Page 40 - EMPIRIA 2025

JOYFUL EXPLORATION I SANTORINI

Special Feature

MATI Mesaria is
Yorgos Kypris’
personal tribute
to the island—a
gesture of
gratitude and
concern. “This
old canava, now
transformed
into a space
of creation, is
meant to become
a reference
point,” he says.

a different rhythm—one that resonates deeply with Kypris. “This place isn’t
just beautiful. It gives me the chance to present art beyond the constraints “Beauty may
of tourism, he says. One of his most personal works in the current exhibition
is titled—well, untitled. “I honestly didn’t know what to call it,” he admits. It run through my
consists of 27 steel beds, arranged in a haunting circle inside a round threshing
floor—a structure that once defined rural life in both Cyprus and Santorini. veins—but it’s
“They look like beds, but they’re not made for sleep. It’s about loneliness.
Abandonment. Sleep as a metaphor for death. These are human anxieties meaning that The Yalos Ambience
we all carry.” The threshing floors themselves have become rare relics, but
here Kypris revives them—not just architecturally, but symbolically. He’s even keeps my
planted Cypriot barley in the fields around the space. “As a child, I used to
watch it dance in the summer wind. I wanted to bring that memory here, to hands moving.” — Welcome to a holistic beachside experience where rest
connect my birthplace with my chosen home.” MATI, for Kypris, is more than
an art venue—it’s a platform of observation. “That’s what the name means, and relaxation are intertwined with overwhelming
after all. An observatory. A place to look deeply. To question. To sense.” • Yorgos Kypris
natural beauty and sublime Mediterranean cuisine.

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