A text about Prophet Elias of Yallou in Eressos, by Alexis Casdagli

The text that follows is written by a woman i met in my "Yallou" exhibition in Eressos this July. I asked permission from het to publish it in my blog and i am very happy to present it here. With it i post a series of photos from walks that i did to the chappel, in September 2006 and May 2007................................ "I came to see this fantastic exhibition in Skala Eressos when it opened.   My name is Alexis Casdagli and I live in England but I was born in Greece and my father is Greek.  I am writing a novel which has the church right at its beginning. I was on a boat trip on the hottest day of that year, 2007, a Sunday. The boatman, was talking about the church and the idea for my story came into my mind and it has never left me since. It is growing, every day, but slowly. The story has been my raft in the last four years since the idea for it came to me looking at the church and that raft has taken me through some very difficult times and has always kept me afloat and I would not have had it any other way. A few days after my return I wrote this to a friend on the island. I hope you have a moment to read it.   Something very strange and wonderful happened to me up in the village on last Wednesday night during the panigyri. The novel I am writing had its genesis in an anecdote about the church of profitis Elia tou Gialou (so beautifully photographed in the exhibition). I knew the name day was about the time we were coming but I thought it was on 21st,, the day we left, and assumed we would miss it. Instead, by chance, I was speaking to some Norwegians at Costas at lunchtime and they told me it was that very night and invited Gwen and I to join them at their table at Sam’s. During the meal, the lady said to me at one point that the local food had come in. Costas had mentioned this food earlier as well. And there, on the back of a small lorry, were two great cauldrons. A crowd, pushing and jostling, soon gathered round it. I went down and joined them. They were clamouring to get a share of this local food’, which I know now to be trahanas. I was patient and quite stubborn waiting for my share. I was passed over quite a lot but I stood my ground. I wondered if my determination to get some was from seeing people queuing for food aid on the news or it was some very early memory of being a baby in the civil war (1948 etc) with all its hardship. Then I was given, in a thick piece of greaseproof paper, my share of the trahanas. I held it against my belly and it was warm. I got a good portion, large, and as I held it I got something, something I have been looking for for all my life. I got that that large warm portion was mine and it belonged to me and that when I looked around at the square, I knew that I belonged. I have been thinking about the little church for four years and researching Elias and I felt this warm heavy certainty was his gift to me, that he gave me, like a warm kick in the belly, what I wanted more than anything else in the world, without perhaps even knowing it, which was my place in it the world. And then we went to the exhibition. And it filled in the mystery of what happens up at the church at the panigyri with its beautiful images and portraits. I talked to the photographer and he told me about the prophet. He was quite a guy – that is both Elias and the photographer too!’   I kept my trahanas. You should roll it into small balls, flattened each between the palms of your hands and leave the discs in the sun until they are quite dry. Then you store them for the winter and when it gets cold, crumble them into stock, adding vegetables and so on to make a rich and nourishing soup. But I won’t be making soup with mine, although I know that soup would be delicious. I have wrapped it in a plastic bag and put it in a tin and have it in my room. I want to keep it. Always."

"Yallou" New Photos for Mytilini Exhibition

Today, 23 of January, the Chinese New Year's day, is the opening of the "Yallou" exhibition in Mytilini Lesvos. The photos of the exhibition that has been taken in 2009 and 2010 are allready published in the July 2011 post in my blog. Here i post these 3 photos taken in 2011 and are presented for the first time.

Arabian Eressian: While the owner of this Arabian stallion awaits the other horsemen at the point of meeting at the end of the beach, in order to climb up the hill as a team, the young and full of energy horse is liftung on his two feet, exhibiting his strenght and grace.

The Love Horse: On the way to accomplishing the old tradition in the island's feasts, the young horseman finds the opportunity to let his horse gallop at the only level part of the path. At the same time one of the-floating cities-cruiseship passes a few miles from the coast, accomplishing its own routine daily line.

Prophete's Angels: The 3 girls from Eressos, are flooding the dry path with their merry voices. For them, to climb the path on their own, is a game and a good chance to chat undisturbed.

"Yallou" January 2012 Photo Exhibition at "Photographic Society Of Mytilini/ "Γυαλού" Εκθεση Φωτογραφιας στην "Φωτογραφικη Εταιρεια Μυτιληνης"

The name of this exhibition comes from “prophete Elias of Yallou”, where yallou literally means by the seaside. It is a chapel in Eressos-Lesvos, located on the mountain and by the sea at the same time. Built on top of a hill 200m straight up the sea, it’s a place where you can, at the same time, feel the sea breeze and the breath of the mountain, listen to the waves and the ringing of the sheep bells, watch the melting sunset in the sea and the fullmoon rising from the sharp mountain range that circles Eressos valley. The stone on top of the chappel’s door talks about the era of the Byzantine autocrats and every step that takes to it through a dry and isolated landscape, makes you feel that you are entering an exceptionally charged energetic field that must have been a space of mysteries since ancient times. For the prophet, the top of the mountain means his forsaking from the world. For me, to photograph in the 19th of July when his feast takes place, means to come close and connect with the people that live and are originated from this land, A land that has touched me deeply like home the last years. It is also a way to describe and understand a world with coexisting “worlds”, like, the “cowboys” and the “lesbians”, the hard-edged Aegean people that are forged by the wild landscape and the winter isolation and the cosmopolitan north-europeans that do everything by the rule and. It is also a way to comprehend, in a larger scale, how come and in our planet we have reached so far in terms of technological progress but we still cannot get along with each other. I have no truth to reveal through my photography but I try to express my inner truth when I photograph. And as like the word “yallou” (“by the sea side”)sounds the same in Greek with the expression “to let’s go to another place”, an exploration is offered here, a door that opens to get off our microcosmos and meet other dimensions of existence. The path to the chapel comes alive with steps of men and horses in the 19th of July. Those who are acquainted with the island know its strong tradition in horse breeding and their relation with the religious feasts. A simple ceremony takes place in the afternoon and each year, a different young man gets the privilege of mounting the prophet’s icon on his horse, to carry it downhill on a litany until the cathedral of skala Eressos. The food that is traditionally offered in the feasts of the island, is made and consumed either at the chapel or in the villages square in the night. The exhibition consists of black and white photos taken on film in 2009 and 2010 and of black and white digital archives taken on 2011.

Η έκθεση αυτή παίρνει το όνομά της από τον "προφήτη Ηλία του Γυαλού", ένα ξωκλήσι στην Ερεσσό της Λέσβου που μοιάζει να βρίσκεται πάνω στο βουνό και μεσ' την θάλασσα συγχρόνως. Χτισμένο στην κορυφή ενός λόφου 200μ. πάνω από το πέλαγο, συν-λειτουργεί στην θαλασσινή αύρα και την πνοή του βουνού, στον ήχο των κυμμάτων και το κουδούνισμα των προβάτων. Πάνω του συναντιούνται το ηλιοβασίλεμα και η ανατολή της πανσελήνου ο πορτοκαλί ορίζοντας και οι οξύες κορυφές που αγκαλιάζουν την κοιλάδα της Ερεσσού. Η πέτρα πάνω από την θύρα του μιλάει για την εποχή των Βυζαντινών αυτοκρατόρων και κάθε βήμα που σε φέρνει σε αυτή μέσα από ένα ξερό και ερημικό τοπίο, σε κάνει να νιώθεις οτι εισέρχεσαι σε έναν ιδιαίτερα ενεργειακά φορτισμένο χώρο οπού πρέπει να αποτελούσε χώρο μυστηρίων από τα αρχαία χρόνια. Από το μεσημέρι της 19ης Ιουλίου το μονοπάτι για το ξωκλήσι γεμίζει πεζούς και έφιππους. Όπως σε όλο το νησί κι εδώ υπάρχει μεγάλη παράδοση εκτροφής αλόγων. Κάθε χρονιά ένας διαφορετικός νέος του χωριού έχει το προνόμιο να κατεβάσει την εικόνα του προφήτη με το αλογό του σε μια λειτανεία που καταλήγει στον καθεδρικό ναό της σκάλας Ερεσσού. Το φαγητό που προσφέρεται παραδοσιακά στα πανηγύρια του νησιού, φτιάχνεται και καταναλώνεται επι τόπου στο ξωκλήσι ή το βράδυ στην πλατεία του χωριού. Για τον προφήτη, η κορυφή του βουνού σημαίνει την απομάκρυνση από τον κόσμο. Για εμένα, το να φωτογραφίσω στις 19 Ιουλίου που γίνεται το πανηγύρι του, σημαίνει το να προσεγγίσω και γνωρίσω τους ανθρώπους που μένουν και κατάγονται από αυτόν τον τόπο, ο οποίος τα τελευταία χρόνια έχει αρχίσει να γράφει την σφραγίδα της πατρίδας στην καρδιά μου. Είναι επίσης ένας τρόπος για να περιγράψω και κατανοήσω έναν κόσμο στον οποίο συνηπάρχουν, για παράδειγμα, οι “καουμπό'ι'δες” με τις λεσβίες, οι κοσμοπολίτες βορειοευρωπαίοι που δεν ξεφεύγουν ρούπι από τους κανόνες με τους σκληροτράχηλους αιγαιήτες που τους σμιλεύουν το άγριο τοπίο και η ερημιά του χειμώνα. Και σε ένα μεγαλύτερο επίπεδο, πως γίνεται στον πλανήτη μας να έχουμε φτάσει σε τόσο μεγάλα τεχνολογικά επιτεύγματα και ακόμα να μην μπορούμε να τα βρούμε μεταξύ μας. Δεν έχω να αποκαλύψω κάποια αλήθεια μέσα από την φωτογραφία μου, σίγουρα πάντως προσπαθώ φωτογραφίζοντας να εκφράσω όσα έχω αληθινά μέσα μου. Και όπως η λέξη "γυαλού" παραπέμπει ηχητικά στο "γι αλλού", προσφέρεται μια εξερεύνηση, μία πόρτα που ανοίγει για να βγούμε από τον μικρόκοσμό μας και να γνωρίσουμε και άλλες διαστάσεις της ύπαρξης. Η έκθεση αποτελείται από φωτογραφίες που τράβηξα με ασπρόμαυρο φίλμ το 2009 και 2010 και σε ασπρόμαυρο ψηφιακό αρχείο το 2011.

Happy Enlight 2012

6 of January, is the last day of the holidays of Christmas and New year. It is the day were the Christian church celebrates the baptism-in water and spirit- of Jesus Christ. In Greece we call it day of the Holy Spirit or of "the Lights" (Enlightment), since the Holy Spirit came from Heavens down on Jesus head in the form of a dove made of light. It is also called "the Appearance", this of the son of God to Humanity, or "the Emergence" this of Jesus Christ from the waters of river Jordan. It is widely known that Christian holidays took the place of the ancient ones, like Christmas on the celebration of Winter Solstice(celebrated as Saturnalia in ancient Rome). In ancient Egypt the mystics celebrated the birth of Cronos (the Latin Saturn) from the waters of the Nile (from Cronos comes Chronos which in Greek means Time or Year). This was only one of the "pagan" days of "Light/Appearance". In the western Christian church this day is connected with the 3 wizards, aknowledging him as Son of God. in Greece the day of the Holy Spirit is celebrated as an excorcism, the victory of Divine into Human upon the dark "negative" energies. As a photographer, i feel very connected with this day of Light (more with the essence of its symbols than the symbols themselves), thus i choose today to send my wishes to everybody. And for this i choose one of the pictures i made in 2012. It is one that comes from another celebration of Light. 24th of June, the day of summer Solstice. At the dusk of this day fires are lighted on the streets all over Greece and people jump over them through the night, celebrating life and fertility. This picture was shot in the area of Athens called Plato's Academy. My beloved friends, if this is the time to jump jump through the fire, then let's just go for it! Let's do it in a Divine way, with strength and grace, like a drop of water ready to melt into the ocean! Enjoy! Live!