Pebble Rebel
Tutors:
Anastasia Kassiani Florou (Greece)
Matrona Milosi (Greece)
Panagoula Beltsou (Greece)
Participants:
Carolina Artavia (Costa Rica)
Gaelle Mattar (Lebanon)
Hassan Mohamed (Egypt)
Kristina Barbalat (Moldova)
Laura Folmer (France)
Olga Stefanova (Bulgaria)
Valeriia Stavitskaia (Russia)
GOAL
The craft of pebble decorations is an ancient technique and a very particular element of greek islands like Spetses. This project gave participants the opportunity to familiarize with this ancient craft, dig into its essence, which is to give a different meaning to individual elements by combining them, and then experiment with this notion altering one factor at a time, either the design, the material, or the surface of the decoration. The intention of this project was to preserve this original craft, instill it with a modern character and make sure to pass on the know-how before this craft becomes extinct.
LOCATION
Our pebble decoration is situated on the side of the Monastery of St. Nicholas, in an alleyway that leads to the old port and therefore has a screened view of the sea. This long rectangular space by the street and its particular view gave us the inspiration we needed to make the design of the decoration, an unraveling tale of the marine life of the island.
PROJECT
The first step of the project was to wander around the island and grasp the meaning and the different aspects of the existing pebble decorations through specific games and tasks. After discussing this new wave of information and inspiration we were ready to make our own design for the pebble decoration we would realize, a design that preserves the most familiar theme in pebble decorations around the island, marine life, but breaks the strict boundaries regarding the frame, the thickness of the lines and the position of the depicted shapes in the decoration.
Then it was time to get our hands dirty, meet our mentor, mr. Grigoris Katsouranis and learn this amazing traditional craft by making our own design come to life in the alleyway by the monastery. We worked hard under the melting sun with a lot of breaks for a quick swim or a hose-shower and by the end of this phase, every member of the team had worked through all the stages of the preparation and realization of a traditional pebble decoration! This way the team could then create an illustrated step by step recipe for DIY (do iτ yourself) pebble decorations, in order to pass on this knowledge and keep the craft alive.
The next step was a lot cleaner but still very exciting, since the team had the chance to work with a very special material. Broken pieces of glass that ended up in the sea, stayed there long enough for the forces of the sea to turn them into uniquely shaped and colored items and then resurfaced on the beaches of Spetses for our second mentor, mr. Nikos Kontaratos to find and collect. We combined these units together to make a puzzle that shapes the logo of MEDS Spetses 2019, Memniso, on a surface of plexiglass enclosed by a wooden frame we created.
The final “products” of our work, the pebble decoration next to the monastery and the glass decorated frame will stay on the island for many years, as a reminder of our presence there and the fun creative moments we spent together.
August '19
