In 2018, I came here to meet Christodoulos Xenakis, and from the first moment, he shared with me and the MED Land team at the time (Melania and Kubilay) his heartfelt and passionate relation with Ikaria, taking us around and explaining past and present footprints on this ancient land. Christodoulos is 85 year old now, still running an organisation – the Institute for Ikarian Studies (IFIS). One of his compassionate idea was for each EU country to have one container house as an art residency place on Ikaria island. IFIS actually got one which was “waiting for the first“ country to make it happen for more than ten years …

The friendship with Christodoulos, as well as with other Ikarians that MedLanders met in 2019, has grown to this day, which is well reflected in the stories about the adventures of Christodoulos and other Ikarians such as Urania, Dimitris, Vangelis and others. The Med Land team also facilitated a land‑art stone sculpture project on Ikaria by international group of artists-geomants, which is still ongoing.

Here are some links to stories and news related to Christodoulos, Ikaria and Ikarians:

Christodoulos
Making Of: Dr. Christodoulos Xenakis 

Urania & five boxes

Christodoulos and Ulysses (Ὀδύσσεια Odýsseia) traveling together

Christodoulos and Ulysses traveling together : The knowledge about Philoktitis and the healing properties of terra limnea

Christodoulos and Ulysses traveling together: over the Marmara Sea to the Bosporus / Troy and Constantinople

The Last Days

AND Ikaria - image gallery by bojan

Ikaria has at least 15,000 years of continuous history of their own specific civilisation. Their main god is Dionysus. During the 600‑year period of pirates, they hid and lived untouched in the middle of the 1,000m high island. The communist ideas are still legit here to this day. Living with less, in a sustainable way, with a lot of music and dancing is what they like … the Dionysus way … Ikaria is also known for many people that easily reached 100 years of age … The recipe is not to live alone.

My top tree virtues of Ikaria that made me become its fen are:

1-2-3:

• the perception of time on Ikaria as one big “now” … Every day is a new day, and a reset of “priority and schedule list“ is normal, acceptable, a way of living;
• awareness of the values of the Ikaria continent with the positive attitude towards sharing them. It is about being grounded and connected, not only on a human level;
• openness to the rest of the world.

In 2020, Christodoulos offers us – the “Slovenians“ – a tiny container house to use it for the “project residency“.

In February/March and November/December 2020, four of us made it liveable! The idea is for people with creative aims to be able stay on Ikaria, live, experience, interact, and create something out of it.