Camper - The Walking Society - Issue nº13 - Ydra

F/W 2022 –– Issue Nº 13

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WALKING means travelling—moving from one place to another. Advancing, exploring, and innovating. The Walking Society is a virtual community open to everyone from all social, cultural, economic, and geographical backgrounds.

Individually and collectively, TWS champions imagination and energy, offering valuable ideas and solutions to better the world. Simply and honestly.

CAMPER means ‘peasant’ in Mallorquin. Our brand values and aesthetics are influenced by the simplicity of the rural world combined with the history, culture, and landscape of the Mediterranean. Our respect for the arts, tradition, and craftsmanship anchors our promise to deliver original and functional high-quality products with aesthetic appeal and an innovative spirit. We seek a more human approach to doing business, striving to promote cultural diversity while preserving local heritage.

YDRA We sailed to YDRA to explore an island like no other in the Mediterranean.

A place where you can only get around on foot or horseback, where the urban landscape has remained unchanged for over a century, and where life is about authentic sustainability and slowness.

THE WALKING SOCIETY The thirteenth issue is a journey to a part of Greece that strikes a harmonious balance between past and present. An artistic experiment that has succeeded year after year for decades, with a unique cultural and creative heritage that continues to flourish.

WALK, DON’T RUN.

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F/W 2022 –– Issue N°13

Ydra 5

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Vangelis is a man of few words. Born in Vlichos, a small village east of the port, he spends his days with his horses, Aris and Misty, moving loads up and down the island.

A loaf of petrified bread. Floating, static, placid in the Aegean Sea. It’s not the first image that comes to mind when approaching the island of Ydra, but the one used by Henry Miller in his Greek travel diary The Colossus of Maroussi, first published in 1941. He wrote: “Ydra is a rock which rises out of the sea like a huge loaf of petrified bread. It is the bread turned to stone which the artist receives as reward for his labour when he first catches sight of the promised land.” Today the island is still a “promised land” rooted in authenticity, despite having evolved over the past eighty years.

So what has changed since 1941? Electricity came to the island in the late ‘60s. Artists, writers, and actors started to arrive at that time too. The intellectual crowd followed in the footsteps of the Greek painters and Henry Miller, who discovered the island before anyone else. Here, Patrick Leigh Fermor wrote Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, one of his most famous books.

Leonard Cohen arrived in the spring of 1960 and would later reminisce on his years of freedom on Ydra: “It was as if everyone was young and beautiful and full of talent —covered with a kind of gold dust.” Today, talent is a magical spirit that still hovers over Ydra’s narrow streets that climb like a spiderweb from the port up to the hinterland and along the white walls coloured by fuchsia and orange bougainvillea. Ydra is a land of artists, curators, and foundations. The most well known in the latter category 7

is the satellite office of the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art in Athens, opened by Dakis Joannou. Every year he lends his space to an artist to create and exhibit in the small rooms of the abandoned slaughterhouse overlooking the sea.

Before the birth of this creative island community, and even before Greek independence in 1821, Ydra was home to pirates and privateers alongside great captains and navigators. The year 1821 is a number that recurs in the streets around the port: on a restaurant sign and the flags flying over the ancient fortress, which is now a historical museum. Despite its diminutive size, Ydra played a leading role in the Hellenic struggle against the Ottoman Empire.

Its fleet was a decisive weapon for the newly founded Kingdom of Greece, commanded

by Iakovos Tombazis and Andreas Miaoulis, who are still remembered as national heroes on the island.

The small rectangular port is well-hidden and protected, thanks to local wisdom developed over centuries of seafaring. Nowadays, it welcomes the daily ferries that go back and forth between Ydra and Piraeus, loading and unloading visitors, food, post, and stacks of newspapers. There are no buses, cars, or trains waiting for them. One thing that has remained the same in Ydra over the centuries is the absence of wheeled transport other than the carts that porters pull up and down the cobblestone streets.

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Dimitris works in the patisserie that his grandparents founded back in 1930. Marzipan sweets flavoured with rose water and almond are the speciality here.

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Set F/W 2022

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Corinna Seeds is the founder of the Hydrama Theatre & Arts Centre. A Greek native, she spent her childhood in London before returning to settle in Ydra.

Walden F/W 2022 Simon is a French painter with a house and studio on the island. Over 12 years ago, Simon arrived in Ydra after getting on the wrong boat. He has yet to return.

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Visitors still climb up to the houses on foot or rely on the small Greek horses that wait patiently a few metres from the water.

The destinations are family-run taverns, rented apartments, or small hotels that are largely unnoticeable. Ydra remains motionless in time, as if under some kind of magic spell that cannot be replicated or rediscovered. Kenneth Koch, an American poet who lived here at the same time as Cohen, would famously write: “Once you’ve lived on Ydra, you can’t live anywhere else, including Ydra.”

DIMITRIOS ANTONITSIS p.15 An afternoon at Dimitrios Antonitsis’ house talking about art and Hydra School Projects, a programme he curates that has hosted artists on the island for years.

CHLOE, DENNIS, MELINA, ROULIS, ZEUS p.23 There are no cars, motorbikes, or public transport on Ydra, only the small, tough Greek horses that move people and goods across the island.

HYDRAMA THEATRE p.32 Drama originated in Greece, and Ydra certainly plays its part. The Hydrama Theatre & Arts School, founded by Corinna Seeds, is a living stage in her backyard.

WALKING IN YDRA p.41 A dialogue with George Koukoudakis, mayor of Ydra, about the island’s slow pace, conservation, and future.

STEPHAN COLLOREDO-MANSFELD p.51 Musician and producer Stephan ColloredoMansfeld was raised on the island by his cosmopolitan family. Today, he is the maître of some of Ydra’s best parties.

SUDDEN NATURISM p.59 Although there are no official naturist beaches on the Sporades islands, which includes Ydra, Greece has always been a popular destination with travellers who seek this type of freedom.

PROTOMAGIA p.87 Greece celebrates spring with an explosion of flowers. On 1 May, known as Protomagia, it is customary to create floral wreaths with garlic as a good omen.

MICHAEL LAWRENCE p.97 The painter Michael Lawrence left California for Ydra to paint his freedom made of bodies, sea, sex, and love.

DESTE FOUNDATION p.105 Ydra is the island of art. Dakis Joannou and the local division of the DESTE Foundation, the Athens-based contemporary art establishment, have contributed substantially.

KIDS OF YDRA p.112 Around two hundred children attend schools on Ydra, ensuring that the island’s average age is lower than the rest of the country—a fact that bodes well for its future.

ATHLETIKÒS OMILOS YDRAS p.121 On Ydra, the full-sized football pitch is the home of Athletikòs Omilos Ydras, and a green space for the island’s residents.

MARDEN FAMILY p.133 Art flows copiously through the veins of the Marden family, Ydra summer residents since the ‘70s. One sunny afternoon, we meet in their peaceful garden under the shade of the trees.

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Pater Ioanikios, 86, is one of five Orthodox priests on the island. Pictured here buying bread for Mass, Peter says his job hasn’t changed much in the 40+ years of his service, with the exception of the pandemic.

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In Conversation with

DIMITRIOS ANTONITSIS

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Anyone who sets foot on Ydra will see him walking the cobblestone streets, always elegantly dressed in soft, enveloping clothes. An unexpected elegance, eccentric but graceful.

Dimitrios Antonitsis is an institution on Ydra and few know the island as well as he does, having lived here for 40 years.

Dimitrios has organised Hydra School Projects, an exhibition and art festival held every summer for the past 23 years. Artists such as Gregor Hildebrandt, Brice Marden, and Kiki Smith have attended, not to mention the young up-and-coming artists who rub shoulders with the established. Every edition has a theme.

As an artist, Dimitrios has worked with an unusual material for years: aluminium. He employs a special technique using titanium alloy to transform aluminium’s renowned fragility into phenomenal resistance, with the durability needed to ensure his works appeal to collectors. You’ll see it throughout his home, starting with the door. His living room is in the external courtyard, where a table and six chairs made of aluminium stand protected on a patio that faces away from the sun during the hottest hours. The interior is full of small and large artworks, among which Dimitrios’s three dogs move with alternating lethargy and enthusiasm. When Dimitrios sits down to talk, the smallest of the three, a black dachshund called Baracudaki, jumps up onto his lap and settles.

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Hydra School Projects is based in the island’s old high school on one of the town’s peripheral streets near the port.

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Dimitrios Antonitsis’ home is decorated with aluminium and his own sculptures.

These include a reinterpretation of Brancusi’s Infinite Column made with traditional Greek amphorae.

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Dimitrios, let’s start at the beginning. How did your love for Ydra grow and how did you end up here?

One piece was nominated for the Hugo Boss Prize, which is coordinated by the Guggenheim!

My story with Ydra began years ago. At that time I was studying in Zurich and my family and I would go sailing around here during the holidays. They would invite their friends; I would invite mine. Every year without fail, the stop at Ydra was the most memorable. It was always the last stop because it was so close to Piraeus. We would sail, stopping at many islands, and we had a great time everywhere. But the memories most deeply etched in my mind are those of Ydra.

As Ydra becomes more famous and attracts more people from all over the world, do you think this could ruin its natural and cultural heritage?

Was this back in the ‘90s?

Sadly no, the ‘80s!

What struck you about the island in those days?

There is something magical about this place. The way the port is hidden when the sea is calm and you’re approaching from the north. You don’t see it until the very last moment. It’s a surprise. Or rather a crescendo: you’re sailing and all you see is rocks, rocks, and more rocks. And then, out of nowhere, you see this tiny symmetrical port. It’s amazing. Having been pirates, the Ydriots cunningly positioned and constructed the port so that if you’re sailing around Ydra, you only see the town for a few minutes before it disappears from view. It’s like a mirage; you’re not sure if you saw it or not because it’s so small and well-hidden that it passes by in a flash.

And how did you end up making your home here?

I was adopted, in a way. I was living in Zurich, but I was here every summer. There was already a community of international artists and Greek curators. It was a wonderful, extravagant group. Many of them are no longer with us today.

They have died or sold their houses, which is pretty much the same thing to me. I want this community to continue to flourish. I realise it’s tough for someone who is 70 or 80 to live here because many houses are perched among the rocks.

The Mardens were clever enough to buy a house down in the village. Helen Marden recommended this house to me when we were out walking one day. She has a sixth sense when it comes to houses, something in her DNA. This house was falling apart back then.

Do you leave the island during the colder months, as many do?

I used to travel a lot more before Covid. Then I discovered that Ydra is as splendid in autumn and winter as in summer.

I spent part of the winter here this year.

Is Hydra School Projects a way to keep the island alive from an artistic and cultural point of view?

Correct. When I started Hydra School Projects, I wanted as many artists to exhibit here as possible. I would bring 10 or 11 new artists here every year, making sure it was a mix of famous artists, such as Brice Marden, and young artists. It has always been very international. Before the School Projects, many artists in Ydra would concentrate on the sea and boats.

So my first exhibition was entirely abstract pieces, video art and installations that had nothing to do with the sea.

I think this is inescapable due to increased technology and travel accessibility. It is a risk, but it’s difficult to avoid.

It makes me think of your 2014 work, Soul Substitute, a series of photographs from the Hellenic Tourism Organisation archive printed on fine leather, showing a campaign to promote Greek architectural heritage featuring celebrities such as Grace Kelly. Even back then, you were looking at tourism and how certain places are perceived by the masses as living postcards.

Yes, although that was more about the aesthetics of grandeur than tourism. Those photographs are Instagram before Instagram. Instagram in 1968. The title was Soul Substitute because, in a certain sense, when looking at those photos you’re not concentrating on the beauty of the place per se, but on how Instagrammable it is.

Regarding the materials you use in your work: what is it about aluminium that appeals to you?

I like that aluminium is cold but malleable. Bright but sensitive.

I see a constant dichotomy within this fragile metal. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of the underdog too.

I think that aluminium is the underdog of metals because everybody always wants bronze.

The art crowd gathers almost nightly at any one of the island’s houses and some parties have gone down in history.

Do you think they are an integral part of Ydra’s soul?

Parties are always important, that’s my motto. The parties on Ydra are a fantastic playground for observing how most foreigners behave when they feel free or freed. Many of them live such a different life in the city and want to live the legend when they come to Greece and Ydra. It was a lot of fun years ago when you couldn’t Google people and it was impossible to tell if that person was a great writer, a con artist, or a success in something else. It was an amazing mix, with women claiming to be Persian princesses and others pretending to be billionaires. Everybody reinvented themselves on Ydra. Those parties were both comic and tragic, very theatrical.

Do you still have the same enthusiasm 23 years down the line?

Let me tell you something: the architecture and the façade remain the same but it’s a losing battle. The years pass and your body becomes weaker. Your body and mind change but the architecture stays the same. At some point, I won’t be here anymore, the Hydra School Projects won’t exist anymore, and nothing of all this will remain. But I believe that on a metaphysical level, something will remain of the artists who came to Ydra and were inspired by Ydra.

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“There is something magical about this place. The way the port is hidden when the sea is calm and you’re approaching from the north. You don’t see it until the very last moment.

It’s a surprise. Or rather a crescendo: you’re sailing and all you see is rocks, rocks, and more rocks. And then, out of nowhere, you see this tiny symmetrical port. It’s amazing.

It’s like a mirage; you’re not sure if you saw it or not because it’s so small and well-hidden that it passes by in a flash.”

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How has the contemporary art scene changed in Greece?

It was a fantastic scene back in the ‘90s and 2000s because there was so much money to spend. There were big buyers, not just international but Greek too. There was this very enthusiastic group of young collectors who initially offered a lot of support to young Greek artists. Unfortunately they were then infected with what I call the ‘art fair virus’, buying from places like Art Basel and nowhere else. Then the Greek economic crisis came and things aren’t like they were before.

Other than the next Hydra School Projects, what lies ahead for you?

Things are good because I have just curated an excellent exhibition, Brice Marden and Greek Antiquity, at the Museum of Cycladic Art, which was a little piece of paradise for me.

You know that paradise is not a Christian idea? It was Persian: a closed-off, protected garden full of magnificent plants and animals, where it was easy to hunt and find food. It was a place to be enjoyed. The fact that I was asked to curate an exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art and enjoy the extraordinary abundance of ancient Greek art, placing it alongside one of the contemporary artists that I love the most, Brice Marden—well, that feels like paradise to me. To answer your question, no plans for the future right now. I just want to savour this moment so I will be doing that until August ends.

At the port, horses are the first creatures that you notice. The small, sturdy animals typically found in the Greek islands are the engine of Ydra and one of the only ways to get around.

A horse neighs. It’s Harriet Jarman’s ringtone. Born in England, practically a showjumper from birth, Harriet has lived on Ydra since 2000 when she arrived with her family. In 2014, she founded an association that breeds horses here. Harriet’s Horses takes visitors to explore the beaches, mountain paths, valleys, and high peaks far away from the city centre.

“I want to show people why I made my life here,” she says, “Ydra is so much more than the port.”

CHLOE DENNIS MELINA ROULIS ZEUS 23

Ask Harriet Jarman when she takes a break from her horses and she’ll reply with conviction and a smile: “I already live in heaven; I don’t need many holidays.”

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Milah F/W 2022

Harriet’s horses are not native to Ydra, but rather from other Greek islands or the mainland. Just one was born and raised on the island: Dennis.

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Bonnie F/W 2022

There is no local veterinarian living on Ydra—a surprise for an island that is so dependent on horse transportation.

Fortunately, the Greek Animal Welfare Foundation visits the island every year to check up on all the horses.

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THE

HYDRAMA

THEATRE

Corinna Seeds’ home overlooks the sea on one side and on the other, an outdoor amphitheatre that she built herself.

It is simple in design, just like a classical Greek theatre. Although Corinna was born in England, her mother is Greek, and she lived here in Ydra as a child. As an adult, she returned when the call to her former home became impossible to ignore. “There were no art activities, nothing for children and teenagers,” she recalls. “That’s why I started with theatre because it could establish a community, among children especially.”

Each year, Corinna’s Hydrama Theatre & Arts Centre attracts dozens of Greek and international students who try their hand at classical Greek theatre, plus courses in dance, drama, and set design as well as text analysis and, naturally, performing in front of an audience. Not to mention the development and creation of masks, key tools used in Greek theatre to represent characters or moods. “People were worried, at first,” recalls Corinna. “They would see these actors in strange masks and feel a wariness towards the theatre. Only one person came to the ‘premiere’ back then.

Nowadays, the theatre is always filled with a real mix of people: island residents, tourists, artists from the local scene, horse trainers, everyone.”

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WALKING IN YDRA

with mayor George Koukoudakis 41

SURFACE 2 52 KM NAUTICAL MILES FROM PIRAEUS 37 MINIMUM WIDTH 6 KM MAXIMUM WIDTH 23 KM COASTLINE 55 KM MOUNT EROS 592 M 42

The morning is the most hectic part of the day. Ferries loaded with day-trippers pull into the port, anchors rattle as they drop into the water, and lines stretch tautly around the bollards.

The boats that go back and forth between Piraeus and Ydra unload Amazon parcels and stock for bars and restaurants onto the jetty. Bars fill up for breakfast, then lunch. So do the restaurants, their tables scattered across the streets in the shade.

Horses await their loads, flicking away the flies. Gradually the boats stop coming, the sun moves towards its zenith, and the island waits for the hottest hours of the day to pass. Ydra comes to a standstill. Hours pass in almost total silence.

Or rather, what we call ‘silence’ from an urban point of view: the absence of background noise caused by motorised vehicles, traffic, and city chaos. The stillness that descends upon Ydra during these hot hours is, in fact, far from silent. There is the constant background noise of cicadas hidden in the maritime pines; the occasional clip-clop of hooves bothered by flies; seagulls in search of fish fighting over the harbour.

Cars are banned on Ydra. Motorcycles and bicycles too. Although the odd ancient bike can be found on the small beaches, propped between one fishing boat and the next. Getting around on foot isn’t an issue in the island’s main town, given its small size.

However, reaching the other towns, Vlychos in the west or Limnioiza in the east, is a little trickier. Walking requires patience and endurance. Alternatively, one can rely on horses to ride, but side-saddle, Ydra style.

“There are no motorised vehicles because the people who live here have always wanted it that way. The prohibition of motorcycles and cars became law in the 1960s. Only a few cars are allowed on the island, with a special permit from the 43

Ministry of Culture. When a public building needs construction or restoration, we have to apply to the Ministry of Culture to bring the necessary vehicles,” explains George Koukoudakis, the island’s young mayor.

Koukoudakis studied in England: a BA in Political Science at the University of Exeter, then European Studies at Cambridge, before returning to Greece, Athens, for his PhD. But he is a Ydra native who chose to return to take care of his island and its people: “I like everything about Ydra: the community, its history, the beautiful nature, its architecture.” In his studio hang portraits of the most famous captains and admirals of the historic Ydriot fleet. To mark the bicentenary in 2021, George wrote a book about the war of independence against the Ottoman Empire.

He defines Ydra as “a living open-air museum”, with all the positive—and negative—implications that come with it.

“The buildings we walk past every day are the same ones that were here in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries,” he explains. But there is an “eternal debate” over the advantages and disadvantages of their preservation. For example, the inhabitants of Ydra are not allowed to use solar panels, which are widespread across the rest of Greece. “Naturally, we want to preserve Ydra,” explains Koukoudakis, “but what do we get in return? This is one of the problems that we face: we’re an open-air museum… but no one is paying for tickets.”

Visiting Ydra today forces you to slow down, amplifying the uniqueness of a holiday on the island. Disconnecting is not an option but a natural state to embrace. It is a small island, but everything takes time. It’s a question of adapting to its pace.

Sure, there are people who hop on and off the daily commuting 44

THERE ARE NO MOTORISED VEHICLES BECAUSE THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE HAVE ALWAYS WANTED IT THAT WAY. IT BECAME LAW IN THE 1960s, WITH THE PROHIBITION OF MOTORCYCLES AND CARS.

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DISTANCE FROM THE HARBOUR TO AVLAKI BEACH 500 M

TIME TAKEN TO EXPLORE THE PERIMETER OF THE ISLAND ON FOOT 13 HOURS

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ships to this part of the Aegean in a matter of hours; but to better understand Ydra, you need time to explore. To walk the trails up and down the mountains, to chill on the hidden beaches far from the main port, and to visit the still-rustic taverns, often family-run, that serve the catch of the day, grilled to perfection and always with a lemon wedge to cool and refresh. No tourist restaurants, nothing mass-produced and designed for customers from Asia to the Americas that all blend into one. “There is no risk of tourism here,” the mayor says calmly. “We have 7,000 beds, and once they are full, no one else can come. We have never wanted to attract mass tourism, just quality tourism.

There are no big hotels, just the old captains’ houses and small boutique hotels. The largest hotel in Ydra has 30 rooms.”

Then the inevitable seafaring analogy: “Ydra is like a boat with a limited capacity. It can only accommodate a certain number of passengers.”

A lifestyle so far removed from the constant, exponential acceleration experienced by the rest of the world could not fail to have its downsides. And the most evident for Ydra in recent years has been depopulation. During the war of independence, a key event that always circles back round to orient itself once more in time, the population grew to 16,000. Athens, by comparison, was a town of 7,000 inhabitants, and Piraeus, a simple fishing village. Today, the island has 2,000 inhabitants.

“However, I’m optimistic, and I try to see the glass half full,” says Koukoudakis. “There is a trend not only in Greece, but the rest of Europe too, where people are looking for a return to nature.

I think we are finally moving in the right direction. And those who live here enjoy a very high quality of life: crystal clear water, pure air, slowness. It is a privilege to live on Ydra.”

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WE HAVE 7,000 BEDS, AND ONCE THEY ARE FULL, NO ONE ELSE CAN COME. YDRA IS LIKE A BOAT WITH A LIMITED CAPACITY. IT CAN ONLY ACCOMMODATE A CERTAIN NUMBER OF PASSENGERS.

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In Conversation with

STEPHAN COLLOREDOMANSFELD

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From the street, Stephan Colloredo-Mansfeld’s house looks like one of the hundreds of humble white stone buildings that adorn the rugged mountains of Ydra. Inside, across a shaded courtyard, there is a terrace and a huge living room. The ceilings are high and the windows boast the best view of the small harbour, the sea, and the mainland a little further away. There is a triclinium, antique chairs, and a huge centuries-old sideboard decorated with eagles and other motifs that don’t belong to Greek iconography. These are heirlooms: the Colloredo-Mansfeld family can be traced back to the sixteenth century, somewhere between northeastern Italy and neighbouring Austria.

Visually, Stephan doesn’t reflect the formality of the Habsburg nobility but rather the colourful freedom of the 1970s, the decade in which he and his family moved to Ydra. His home was a carpet factory then. Today it’s a mansion with multiple levels, enriched with contemporary art, antiques, and a recording studio full of rare cult instruments located on the lower level, next to the kitchen. There is a drum kit, dozens of guitars, other string instruments from different cultures, basses, a mixer, of course, and anything else he might need. Stephan lives for music: the recording studio has hosted musicians, including Sebastién Tellier in 2019, collective jam sessions, and even artistic performances, by photographer Margherita Chiarva, for example.

In the recording studio, under a stone hood once used as an oven, Stephan has a bed in case he feels tired during a session. It is only a few centimetres from the drum kit and a 1960s organ—so he can wake up to a musical breakfast. The whole house, isolated and perched in the upper part of the ancient town, appears to be made for peaceful and meditative solitude. Waiting to be filled by music or the legendary parties Stephan is known for hosting.

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Stephan, you have been a Ydra resident for a very long time.

What was life like here as a child, growing up on this island but not being Greek by birth?

I had a very happy childhood full of magic, exploration, and adventure. We were a minority, but there was a group of foreign children who grew up here, in an environment heavily influenced by the philosophy of the late ‘60s, surrounded by artists and eccentric individuals who, looking back, I can only describe as “surreal”.

This house was a carpet factory. Has it been extensively renovated over the years?

It’s an ongoing process. Sorting things out, playing around…

It’s like therapy or meditation.

You grew up in a very international, multicultural family.

How did they end up here on Ydra and where did they come from?

My mother is Czech-Canadian; my father is Swiss and Greek.

A painter and a sculptor, respectively. They lived on the small island of Kastellorizo and when my mother had to go to Athens to give birth, they decided to visit Ydra afterwards as my Greek grandmother had a house here. They immediately fell in love with the island and its community and decided to settle here during the ‘70s.

There was no electricity on the island until relatively recently.

No, it came in the ‘60s. Leonard Cohen wrote the song Bird on the Wire when he was here then; he was inspired by a bird on one of the first electric wires on Ydra. It was a very special place.

What is the secret behind Ydra’s relationship with the art, music, and creativity that has always animated the island?

Is there something magical in the air?

I think it’s significant that there are no cars on Ydra, which makes it so picturesque and far removed from the chaos of contemporary society. When combined with the incredible light and the enormous availability of famous Greek wine, this creates a unique, magical aura.

How and when did you fall in love with music?

I started collecting vinyl when I was at boarding school in Austria. I was about 13 and I found it difficult to adapt to the wonders of the modern world. Music was a very sweet way of escaping reality and it has remained in my life as the most faithful of friends and companions.

Why did you decide to build the recording studio here?

I had discussed it several times with an American sound engineer who lived here. We knew Ydra had a considerable musical heritage, but it completely lacked this type of infrastructure. So, little by little, over the years, we have created a real studio, organising the house around it. This way I have managed to surround myself with the music and culture of the island.

Do a lot of people pass through this house?

I invite people I like, usually. They come here; they live here.

But it is also a space that can be rented for recording and producing.

And do you intervene in the creative process?

If they ask me! We all have our own idea of creativity, but yes, I produce a little.

Who is the most original artist who has visited?

Definitely Tellier, Sébastien Tellier.

Does music still play an important role in your life?

Is it different to when you were a kid?

I’d say that music still takes up most of my life. I run a mailorder vinyl project and now I can recreate the sounds that have been with me since I was a kid.

Where is your huge vinyl collection?

It’s all in Miami because the climate here in Ydra is no good: there is too much humidity.

It looks like the perfect party house.

Yes, we have a lot of parties here and a lot of things happen in this room! Loves blossom, loves fade…

Do you often travel between Ydra and Miami?

Yes, I usually live in Florida for a few months and I spend the warmer months here. My mother is in Austria, my father is in Switzerland, and my children are in California. I travel a lot, but my two main bases are here and Florida.

Are you attached to any instrument in particular?

I like to collect them. I have a Farfisa Compact Duo organ, which Pink Floyd used in the ‘60s. I have a theremin and a mellotron. I especially like the exotic ones.

Was it difficult to get all these instruments onto the island?

Yes, very much so. They are too fragile for horses or donkeys to carry, so they had to be carried by hand from the port to here.

Do you play often?

I used to play, but now I produce more than anything else.

I love music, but I’ve never been that good at anything in particular.

If you think about your roots in Ydra, what are they made of?

The simplest answer would be: olives, almonds, and pomegranates. But in a broader sense, all the happy, carefree memories I have, which I always try to recreate in a more modern and mature context.

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“I had a very happy childhood full of magic, exploration, and adventure. We were a minority, but there was a group of foreign children who grew up here, in an environment heavily influenced by the philosophy of the late ‘60s, surrounded by artists and eccentric individuals who, looking back, I can only describe as “surreal”.”

What does it mean to live on this island? Is there something special that makes you say: this is home?

I have travelled all over the world and Ydra has always been home, no doubt about it. The familiarity, the smells, and the memories I have cannot be replaced.

Are you comfortable with solitude?

Very much so. I think it’s very important to be comfortable in your own company.

What are your plans for the future?

It’s all in constant evolution. I’m working on a music residency program and a space to hold concerts. I’ve also found an old cistern in the garden that is a few hundred years old. I’d like to empty it and turn it into a separation chamber for voices so that we can have better acoustics without an echo. It’s big enough for one person.

It seems that Ydra has another kind of magic, resisting mass tourism.

Yes, luckily. There’s a fine line between promoting the island’s beauty and exploiting it. A lot of people come here because there isn’t too much spotlight or exposure. It’s a place to hide, in a way.

Before it became the home of Stephan Colloredo Mansfeld, the old carpet factory was the studio of Demetri Gassoumis, a Greek painter who lived in Ydra for a few years from 1959.

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SUDDEN NATURISM

On most Mediterranean islands, the general rule is that the beaches nearest the main town are not the ones that will take your breath away. Ydra, however, is the exception. Leaving the port behind and heading west for just a few minutes, you will come across Avlaki beach, a tiny little bay of a few square metres that is sheltered from the wind and looks out over a crystal-clear sea. The road turns upwards to continue along the perimeter of the island, meaning you have to hop down several steps covered with pine needles to get to this hybrid beach with a concrete platform and small rounded stones. Further along are the beaches of Kamini, Vlichos, and Plakes. Moving even further west, the journey becomes more difficult. It’s no longer a walk, at this point, but a trek.

There are no official naturist beaches on the Sporades islands, which include Ydra, but Greece has always been a popular destination with travellers seeking this type of freedom. With its small bays protected by rocks and nature, Ydra offers various opportunities for shelter and freedom during the less crowded months.

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There are at least 15 beaches in Ydra. Most are located on the north side of the island, facing the Greek mainland, while others like Klimaki, Nisiza, and Limnioniza are in the south. The latter three are easily reached via water taxi or a strenuous hike.

Ydra can be reached from the port of Piraeus, about 70 kilometres by sea and a two and a half hour journey by hydrofoil. Residents of Athens or Peloponneso, however, often drive to the port of Metochi, where a ferry connects to the island in just 20 minutes.

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Artist Reza Hasni has illustrated some of Leonard Cohen’s most beautiful poems and songs about his experiences on the island of Ydra.

HYDRA 1963 From Flowers for Hitler, 1964 Leonard Cohen

HYDRA 1960 From Flowers for Hitler, 1964 Leonard Cohen

BIRD ON THE WIRE From Songs from a Room, 1969 Leonard Cohen

“Come over to the window, my little darling / I’d like to try to read your palm / I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy / before I let you take me home,” sings Leonard Cohen at the beginning of So Long, Marianne. He is, perhaps, the most famous of Ydra’s inhabitants.

More so than the admirals and the captains, the leaders and the artists.

Even more than the other writers who couldn’t help but write about this island.

One wonders whether the love between him and Marianne Ihlen, his partner and muse for the seven years he spent on Ydra, would have been the same or as intense anywhere else, but it’s a silly question. Because everything changes with context and because, even intentionally 75

wishing to leave reality out of it, the answer would probably be no.

When Marianne meets Leonard, the writer Axel Johnson, her previous partner, has just left her and their 6 month old baby son. She comes to Ydra in 1958, Cohen in 1960.

He is not yet the singer-songwriter that we will meet later but a young American who wants to be a writer.

He sees a girl strolling in the port one evening and is bewitched by her. Together they move into a house with a large terrace just above the port, which is getting busier and busier in those days.

Here, Cohen writes and occasionally plays in the taverns. He publishes four books during his seven years in Greece: The Spice-Box of Earth, Flowers for Hitler, Beautiful Losers, 76

and The Favourite Game. Two books of poetry and two novels.

As the years pass, the “Gypsy boy” finds his balance. The credit belongs to Marianne, as he sings in his songs.

But the balmy effect of those spring silences, the starry sky over Ydra, and a sea still uncontaminated by ferries or yachts play a central role as well. In the meantime, he writes his first songs, perhaps sensing that there is a future in music, and not just in literature. The books are not as well received as Leonard hopes, but in the village of Kamini, while watching the workers mounting the first electricity masts, he sees a bird alighting on the taut wires and writes: “Like a bird on the wire / Like a drunk in a midnight choir / I have tried in my way to be free.”

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They would become lines in one of his most famous songs.

In 1969, Leonard decides to leave the island. To make music he needs to return to America, he reasons, and his relationship with Marianne ends in Ydra. It is an amicable breakup and the two remain friends forever.

He realises that a love of that kind, formed on an island like that, could not survive a world as different as Tennessee.

Marianne dies in Oslo in July 2016.

In his last letter to her, an email, Cohen writes: “Dearest Marianne, I’m here behind you, so close that I can take your hand.” He would join her in November of the same year, only three months later.

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ISLAND BULLETIN From Flowers for Hitler, 1964 Leonard Cohen

THE GLASS DOG From Flowers for Hitler, 1964 Leonard Cohen

DAYS OF KINDNESS 1985 Leonard Cohen

Love, sea, and pain. Death, intoxication, passion, resignation. Through a psychedelic lens.

Spring is the best time to visit Ydra. Blooming bougainvillea attracts pollinating insects and fills the narrow streets with a scent that battles with the jasmine for olfactory dominance. For most of the world, Greece included, 1st May coincides with Labour Day. Here, however, it overlaps with the older festival of Protomagia, a celebration of rebirth, which literally means ‘1st May’.

The month of May takes its name from the Roman goddess Maia, who also had a place in Greek tradition. As mother of Hermes, she was traditionally celebrated on the first day of this month, when her intervention was invoked to ensure a good harvest. In Greece, floral wreaths are created as a tribute to spring. To ward off evil spirits, bulbs of garlic are intertwined with flowers.

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Cyclamen and poppies are native to the island. The mountains are typically arid, populated by maritime pines, cypresses, and olive trees. Recent heat waves have greatly increased the risk of fires.

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Michael Lawrence Light and colour. Freedom, naked bodies, sea, love. Born in Los Angeles in 1943, Michael Lawrence moved to Ydra in 1992 and immediately grasped the spirit of the island, past and present. Collectors of his work include his friend Ray Bradbury, and Dakis Joannou, of course, whom no Ydra artwork eludes. What especially interested Michael about Ydra was the coexistence of contemporary and ancient, something that he also found in Rome, another of his great loves.

Michael Lawrence Ydra, June 24, 2012 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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Michael Lawrence Ydra, May 2018 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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Michael Lawrence Ydra, April 29, 2018 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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Michael Lawrence Ydra, May 5, 2018 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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Michael Lawrence Ydra, 2018 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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Michael Lawrence Ydra, June 13, 2018 Watercolor on arches paper 101 x 66 cm

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DESTE FOUNDATION

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WHEN DAKIS JOANNOU ARRIVES ON THE ISLAND, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO NOTICE HIM AND HIS SUPERYACHT. THE DISTINCTIVE EXTERIOR DESIGNED BY JEFF KOONS FEATURES COLOURFUL GEOMETRIC PATTERNS INSPIRED BY A TYPE OF CAMOUFLAGE USED BY BRITISH SHIPS DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR. THE YACHT WAS IRREVERENTLY BAPTISED “GUILTY”. TODAY, DAKIS IS 82 YEARS OLD, YET HIS FACE MAINTAINS THAT CRAFTY HALF-SMILE OF THE EXTRAVAGANT BUSINESSMAN. THOUGH HE IS LINKED NOT SO MUCH TO INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES BUT THE ART WORLD. JOANNOU IS THE FOUNDER OF DESTE FOUNDATION, A NON-PROFIT FOUNDATION ESTABLISHED IN ATHENS IN 1983. THERE HAS BEEN A SATELLITE OFFICE HERE ON YDRA, A SHORT DISTANCE FROM THE PORT, SINCE 2008. IT IS A SIMPLE, MINUSCULE BUILDING NO DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER BUILDINGS THAT PUNCTUATE THE REST OF THE ISLAND, MADE FROM THICK STONE TO KEEP THE SUMMER HEAT AT BAY AND PROVIDE PROTECTION FROM THE SEA WHEN THE WIND IS UP. IT WAS ONCE AN OLD SLAUGHTERHOUSE. NOW, EVERY SUMMER, IT IS TRANSFORMED INTO A SPACE FOR EXHIBITIONS AND SITE-SPECIFIC EXHIBITIONS

BY THE DIFFERENT ARTISTS AND GROUPS INVITED ANNUALLY. IN JUNE, THE DESTE FOUNDATION PROJECT SPACE INAUGURATED APOLLO, THE MUCH-ANTICIPATED EXHIBITION BY JEFF KOONS. THE ARTIST IS BY NO MEANS AN ORDINARY GUEST FOR SEVERAL REASONS. FIRSTLY, THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE ARTIST AND 106

THE FOUNDER OF THE FOUNDATION. AND SECONDLY, THE PROJECT WAS ORIGINALLY PLANNED FOR THE SUMMER OF 2020, THEN POSTPONED TO 2021, AND AGAIN FROM 2021 TO 2022, DUE TO THE PANDEMIC. IN RECENT YEARS, ARTISTS SUCH AS KIKI SMITH (MEMORY, 2019), DAVID SHRIGLEY (LAUGHTERHOUSE, 2018), ROBERTO CUOGHI (PUTIFERIO, 2016), URS FISCHER (YES, 2013), MAURIZIO CATTELAN (WE, 2010), AND MATTHEW BARNEY AND ELIZABETH PEYTON (BLOOD OF TWO, 2009) HAVE ALL EXHIBITED IN THE OLD SLAUGHTERHOUSE. THE FOUNDATION FACES THE SEA AND EXTENDS DOWN TOWARDS THE WATER. ITS REINFORCED WINDOWS GAZE OUT TO SEA. LOOKING BACK OVER ALMOST 40 YEARS, THE DESTE FOUNDATION HAS PROFOUNDLY IMPACTED THE WORLD OF CONTEMPORARY ART. YET, AT THE BEGINNING OF HIS ADVENTURE IN THE ‘80S, DAKIS JOANNOU HAD MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT BEING A COLLECTOR. AND THAT IS PRECISELY WHY HE DECIDED TO VENTURE DOWN THE PATH OF A FOUNDATION. IN INTERVIEW MAGAZINE IN 2016, HE EXPLAINED: “AT THE TIME, I DID NOT UNDERSTAND COLLECTING. I THOUGHT IT WAS ABOUT COLLECTING TROPHIES, AND I DIDN’T WANT TO DO THAT AT ALL. BUT I STILL WANTED TO BE ENGAGED WITH ART.” HE SHARED THESE CONCERNS WITH CRITIC PIERRE RESTANY ONE DAY ON THE BEACH IN GREECE BEFORE DESTE WAS EVEN AN IDEA. AND RESTANY REPLIED: “THE ONLY THING TO DO IS SET UP A FOUNDATION.” 107

MATTHEW BARNEY AN PEYTON (BLOOD OF TW CATTELAN (WE, 2010), MIRROR, 2011), ANIMAL FISCHER (YES, 2013), PA (THE SECRET OF THE P 2014), PAUL CHAN (HIPP ROBERTO CUOGHI (PUT WALKER (FIGA, 2017), D (LAUGHTERHOUSE, 201 (MEMORY, 2019), 199, 20 2021, JEFF KOONS (APO 108

ND ELIZABETH WO, 2009), MAURIZIO DOUG AITKEN (BLACK L SPIRITS, 2012, URS AWEL ALTHAMER PHAISTOS DISC, PIAS MINOR, 2015), TIFERIO, 2016), KARA DAVID SHRIGLEY 18), KIKI SMITH 020, THE GREEK GIFT, OLLO, 2022).

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TRACING BACK EVEN FURTHER, YDRA HAS AN ANCIENT RELATIONSHIP WITH ART AND WAS ALWAYS A DESTINATION FOR ARTISTS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, AT FIRST MAINLY GREEK ARTISTS. FROM NIKOS HADJIKYRIAKOS-GHIKAS, WHO HOSTED FRIENDS LIKE PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR AND JOHN CRAXTON IN HIS ISLAND HOME, TO PANAGIOTIS TETSIS, WHOSE HOUSE-MUSEUM CAN STILL BE VISITED TODAY. OR PAVLOS PANTELAKIS, ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT YDRIOT PAINTERS WHO FOR SEVENTEEN YEARS WAS ALSO DIRECTOR OF THE LOCAL SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS, CONTRIBUTING TO THE ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN CONSERVATION OF YDRA’S HERITAGE. OR MARCELLA MALTAIS, WHO LEFT CANADA FOR EUROPE AND SETTLED HERE IN THE 1960S, BECOMING CLOSE FRIENDS WITH LEONARD COHEN AND REMAINING ON THE ISLAND FOR LIFE. ARTISTS BORN IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY WHO LIVED THROUGH THE TRANSFORMATION OF YDRA FROM A FISHING VILLAGE INTO AN INCREASINGLY COSMOPOLITAN CENTRE, FIRST DISCOVERED BY AMERICA AND THEN BY EUROPE. THE ‘ORIGINAL’ DESTE FOUNDATION, NOW BASED IN ATHENS, HAD NO PERMANENT HOME UNTIL 1997.

THE FIRST CAME IN 1998: AN OLD PAPER MILL IN THE NEO PSYCHIKO NEIGHBOURHOOD, REDESIGNED BY AMERICAN ARCHITECT CHRISTIAN HUBERT. DAKIS JOANNOU, AN ACTIVE COLLECTOR FOR YEARS, STARTED EXHIBITING HIS PRIVATE COLLECTION FOR THE FIRST PROGRAMMES. AND HERE JEFF KOONS POPS UP ONCE MORE IN THE FOUNDATION’S STORY: 110

HIS SHOW A MILLENNIUM CELEBRATION WOULD FILL THE DESTE SPACE AS THE OLD MILLENNIUM GAVE WAY TO THE NEW. IN 2004, IN CELEBRATION OF THE ATHENS OLYMPICS, DESTE ORGANISED ITS MOST AMBITIOUS EXHIBITION TO DATE. ENTITLED MONUMENTS TO NOW, THE PIECES ON DISPLAY WERE ONCE MORE FROM THE DAKIS JOANNOU COLLECTION, BUT MORE THAN SIXTY ARTISTS WERE INVOLVED AND FIVE CURATORS TOO: DAN CAMERON, MASSIMILIANO GIONI, NANCY SPECTOR, JEFFREY DEITCH, AND ALISON GINGERAS. AND FINALLY, IN RECENT YEARS, DESTE’S TIES HAVE SPREAD LIKE TENTACLES ALL OVER THE MEDITERRANEAN. THERE IS THE DESTE PRIZE, A BI-ANNUAL AWARD AWARDED TO YOUNG GREEK ARTISTS TO PROMOTE LOCAL TALENT. THEN THERE ARE COLLABORATIONS WITH THE MUSEUM OF CYCLADIC ART IN ATHENS, AND WITH THE BENAKI MUSEUM, ALSO IN THE GREEK CAPITAL. AND THE FINAL LINK BETWEEN THE PAST AND THE PRESENT FOR JOANNOU, A CYPRIOT NATIVE WHO FLED AFTER THE TURKISH INVASION, IS A RECENT COLLABORATION WITH THE A.G. LEVENTIS GALLERY IN CYPRUS.

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KIDS

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YDRA

Europe is an increasingly ageing continent and statistics have shown this for some time. The phenomenon mainly impacts Mediterranean nations, with Italy in the lead and Greece hot on its heels. However, the average age on Ydra is lower than the rest of the nation, a fact that bodes well for the future of the island. There are two junior schools and a high school on Ydra today. The only opportunity for university education is limited to the Naval Academy and other aspiring students will have to embark for the mainland. Kalliopi, Ioana, Gregori, Ilias and their friends are some of the approximately two hundred children who attend schools on the island. One parent, a trekking guide who has made his life here, explains that nowadays many more children remain on Ydra, deciding never to leave. He gestures with his arm as though to embrace the whole panorama. He is saying: you’ve got everything you need here.

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ATHLETIKÒS OMILOS YDRAS

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Looking down on Ydra from a drone or one of the houses perched high in the mountains behind the port, an expanse of red terracotta roofs clusters around a stretch of green that resembles a large lake. This is the local football field, an artificial grass pitch surrounded by a small stadium with stands and changing rooms. Mountains loom in the background in front of the glistening sea. The red and blue jerseys—the colours of the island’s official flag, unchanged for centuries—of local team Athletikòs Omilos Ydras (literally: Sports Society of Ydra) move across the pitch. It is a small team whose players range from children to adults. The main sponsor is a mineral water brand, which is apt given that Ydra means ‘water’ in Greek.

During training, Athlitikòs sometimes shares the field with groups of children engaged in amateur matches or in search of shade and cooler temperatures, with the occasional jogger running around the sidelines.

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Football is the most popular sport in Greece, with a national team that won the European Championship in 2004.

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In Conversation with the

MARDEN FAMILY

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A family and an island seemingly linked by hereditary traits, the Mardens have been on Ydra since the 1970s. For over 50 years, their love for this place—that, like so many others, they stumbled upon by chance—has never wavered. Brice is one of America’s most important contemporary painters. His wife Helen is also a painter and visual artist, and their daughter Mirabelle is a curator. They have just arrived on the island from Athens, where Brice has just opened the exhibition Divine Dialogues at the Museum of Cycladic Art—a conversation between the artist’s work and selected antiquities from the permanent collections of the museum.

During the hottest months, the Mardens live in this ancient house with a large studio and an internal courtyard where an enormous lemon tree provides shade on lazy afternoons.

Mirabelle has just married Cole Mohr, who was an international model during the 2000s. He is drinking water flavoured with the homegrown lemons and recalling the first time he visited Ydra on their honeymoon, describing the island as “a dream”.

A dream passed down from generation to generation.

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Brice Marden, Helen’s husband and Mirabelle’s father, is one of the most influential American contemporary artists today. Represented by Gagosian Gallery since 2017, Marden has exhibited his work at some of the world’s most prestigious museums.

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Helen Marden’s Bitter Light a Year was exhibited at New York’s Gagosian Gallery in 2021.

Her work can also be found at the Whitney Museum and Princeton University Art Museum.

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Mirabelle, you were born and raised in New York but Ydra has been part of your DNA since you were a child.

as though we can stop. We have our own place together and that’s electrifying.

Mirabelle Marden: My mother was on Ydra when she was pregnant with me, so, in some way, I’ve always been here.

I studied in New York but I spent every July and August here as a child. Two months a year, every year.

It’s a new chapter for you, instead of returning to prepandemic normality.

What was the island like back then, seen through the eyes of a child?

M: The other day I was sitting in a café at the port watching all these children running around having the time of their lives. You can do whatever you want here. You are completely free and that’s a sensation I’ve never felt in New York. You can run around, explore alone, and nobody worries about you.

You can play. And there are no cars.

Has this place also marked your adult life in some way?

M: I was the happiest person in the world here. My parents have always worked here; they spent every summer painting.

Two years ago I made a video installation that I showed in Berlin, so I also started photographing and working here.

It’s part of who I am.

Do you consider yourself an artist?

M: Well, I studied photography and dance, but mostly ran a gallery for seven years. I continue to work with art and artists.

I helped get my father’s book published, for example. And with his exhibitions, too. During Covid, I documented his creative process and my mother’s. It was lovely in a certain sense because we were all living together in New York for the first time in years.

Tell me about your gallery.

M: I had it from the age of 23 to 30. It’s 13 years since it closed. It was great at that moment. I’m still friends with a lot of the artists that I worked with.

Cole, you were one of the most important models of the Noughties and now you’re a painter?

Cole Mohr: Yes, I’ve always been a little limited by not having a large space of my own. I had two fantastic studios but they were too small and there were too many moves in-between.

They were temporary spaces so it was difficult to concentrate on the kind of work I wanted to do. If I can’t give 100% then it’s hard for me to make something happen.

When did you start painting?

C: When I was 20, more or less. I’m 36 now. My background is in photography, which I studied when I was younger, but I started painting seriously around the age of 25. There have been some ups and downs but I‘m happy to be in this new phase. To finally have a definitive space so I won’t have to move paintings when they’re still fresh, that sort of thing.

M: It’s difficult to explain, but both of us have been moving from one place to another for a while and now we finally feel

C: I think that we are constantly adapting to things as they happen. I don’t think that there is ever really a before, during, and after.

M: A lot of people have thought twice about things they took for granted and chosen new priorities. Love, work, divorce, marriage… all sorts of things.

Cole, what has discovering Ydra been like for you?

C: It’s paradise. It’s incredible; it feels like a dream. I feel as if it were created especially for me, but I know a lot of people feel the same way. It’s not just how it looks; it transmits something. Like a perfume.

It’s incredible how Ydra has managed to stay pure, somehow.

C: Yes, and you can feel it. Like it has stopped in time, yet it’s not old or outdated.

M: It’s probably because there aren’t any cars and there are restrictions on construction. And like I said, it’s incredible for kids. You can’t get lost. I tried as a child but I found out that anytime you take a road downhill, you end up at the port.

Mirabelle, where do you feel most at home?

M: New York and Ydra. In different ways. All my closest friends were here. One friend told me that when I’m on Ydra, I am truly myself. And I think that’s the best compliment I could receive.

Helen, what was it like discovering Ydra in the ‘70s and how did you end up here?

Helen Marden: A friend of mine, a model, lived in Spetses at the time. I went to visit her and one day we came to Ydra and stayed here for six weeks. I immediately liked it: it was splendid and very cheap. I had very little money but it lasted the six weeks. My boarding house cost 1 dollar a night, although it was drachmas back then. Brice came the following year and we rented a house for the entire month of August for 200 dollars. For at least two decades, nobody came to Ydra because it was seen as an inhospitable rock with no beaches…

The truth is that it was full of amazing, interesting people.

Why do you think Ydra became home to so many artists and musicians?

H: For those very reasons: it was beautiful and cheap. There were Greek artists here too, like Niko Ghika.

Has Ydra influenced your work?

H: Probably Brice’s work more than mine. He loves the olive trees, the colour of the leaves, and the light. I work with 137

watercolour paints and the island’s influence on me has been less direct. But Brice… He is showing at the Cycladic Museum at the moment and one piece is just a small olive leaf. Brice fell head over heels in love with the island. In our first house, he would work on this huge terrace…

Is this the first house that you bought here?

H: No, we moved here in the ‘90s. It’s impossible to buy a house on Ydra now, apart from a couple of enormous places.

What do you miss about the Ydra you first knew?

H: The social life, more than anything. It was low-profile, calmer, and it’s different now.

You had your first exhibition in a long time at the Gagosian in New York in the spring of 2021. What made you start painting again and why did you take such a long break?

H: Now my children are all grown up, I feel more sure of myself. Years ago, there was this stigma that came with being married to Brice Marden. They would say: “She’s no Brice Marden.” I received a lot of criticism. Women have more power in today’s world. The press could never publish the articles they used to write back then. But I think, more than anything, that I have more faith in myself. I have started painting and working again and I still love it so much. I didn’t show anything to anyone for years.

What do you think of those critics now?

H: I don’t care. I work and that’s all. I think that my paintings mostly appeal to young women today. I don’t know why exactly, but I like that.

In an interview with Vulture magazine a few months ago, you told the journalist you had become more friendly.

Were you famously not so?

H: Oh yes, that’s so true! No, but I had quite a character.

I wasn’t very diplomatic, let’s say. I used to get angry very quickly, but it takes a lot more today. I’m old. And I feel like I have a more generous attitude towards the world.

Your Instagram account is incredible. Genuine, but not posed in any way—a real diary of your life with Brice.

H: Oh, thank you! I just thought that I would show what I do.

Even Brice’s illness. I thought: why not? And I think that has helped people. I wanted to be… real.

Which is the opposite of what people are usually like on social media.

H: I don’t know because I don’t follow many people. I only follow profiles about animals that need saving: donkeys, bats, and those “hero rats” that find mines…

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“The other day I was sitting in a café at the port just watching all these children running around and having the time of their lives. You can do whatever you want here.

You are completely free and that’s a sensation that I’ve never felt in New York. You can run around, explore alone and nobody worries about you.

You can play. And there are no cars.”

Mirabelle Marden

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Bonnie Right Nina Walden Junction Peu Stadium

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Run.

Edition & Creation Alla Carta Studio Brand Creative Director Achilles Ion Gabriel Brand Director Gloria Rodríguez Photography Sophie Green Styling Elisa Voto Illustrations Reza Hasni Copywriting Davide Coppo Production Hotel Production Special thanks to Alex Brack Kelsey Edwards at Hydradirect Charlotte Hartley Asja Piombino Laurentiu Sarjan Evelina Stoltidou Print House Artes Gráficas Palermo, Madrid ISSN: 2660-8758 Legal Deposit: PM 0911-2021

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€ 18