Whereas the 2-minute videos of the Municipality of Platanias, intentionally, give no more than a brief glimpse of the attractions of the area’s villages, the NeaTV series Parea me tin Aristea (Company with Aristea) provides an in-depth look at the villages both of the Nomos of Chania and elsewhere on Crete.
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Memorial event at the Tower of Voukolies
A memorial ceremony was held on Monday 7th February at the Tower of Voukolies, on the 126th anniversary of a historic battle which took place there in 1897. The gathering was organised by the Metropolitan See of Kissamos and Selino, the Municipality of Platanias, the community of Voukolies, the local primary school and the Ladies’ and Young Women’s Association of Voukolies “I Merimna”.
The event began with a memorial service, followed by greetings, speeches about the events of the time, laying of wreaths and the singing of a rizitiko by the Rizitiko Group of Kallithea in the Municipality of Platanias.
Explaining the historical context of the Battle of Voukolies, local primary school teacher Niki Tsamouri said: “The Cretans were thirsting for freedom. Freedom and release from the unbearable Turkish yoke, which had oppressed them for centuries. The Revolution was an irreversible process which was leading to union with the now free Greece. The much longed-for revolution began here, on exactly this spot, 126 years ago on the 7th February 1897.”
In his words of greeting the mayor of Platanias Giannis Malandrakis stressed the importance of the heroic battle, which he said “should remain a living example of memory and education”. Regional councillor for health, education and culture Sofia Malandraki-Krasoudaki also emphasised the battle’s significance and the need to preserve its historic memory.
A historic event
The tower of Voukolies is situated about 1 km south west of the town on the road to Palaiochora. It was blown up by the victorious Cretans after the battle and only a few ruins remain, along with a modern reconstruction of the tower. It was one of a network of fortifications built by the Ottoman authorities in an effort to retain control of the island following the Great Cretan Revolution of 1866-69 – the third and largest in a series of Cretan revolts between the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1830 and the establishment of an independent Cretan State in 1898.
The circumstances are described in an account on the blog site “The British in Crete, 1896 to 1913”, which also contains some interesting information about the international geopolitical manoeuvres which formed a backdrop to the Cretan struggles for independence:
“On 13/14th February 1897, a Greek force of some 1500 men, complete with artillery, under the command of Colonel Timothy Vassos landed at Kolymbari and proceeded to declare the union of Crete with Greece. By 17th February the force had moved inland and, having established their headquarters in Alikianos, a mixed detachment under the command of Major Konstantinidis and including an artillery platoon and an engineer platoon, was ordered to Voukolies to capture the tower: also with the force were many Cretans and the company of students under the command of Captain Em. Zimvrakakidon.”
The battle between the besiegers and the garrison of some 400 Turks lasted a couple of days, the Cretans initially wasting their ammunition, according to the British account, and having to wait for reinforcements of ammunition and artillery before they could complete the job. At one point the Turks attempted a break-out and a large number of them escaped. While Greek sources talk of 240 Turks being killed, a contemporary British account is more circumspect, mentioning 35 Turks killed and 15-30 Cretans.
In conclusion the account says that although of minor military significance, the engagement proved to the Cretans that the Greeks were present in sufficient numbers and sufficiently well armed to expel the Ottomans and so provided an important boost to local morale. Indeed, following the intervention of the Great Powers, an independent Cretan State was declared in December of the following year.
(Report of the memorial event, Haniotika Nea 08-02-23)
A Small World in Voukolies
The unexpected beauties of the insect world are on display in an exhibition of photographs entitled MikroKosmos (Small World) currently showing at the Polykentro in Voukolies. The images, by Chania photographer Nikos Kampianakis, are exclusively of insects, photographed in close-up and in colour. As a result, these small beings, which if we encountered them at all in the normal course of life would be effectively invisible to our eyes, are seen in all their individuality, caught in an instant as they pursue their customary behaviours. The effect is both aesthetic and uplifting: in his introductory leaflet to the exhibition, co-curator Giannis Markantonakis, quotes a line from the poet Maxmilian Damazio: “Today from that cricket, I learned how to smile”.
The photographs are simply captioned with the vernacular and Latin names of each insect, and with a QR code linking to the relevant Wikipedia page containing scientific information about the species.
Biography
Nikos Kampianakis was born in Chania. He studied mathematics at the University of Patras, and took postgraduate training in information technology. He worked as a programmer in various companies in Athens and since 1992 has lived and worked as a lecturer in information studies in Chania.
He has been engaged in photography for more than 20 years, and has had six one-man and various group exhibitions. From 2012 to 2020, he created photographic teams of secondary school pupils, curating their work in a series of annual exhibitions. He has won prizes in international photographic competitions and has had photographs published in magazines (National Geographic, Digital Camera) and newspapers.
The exhibition runs until 20th December and is open on weekdays from 10.00 to 13.00, on Saturdays from 17.00 to 20.00, and on Sundays from 11.00 to 19.00. Entrance is free.
The Blue Ladies of Knossos
Anyone who spends a little time in Crete cannot help but notice the extent to which the myths and culture of the ancient world are interwoven with modern reality. This is true to some extent throughout Greece, but in Crete it is particularly intense because of the presence of the Minoan culture. Arthur Evans’ discoveries at Knossos from 1900 onwards and his reconstructions of the buildings and frescoes he found there, whether accurate or not, established a vision of the Minoan culture which has persisted to this day. It was in effect a branding exercise which was wholeheartedly embraced by the local population and has made a major contribution to Crete’s popularity as a tourist destination.
Images derived from Minoan culture – the double-headed axe, the Prince of the Lilies, the bold floral designs of the Knossos murals – are everywhere, from restaurant names to souvenirs and cultural artefacts and company logos. The costumes of traditional Cretan dancers echo those of the Minoan snake goddess figurines, and every now and then one sees a face in the street in Chania which could have come straight from the wall paintings at Knossos. This interweaving of myth and reality is a gift to the creative artist, and none more so than the Chania-born artist Kostas Spanakis, whose new exhibition opened on Sunday 6th November at the Polykentro in Voukolies. The luminous images in Spanakis’ paintings show a mix of influences – from the wall paintings of Knossos to the popular culture of the Sixties which he describes as his favourite decade.
The development of Kostas Spanakis
Kostas Spanakis was born in 1960 in Chania, where he grew up and still lives. He is self-taught as an artist, having engaged in drawing since his childhood years. His influences were always the cinema, comics, music and books. He started publishing his work in 1980, producing comic strips for small publications, and from 1985 to 2000 he worked as a graphic artist, creating company logos, posters and ads for newspapers and periodicals. At the same time he became involved in photography and had two solo exhibitions in 1999 and 2000. Since 2001 he has worked as a painter.
In an interview with Haniotika Nea, he speaks at some length about his sources of inspiration and the process which led him to create the series of paintings he calls the “Blue Ladies”, which give their name to the exhibition:
“My art describes the dream world in which I would like to live. A world where the sky is bluer, the sea calmer, and the horizon between them is open to all possibilities. A world in which woman complacently gifts her eternal beauty to the object of her desire. A world in which Sixties fashion lives again. A world in which music plays constantly. A world which cannot live without love.”
Speaking of his development as an artist he says: “My relationship with art began in my childhood years, in an era where not only was there no television or mobile phones, but even games were very few. The easiest thing for me then was to take a pencil and paper and draw my dreams.”
The exhibition at Voukolies is a new series of works which bear the imprint of his personal style. A “personal handwriting” which as he explains, is grafted onto his youthful passion for the comics, the music and the energy of the Sixties.
“After a fair number of years of work and exhibitions, I have ended up with my own personal style, which is derived from my imagery and to some extent goes in step with Pop Art,” he says.
“Fovou tous Danaous” – a reference in Greek to the phrase in Virgil’s Aeneid: “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”, paraphrased in English as “I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts”. It was uttered by the Trojan priest Lacocoon as he tried to dissuade the Trojans from bringing the Wooden Horse into the gates of Troy, an action for which he and his two sons were killed by two sea serpents sent by Poseidon. The figure of the Minotaur appears in many of the exhibited paintings. Here he takes the form of the Prince of the Lilies from Knossos, offering the flowers to two “Blue Ladies” dressed in Sixties fashion who seem anxious to escape his attentions.
The birth of the Blue Ladies
“It all started from the superb wall paintings at Knossos, which I fell in love with at first sight because they reflected a sense of Bronze Age joie de vivre. The ‘Blue Ladies’ enjoyed their daily lives dressed and decorated with taste, care, style and luxury in the palaces of Knossos. The sea air caressed their faces and their hair, and the sense of abundance, of wellbeing and of carefreeness was imprinted on their expressions, their smile and their clothing. Having absorbed all this positive emotional energy and driven by artistic inspiration, I wanted to do something with them,” Spanakis says. He adds that the final stimulus for the Ladies of Knossos to take form and flesh in the modern world came when he was watching a film of the life of Yves St Laurent and noted the way in which the French fashion designer expressed the Neoplasticism of Piet Mondrian in a collection of cocktail dresses, giving a different look to his Parisian clients.
“Then I remembered that the archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans who discovered Knossos had given the name ‘Parisian’ to the female form which he discovered in the ruins because it was decorated and painted to perfection. So suddenly everything fell into place in my head and I decided to bring the ‘Blue Ladies’ into the contemporary era to live in my own favourite time, which is the Sixties and secondly today.”
“The Proposal”. Another Blue Lady clad in Yves St Laurent is wooed by Popeye wth a can of spinach. Since the word for spinach in Greek is spanaki there seems to be element of self-reference here. Akali in ancient Greek mythology was the daughter of Minos and his wife Pasiphaë. It was Pasiphaë who famously mated with a bull through a device of Daedalus’s invention and gave birth to the creature, half man and half human, who was to become known as the Minotaur.
Ancient but modern
In Spanakis’ mind the elegant young Cretans of antiquity began to be transformed into dynamic modern women. Women who “travel all over the world, who move around in Chania and Heraklion, who work as typists, air hostesses and taxi-drivers and enjoy life in Kydonia and Knossos, buying stuff in shopping centres and drinking wine at the Aquarium”.
“Or again we find them gazing out to sea, or playing music and singing to express their grief. ‘Ladies’ who live on the edge, flirting with the mythical forms of the Minoan age, such as the Prince of the Lilies and the Minotaur, but also – why not – with paper heroes such as Popeye! After all, in art everything is allowed! The ‘Blue Ladies’, then, are here today and it is certain that they are living the myth which I imagined and created for them,” Spanakis concludes.
The exhibition of Kostas Spanakis’ works entitled “Blue Ladies” is showing at the Polykentro in Voukolies from 6th to 25th November. Opening hours are 10.00 am to 1.00 pm Monday to Friday, 5.00 pm to 8.00 pm on Saturday and 11.00 am to 7.00 pm on Sunday. The Polykentro is behind the secondary school and is reached via a signed turning to the left on the main street coming from Tavronitis, shortly before the main square. Admission is free.