1.
Perhaps it was a latent sense of recognition that made Chiara Camoni decide to become the second resident of the Makryammos Ephemeral Art Residency on the Greek island of Thasos. Living in the Italian village of Fabbiano in the Versilia mountains of the Apuan Alps, with a view of the Tuscan Sea in clear weather, she must have felt attracted to the mountainous and fertile Greek island, with its strong local traditions and its ubiquitous references to the mythical gods of ancient times. Camoni’s unceasing drive to work with materials from her surroundings, to regard her domestic space as her atelier, and to see art and daily life as one and the same were important considerations in inviting her to spend a month on the island along with her daughter Anna Ines.

2.
Camoni’s many sculptures, installations, drawings, paintings, videos and performances seem to stress the materiality of objects and the creative act, a fascination for collective rituals and the great significance of a sense of place. Furthermore, there seems to be an intense interest in the charge given to objects, a charge that is not always visible but can certainly be felt.

This is underlined by a quote from Camoni in a text by Alice Motard. ‘When I look at a vase or a necklace in the cabinet of a museum [of archaeology], I immediately begin to think that these objects, made with masterly expertise and a great investment of resources, were intended to accompany the deceased on the journey to the afterlife. A great effort just to be confined in the dark, forever . . . This is exactly what I find in this archaic past, an intention that through these objects makes me sense not only a form and a material, but also a kind of energy that is emanated, a density, a higher specific weight.’ [1]

I will examine the energy embedded in objects in the text hereafter in the context of the locality of Thasos. You might say that with the Ancient Greeks that energy lies in the attention paid to the act of making and to the treatment of the material but also in the decorative themes. Objects of daily use such as pots, amphorae and vases, jewellery, statues and seals are populated by mythical gods and goddesses. To the Greeks, daily life was suffused with the divine and the divine suffused with the everyday. I don’t believe this is any different for Chiara Camoni.

The archaeology museum on Thasos holds a great many miniature representations of human figures, as well as of animals and various objects. The little statues of humans, mostly female, are the most numerous. They may have served purposes of magic or ceremonial, and they were possibly used for the protection of the spaces in which they were found. They probably portray fertility goddesses.

Found along with them were statues of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and crops, of the earth, who is often depicted with a sheaf of wheat. She is closely related to the older, originally Phrygian, mother goddess Kybele. In antiquity the worship of Kybele was widespread in the East, including Asia Minor and Thasos. She is shown sitting on a throne, alone or with a lion on her knees, in a niche or in a temple-like building.

Demeter was popular among the Thassians. Major festivals were celebrated in her honour. Because her cult was associated with the land and its produce, the Thassians sacrificed pigs and cows, the fruits of the soil, honey and flowers such as poppies and hyacinths. Women took part in processions and dances. These rituals, which were a form of mysticism, took place as part of the Thesmophorion, held just outside the city walls on Cape Evreokastro.

The festival of Artemisia is celebrated on Thasos every spring, and the fact that her shrine is close to the Agora underlines her importance. Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, but she is also the patroness of pregnant women and mothers. Women sacrificed personal possessions to her. The festivals were connected with the celebration of the natural rhythm of the seasons, the natural cycle of life and death, of blossoming and decline. These apparently opposite entities come together in the festivities; life and death overlap. [2]

3.
The goddesses were the centre of everything that was natural. They were the heartbeat of the mountain, the denizen of the forest, the breath of the tree. The mother, the daughter, the cycle of life and death. In the context of the significance of these goddesses for Thasos, it’s interesting to look at the vegetal prints, three groups of sculptures by Chiara Camoni, and at the specific works she made along similar lines during the Makryammos Ephemeral Art Residency.

Vegetal Prints (ongoing)
Seven life-sized vegetal prints flap in the wind against the background of the Aegean Sea. They are the result of a group effort. After collecting leaves, seeds, branches, berries and flowers of local and exotic trees and plants in the beautiful Makryammos surroundings, the preparation of the silk with a fixing agent and the creation of a composition, the silk is rolled up tightly and heated for hours. The collection of the plant material invites stillness and contemplation, with attention to the details of organic structures and astonishment at them. The long wait that is part of the process ensures connection and relaxation.

When the silk is unrolled, it becomes clear that some leaves create surprising colours, whereas others give off a more generic hue. Certain flowers appear in detail on the silk, whereas others simply create a cloud of colour. It all depends on how they react with the fixing agent, how wet the fabric is, how high the temperature and several other such factors. Chance is the only certainty here.

The life-sized totems breathe slowly, to the rhythm of the wind. They are natural apparitions that arise out of the sap of the leaves, berries or roots, the collective spirits of the forests, flora and sea of Thasos. Several are clearly planning to stay, others are more ephemeral. They exist. A personification of the island’s sense of place, they are now part of a larger series of natural beings brought to life by collective creation, patience and playful experimentation. [include some pictures of the pieces at the terrace of Maria with sea in background, also the collecting of the plants?]