Alkistis Boutsioukou

Artist in Residence: Alkistis Boutsioukou

Artist in Residence: Alkistis Boutsioukou


Alkistis-Kalliopi Boutsioukou (Athens, 2000), works with interviews and oral history preservation. She studies Chemistry, she was an Intern of Programming and Production at SNFCC (Stavros Niarchos Cultural Foundation), and she worked as Researcher and Editor at Istorima (Oral History Archive). Her hometown through her grandmother, Kalliopi Douskou, is Hydra island and that is how her origin strengthened her inner need to research the stories of Hydreots and explore the paths of this land.



Alkistis Boutsioukou

CATEGORY
Documenting Hydra

YEAR
2023

GRANT

Old Carpet Factory x Mnemosyne Projects

PROJECT DESCRIPTION


During her Hydra Art Residency at the Old Carpet Factory Alkistis Boutsioukou spent two weeks interviewing members of the local community with the goal of creating a narrative archive of Hydra's  daily life, cultural traditions, ways of being, ethics, morals, ideas, thoughts, and general emotions of Hydriots. Boutsioukou focused on field recordings of sounds, voices, expressions, idioms, stories, recipes, songs, chords, and conversations.

" Last summer people leave the island by the end of October. The time on Hydra changes its rhythm, everything slows down and  Hydriots return to their normal selves and to the reality of the approaching winter. With empathy as our companion, we sought to experience these days as if we were locals ourselves—following their steps, adapting to their routines, aligning with their rhythms, their strength, their ideas, and their thoughts. It was a beautiful and interactive journey, one that brought us face-to-face with the open hearts, hospitality, pride, and straightforwardness of the local people, and at the same time, we encountered their boundaries, doubts, suspicions, fears, and fatigue." - writes Boutsioukou in the foreword to the lyrical account of her stay on Hydra. The texts and field recordings she produced during her art residency are now part of Mnemosyne Projects archive and will be presented as part of the "Island in the Sound" exhibition in June 2025. 

Photography by Ekaterina Juskowski

Alkistis Boutsioukou
Alkistis Boutsioukou
Alkistis BoutsioukouAlkistis Boutsioukou
Alkistis BoutsioukouAlkistis Boutsioukou
Alkistis Boutsioukou