A unique exhibition of Cycladic art with 180 objects from nearly all of the museums of the Cycladic Islands opened on Tuesday night at the Museum of Cycladic Art in central Athens.
The exhibition “Kykladitisses: Untold stories of women in the Cyclades” explores the lives of identified women who lived on the islands from Neolithic times to the 19th century: Neiko, Parthenika, Aline, Maja Pulchra, Hermione, and Theoktiste among them. It will run until May 4, 2025.
First-ever pan-cycladic art exhibition
It is “the first pan-Cycladic show that has ever been set up, not just in Greece, but further out as well: a historic exhibition, as it is the first time it collects so many outstanding works of the Cycladic Islands in one place,” said Museum President and CEO Sandra Marinopoulou said during a presentation on Tuesday.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni noted that the exhibition “tries to bring together two very timely issues – one is women’s position internationally and through time and civilizations, the second one is an island identity. Island identity is the one that defines – and defined from prehistoric times to our time – the progress and historical development of these specific islands.”
Women left their stamp on the islands’ public and private sphere – in families, religion, economy, and politics – Mendoni said. “The opposite poles between restriction and dynamic presence also reflect the resilience, adaptability, and ability of women of the Cyclades to redefine their identity and roles on the basis of each era’s conditions,” the culture minister added.
Curators’ perspectives
The exhibits have traveled beyond the Cyclades for the first time, Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades Director Dimitris Athanassoulis said, adding that they create a dialog and combinations that will not be seen again.
He also revealed that the exhibition will be set up at the renovated Archaeological Museum of Thera (Santorini), for its reopening. A large part of the exhibits originate from the island of Thera, he said, adding that it will be the first time some of the artifacts will be shown, including the burial of an aristocratic woman from Episkopi on Sikinos island, and Artemis Elaphebolos (deer-slayer), the Delos-born goddess of the Cyclades.
Scientific director of the Museum Panagiotis Iossif, an ancient coinage professor in the Netherlands, said the selection focused on “unexpected juxtapositions,” in order to explore women’s position through Cycladic history.
“We were disappointed. Women’s positions never improved dramatically. They were never unmarginalized,” he revealed, despite some improvements during the end of the Hellenistic period or in Roman times. “Ideas like feminism and equality are very modern,” he added.
Joint scientific director at the Museum and prehistoric archaeology professor at the University of Thessaloniki Ioannis Fappas also revealed that he and Iossif had begun working toward a corpus of marble statuettes and vessels of the Early Cycladic period that are found in museums and private collections in Greece and abroad, a first-time project that will cover a gap in the study of the 3rd millennium BC at the Cyclades.
Athanassoulis, Iossif, and Fappas curated the show, which includes objects from the islands of Amorgos, Andros, Delos, Folegandros, Ios, Kea (Tzia), Kythnos, Melos, Mykonos Naxos, Paros, Serifos, Sikinos, Sifnos, Syros, Thera (Santorini), and Tinos.
It also includes objects from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades collections, the Kanellopoulos Museum, the Epigraphic Museum of Athens, the Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology, and important private collections.
The exhibition is the first joint action of the Museum with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades, in the implementation of a memorandum of cooperation signed in May 2024 by Mendoni and Marinopoulou to study, highlight and promote the Cycladic culture in Greece and abroad.
Related: The Enigma of the Cup Bearer: Cycladic Art Bemuses Archaeologists
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