Return2Ithaca is an artist residency program providing a platform for Greek and international photographers to come together on the island for a 15-day period, creating personal projects and engaging with acclaimed curators to review their work. The program involves a deep exploration of the island, its history, and the universal themes derived from the Odyssey, inspiring artists to produce unique and personal projects.

Ithaca serves as a venue for the presentation of photographic works by renowned artists worldwide, fostering discussions on social, environmental, racial, and everyday issues relevant to contemporary photography and the arts. The residency creates a vibrant space that combines collaborative team efforts, individual moments of relaxation, and the exploration of new expressive avenues.

What distinguishes the Ithaca artists' Residency :

What sets the Ithaca Artists' Residency apart is the invaluable opportunity for artists to spend time with distinguished curators invited to the island. This interaction allows for the exchange of experiences, opinions, and perspectives on artistic expression inspired by the world-famous epic of the Odyssey. Additionally, participating artists receive insights, reviews, and mentorship that contribute to their overall artistic development.

This program is a continuation of the project developed several years ago at the Athens Base Gallery M55 Projects, where Greek artists had the opportunity to communicate with guests well-known curators and photographers from all over the Europe. A venue that led to the hosting of exhibitions of Greek photographers abroad and, vice versa, exhibitions of international photographers in Athens.

That program was repeated in the summer of 2020 for the first-time outside Athens, in Ithaca, where, with the generous contribution of the Municipality of Ithaca, the Regional Association of the Municipalities of the Ionian Islands (PED-IN) and the Cultural Association of Friends of Theater and Cinema FORKYS, 8 international creators and 2 curators were invited to stay on the island for 15 days and worked on the ideas and the meanings of the Odyssey.

Ithaca, an island with a strong multi-year artistic and cultural presence, was chosen to be the place for the development and consolidation of an institution of artistic production in the field of Visual Arts and Photography both locally and in the wider Ionian area. A meeting point for both Greek and foreign creators for an interactive exchange of knowledge and experience culminating in the production of artistic work

The basic Concept
The practice of contemporary art requires both flexibility and stability, personal expression and an environment that will offer guidance to enrich the ways of artistic search.

The aim of the program is to create an institution where Greek and foreign artists will meet, work on an idea aiming to an artistic production. At the same time they will have the opportunity to meet with internationally renowned curators with whom they will exchange views on improvement and completion of their work. The whole process will be open to the local communities in order to create a channel of communication between the public and the artistic expression and action

1. IMAGE NATION
Ithaca becomes the meeting place, in the Ionian Islands, of Photographers of Curators and Directors of Photographic Festivals, from all over the world. Ithaca recommends the destination of the trip, the return after an arduous search trip. Together we will examine how Ulysses’ journey to the world can inspire even today and lead to the production of a photographic work with a personal style and texture.

→ Artist in Residency program
Invitation of artists, Greeks and foreigners, to stay on the island and produce a work on the concepts of the Odyssey.

→ Curatorial
Invitation of international curators following up the produced work and mentoring as well as for meetings with other visiting photographers.

→ Photography Exhibitions
Annual Group Exhibition with the work produced each year during the Artist in Residency Program.
Hosting of the exhibitions produced in the countries of the curators.

→ Portfolio Reviews
Photographers all over the world will be called to submit their work. The 5-8 selected photographers will have the opportunity to meet our guest curators and get their feedback. One photographer of them will win our Fellowship to participate in next year’s artist in residency program and exhibit their work.

2. IMAGE VOICE
Photography goes to the public, tossing out its power, its global scope, its importance and its historical evolution. Informing the public of Ithaca and of the Ionian Islands about what is happening in photography internationally, about new trends and different, often, conflicting approaches.

→ Well-known Greek photographers are invited to present their work to the public and to get to know the artists.
→ Workshops and Master classes by the present artists in which interested parties from all over Greece will be invited to participate.
→ Curators will present their festivals and a panorama of the photography of their country.
→ Contemporary Video Art projections.

3. LABS
Development of an educational annual program of workshops, in collaboration with the Municipality of Ithaca and PE-DIN that will aim to make photography, property and frequent occupation of residents of all ages.

→ Fast-paced youth training program ‘’Photography this Known Unknown’’.
→ Program “I photograph my space and my people”. Easy photography with all available means and presentation of results to the public.
→ Photoshop the first steps.
→ Prompt for photography with all available means ‘’Look at your life through images’’.
→ Photography presentations and films with reference to art in public places.
→ Publications with the actions of the laboratories.

When Odysseus set off for glorious days in Troy, his beloved wife, Penelope, was left alone to unwittingly excite the appetite of men for a gorgeous queen. Before long, the palace was brimful of odious suitors who would flirt with the queen  ersistently. What is more, they made Penelope promise she would marry one of them. To keep them at bay, she came up with a devise: she promised she would come to a wedding with the best of them when she would have finished weaving a shroud. So, she spent the daytime weaving it and the nighttime unweaving it. Thus doing, she managed to stay clear of the suitors for 20 whole years, until Odysseus returned to Ithaca.

Discovery and Fulfilment
Despite its proximity to Kefalonia (Cephalonia) (2km northeast) it is much more peaceful, quiet and undiscovered from it, thus being an ideal place for alternative activities and a holiday living up to the standards of the most demanding ones amongst us. With its 27-kilometre long and 6.5-kilometre large mountainous surface, it boasts plenty of hiking as well as mountain bike trails in a sequence of blue and green alongside the coast and through olive, cypress, pine, oak, arbutus and carob trees up on the hills.

Beaches
The beach lovers will take pleasure in a multitude of choices covering all tastes, from sand to pebbles, from rocky to green-clad backgrounds, from peaceful to busy ones. Some of them are: Lootsa, Filiatró, Sarakínniko, Dexá, Minnímata, Yidáki, Aetós, Áspros Yalós, Afáles, Kourvoólia.

Villages
The 3.000-odd inhabitants of the island reside in:
Vathý: Marked by the features of the local architecture, it is the capital of the island and home to the Maritime and Folkloric Museum as well as to the Archaeological Museum of Ithaca. Vathý is built on a bay the center of which is decorated by the tiny little island of Lazarétto, a former sanatorium and prison.
Perahóri: A gorgeous scenic little village with a breathtaking view over the island. Built at the edge of the Afentikós Lógos forest, it is the perfect starting point for walks by medieval ruins in the oaks.
Stavrós: Situated on the north of the island, this village hosts another Archaeological Museum, known for the clay mask of the 1st century A.C.writing "ΕΥΧΗΝ ΟΔΥΣΣΕΙ" (= "a wish for Odysseus" in Ancient Greek).
Anoyí: A must of a visit thanks to the upright stones of the area (menhirs) the tallest of which goes as high as 8 metres.