-hand wall gradually transform
into snakes, alluding to the myth of Perseus and Medusa. In this way, the work brings together history and mythology, suggesting the coexistence of the tangible and the imaginary
within the same landscape.
This is the first of two relief prints created using the technique of reduction linocut and
printed on transparent PVC. The transparency allows both light and the surrounding environment to become part of the work, subtly altering its appearance according to the space
in which it is exhibited.
The pigments used in the print were prepared exclusively from minerals collected on
Serifos. The red stone from Strofi in Megalo Livadi, the grey clay from Evangelistria, the
ochre from Vagonia, and the remaining natural materials function not only as pigments but
also as carriers of the island’s physical substance. In this way, the land of Serifos becomes
more than the subject of the image—it also becomes the very medium through which the
work is created, giving rise to an aesthetic that emerges organically from the landscape
itself.