Sifnos, an island in the Cycladic archipelago of the Aegean sea, has for centuries been synonymous with the region’s pottery production. It had high-quality clay, which allowed for the creation of heat-proof cookware; plenty of sunny weather, which expedited the drying process; and ample trees and brush used as kindling for the island’s wood-fired kilns. These favourable conditions catalyzed the prodigious production and progressive evolution of unique everyday objects and techniques since the early 18th century. Today, the practice of pottery making continues, with over fifteen active workshops distributed throughout the island’s sheltered bays and inland villages.
Even now that I am old, I’m always learning. You're always learning. No, it doesn't stop. And you should never say that you know it all. You have to say: I don't know.
Giannis Lembesis
Each pottery workshop is a repository of knowledge, encoded in the form of objects, photographs and stories. Upon the encouragement of local community members seeking to start a pottery museum on the island, the Archipelago Network team began a research and documentation project seeking to co-develop materials for inclusion in the museum-to-be, in collaboration with the Sifnos Potters’ Union. These materials now include hundreds of digitized photographs and documents, a series of thirteen short films about each of the active workshops on the island, and two interdisciplinary research projects.
My father made a crooked pot and he said "Leave it like that, don't throw it away." The first one a customer bought was the crooked one, not the straight one. I've been doing this job ever since. And just imagine… there are more crooked ones than straight ones.
Giorgos Exylzes
The resulting thirteen films, of which four are presented here, speak to the forms of technical and symbolic knowledge embodied in an equal number of workshops. From techniques for digging and mixing soil to social aspects of the craft, including culinary, musical and religious traditions, the interviews conducted speak to the rich history and interconnected present of pottery with Sifnos’s social and economic fabric.
For me, tradition is not something specific; it is completely subjective. Where do you draw the line? Where does tradition begin? What I can say for sure, is that at the moment I'm not making traditional ceramics. And I'm happy with that.
Antonis K. Kalogirou
The threads of these various conversations build into a powerful yet delicate chorus. Pressured by regional economic shifts unfavorable to small-scale, artisanal production and displaced by an increasingly tourism-based service economy, traditional pottery on the island faces an uncertain future. But as Antonis Atsonios, a fourth generation potter in the village of Vathi reminds me, pottery has existed in the Aegean since antiquity, and has weathered many a transition since.
I think there is a future for this. There’s a future in pottery in general. Crafts don’t fade away that easily.
Antonis Atsonios
This blog was written as part of the CRAFTED project, which aimed to enrich and promote traditional and contemporary crafts.