Aristeidis Metallinos, laic sculptor of Ano Korakiana (1908-1987)
Aristeidis Metallinos - Αριστείδης Μεταλληνός - is known to few. Villagers of Ano Korakiana older than 30 remember talking to him as children. Aristeidis' son, Andrea, died in 2016. We attended his crowded funeral at Agios Athanasios, the cathedral of Ano Korakiana. We're honoured to be friends of Maria, Andrea's sister, daughter of Aristeidis, also her son, Tassos; also of Angeliki, the sculptor's grand-daughter and her mother, Anna, Andrea's widow.
Aristeidis Metallinos was a craftsman of many skills, who became, in the last part of his long life, a sculptor - one of the island's talents. He died 20 years before we came to have a home in his village. Six years after our arrival, we were invited to visit the museum in which Andrea and Anna lived and in which the sculptor's work is currently displayed. Few others, Greeks or foreigners, have been inside. It was once described as a 'museum', but last year that name was removed by workman in 2017, leaving Andrea's plaque on the front of the house, attesting it as his father's place of work.
To make his work known, a project in which we have faith, I submitted a Wikipedia entry in English and Greek. Two years ago, Angeliki, Lin and I, with Andrea's approval, made a draft catalogue of every work in the 'museum'.
With Andreas Metallinos' approval, Angeliki and Linda cataloguing his father's work
Richard Pine was permitted to use one of the sculptor's marble friezes - The Saint of Preveza - in his book Greece Through Irish Eyes. In 2016 our son Richard made and administers a website owned and paid for by the family.
I have shown photos of many of the works to interested Corfiot artists and writers, Greek and British - Maria Strani-Potts, Jim Potts, Richard Pine, Katherine Wise. Also Corfiot historian John Petsalis author of Corfu Museum on-line, and his colleague photographer, Effie Stathia; the cultural anthropologist, Dr Alexandra Moschovi at the University of Sunderland. Irini Savanni, art historian and curator at the University of Athens, who I met in Ano Korakiana, her village. Aristeidis Metallinos is mentioned on Ano Korakiana's website and blog authored by Thanassis Spingos.
The first noting of the sculptor outside his village was by Giannis M. Maris - welcome, but brief, in a collection of artists' biographies published in 1978. The catalogue Angeliki, Linda and I made of the works in the museum in Ano Korakiana shows just 25 sculptures completed by that year.
Giannis M. Maris (1978) "Βιογραφικό - Αριστείδης Ζαχ. Μεταλληνός", in Απάνθισμα Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών, Athens, pp. 611–617
A much fuller paper of 23 pages illustrated with black and white photos of the artist's work was written by Professor Eurydice Antzoulatou-Retsila (she told me, in a letter, she preferred 'Eurydice' to the Greeklish 'Evridiki') published in Myriovivlos, vol. 7, Athens, pp. 37-47 - two years before the artist's death. 'Corfiot themes in the craft of the laic sculptor Aristeidi Metallinou'.
Maria and Jim Potts have generously donated a 'free translation' of this paper's abstract:
The laic sculptor (sculptor of the people) Aristeidis Metallinos (1908-1987), from the Corfu village of Ano Korakiana, provides us with a common example of a folk artist or craftsman, for whom the need to earn a living pushes him/her in the direction of an occupation involving a variety of forms of traditional artisanal handicraft-work, until reaching the final stage of free and unconstrained expression of artistic inspiration through, e.g. sculpture in stone (in the case of Metallinos).
In the course of his difficult life, he practised as a wood-carver, a professional shoe-maker. He built fireplaces and ovens, carved and chiselled olive press mill-stones and hand grinding-mills.
At the advanced age of 67, he occupied himself as a sculptor carving in stone, declaring that he was self-taught. He thus realised a long-standing ambition to create and depict different forms of life which were slowly disappearing, as he had understood from his own experience of life. His works of art demonstrate the true meaning of laic folk-art and provide visual testimony and evidence of aspects of Corfu’s culture and way of life, particularly in the north west of Corfu.
The inspiration for Metallinos’ sculptures was the folklore of the island. They are presented here for the first time. They were created in the period between 1975 and 1983. Two types are distinguishable: bas-relief sculptures, and statues, carved from white Kozani marble or Corfu stone.
They depict agricultural occupations* (milking a goat, a village woman carrying a load, the village olive press), traditional crafts and professions (the shoemaker/cobbler, the milkman, the village baker, the blacksmith), domestic activities (grinding with a hand-mill, a village woman kneading dough, a peasant woman carrying water), traditional handicrafts (a peasant woman with a distaff, another with a shepherd), villagers wearing traditional costumes (‘My mother’, an elderly man from Korakiana, a peasant woman in formal costume, a Corfiot). NB If the word peasant’ is not felt appropriate now, substitute ‘villager’.
A few days ago Oliver and Hannah were staying with their other grandmother, Christine. She introduced them to kite flying...
Oliver and Hannah (Photo: Amy Hollier)
...while yesterday Lin and I were entertaining them.
Hannah sits in the high chair that was my mother's, mine, and our childrens'
This morning I walked with Oscar and Oliver to the allotment and worked through the morning with Winnie, watering and weeding...
Oscar and Oliver ~ the flag was described recently as 'an ode' to a famous photograph taken 45 years ago
...cropping more broad beans and a first batch of peas, shelling them at home...
A sage item from the minutes of a recent VJA committee:
Flags. –
Simon has a union jack flag on his allotment and it was questioned whether this
was appropriate as it has
negative connotations and could give the wrong impression of the allotment.The flag in
question is an ode to a photograph taken close to the allotments that has
cultural significance and is therefore an artistic and cultural expression.
Celebrating a rainy Diamond Jubilee on the Victoria Jubilee Allotments
Yesterday Amy brought Liz to the plot. She'd not seen it for two years.
"Wow!" she said "You've done good"
Liz can't walk anywhere for more than five minutes...complications with pregnancy means taking care moving about. Baby due in two months.
Yanis Varoufakis, Finance Minister of Greece "Democracy did not have a good day in yesterday’s Eurogroup meeting"
...a book about 'how economic power has emerged from the shadows of political and military might before gradually taking over human societies. The narrative combines history, literature, science fiction films and down-to-earth economic analysis to impress upon teenagers, and various beginners, that economics is an epic drama. Rather than a technical science, it is a battleground on which armies of ideas clash mercilessly and where concepts with a capacity to move mountains emerge; and all that in a war for our own allegiances which are being fought over by powerful interests usually at odds with ours...That, looked at through a piercing eye, behind every economic notion, every theory, there lurks a fascinating debate about human anxieties that only poets, dramatists and musicians have managed to address with any degree of efficiency.'
As it happened – Yanis Varoufakis’ intervention during the 27th June 2015 Eurogroup Meeting posted on 28th June 2015 The Eurogroup Meeting of 27th June 2015 will not go down as a proud moment in Europe’s history. Ministers turned down the Greek government’s request that the Greek people should be granted a single week during which to deliver a Yes or No answer to the institutions’ proposals – proposals crucial for Greece’s future in the Eurozone...
Greek Lawmakers Approve Decision to Hold Referendum by Stelios Bouras, Wall Street Journal June 27, 2015 Greek lawmakers gave the green light early Sunday to a proposal by the coalition government to hold a referendum on whether austerity measures demanded by lenders in exchange for further aid should be accepted by the crisis-hit nation...
Greece Will Close Banks to Stem Flood of Withdrawals by Landon Thomas Jr. and Niki Kitsantonis The New York Times 28 June 2015 ATHENS — Greece will keep its banks closed on Monday and place restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of money, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in a televised address on Sunday night, as Athens tries to avert a financial collapse....
Travel to Greece: Advice for those travelling to Greece by Simon Calder, The Independent posted Tuesday 16 June, 2015 Many concerned prospective holidaymakers have got in touch this week as Greece’s financial crisis deepens. A worrying time for the Greeks – but should holidaymakers worry?...
by Viktoria Dendrinou & Gabriele Steinhauser Wall Street Journal June 27, 2015 The eurozone rejected a Greek request for a one-month extension to its bailout Saturday, plunging the country into a period of high uncertainty and raising concerns about wider financial fallout when markets open on Monday....
by Alex Barker Financial Times June 27, 2015 Greek banks are on the edge of failure. Deposit flight is accelerating and Greece’s funding options are running out. Every euro withdrawn from cash machines is backed by emergency funding from the European Central Bank. Without an extension to Greece’s bailout, these ECB emergency loans are in doubt. Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has
Reuters June 27, 2015 Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on austerity demands from foreign creditors on Saturday, rejecting an "ultimatum" from lenders and putting a deal that could determine Greece's future in Europe to a risky popular vote...
Associated Press June 27, 2015 German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged undamaged from the global financial crisis, European bailouts, an astonishing U-turn on nuclear power and the crisis over Ukraine. Now, with the future of efforts to resolve Greece's fiscal woes up in the air, the long-serving leader looks well-placed to emerge strong even if they fail.
by Hugo Dixon Reuters June 27, 2015 Alexis Tsipras has taken a massive gamble on Greece’s future. By calling a referendum on whether to accept the creditors’ latest offer of cash in return for unpopular reforms, the Greek prime minister is offering the people a choice between the bad and the extremely bad. Meanwhile, the world may be about to face the biggest default in history...
by Peter Spiegel Financial Times June 26, 2015 Alexis Tsipras, the Greek prime minister, has announced a national referendum on whether his country should agree to creditors’ demands that would release desperately-needed bailout aid to avoid national bankruptcy. In a televised address to the nation after a late-night meeting of his cabinet, Mr Tsipras announced that the plebiscite would be....
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'Ευρωπαϊκή Οικονομική Κοινότητα ~ The European Union' 1980 by Aristeidis Metallinos
In the week before we last left Ano Korakiana, Linda, I and Angeliki Metallinos, completed a list of nearly all her grandfather's sculptures and marble reliefs. After three and half hours we had a re-numbered list based on the year of the carving, with dimensions, brief description, and whether in local stone or in marble from Kozani...
Aristeidis Metallinos (1908-1987) catalogue draft
...giving us the raw material for a catalogue which, talking to several gallery curators recently, I believe should be created as a website. I'm not dismissing a hard copy. I'm recognising that having information about Aristeidis Metallinos on the web is a better goal. From such a site, easy to edit, different catalogues with varying emphases can be made into temporary hard texts. The web option, avoiding colour or even half-tone printing is also a deal less costly. I am still exploring who should write about the laic sculptor. On 21st June, I was excited to receive a letter from the scholar - Dr. Eurydice Antzoulatou-Retsila, since 2009 professor at the School of Cultural Studies at the University of Peloponnese in Kalamata - who had first written about Metallinos in 1985, when he was still alive:
Dear Simon.
At last I can communicate with you, because I had terrible problems with my computer all this period, being afraid that I had lost all my archives, but finally all has been arranged well.
So, let me first thank you deeply for your interest in the work of Metallinos. I was feeling the same when in 1982 I had discovered him and I had faced all negative attitudes from all parts of communities in Corfu. But I insisted and I wrote my article then . My husband , now, says that nothing goes in vain and he is very glad with your initiative , because he, himself ( as artist, he is film director) had believed in this work.
Perhaps my interest those days was founded in my work as curator at the National Museum of Greek Folk Art (in Athens) and my interest in what is humble and simple. After all, this had been my first speciality (history archaeology, art focused on Greek folk art, my PhD dissertation was on the wedding crowns of modern Greece, those created in gold and silver and kept in local churches or in museums).
I will be very glad indeed to contribute in the volume you are preparing and actually I am planning to visit Corfu again in September to meet with my old friends there (I was professor of museum studies and cultural management at the Ionian University there from 1994 to 2009), to start a new research I am planning and of course I will enjoy seeing again the works of Metallinos.
This last period has been very hectic for me, because I am retiring end of August and lots of things in the administration must be arranged (I am dean since 2011…).
I am planning also my new career (my third one!!) in music this time (piano and singing as soprano) and I am really very excited. My first career was as curator at the museum (and also creating lots of museums all over Greece), my second as university professor and now as musician. Not bad for a variety in life !!!
So, dear Simon, thank you again for these wonderful ideas you have, I am sharing your interest and I will be glad to contribute. But the greatest pleasure for me is your interest in Greek things, expressed in this very sensitive way, especially this period, where this country and this society is really in a very bad situation.
Be well, take good care, greetings to Linda and let us try to meet soon
Best,
Eurydice
Plaque on the front of the Aristeidis Metallinos Museum in Ano Korakiana - the year the builder became the sculptor
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The amount of greenery to be salvaged from crops, from neighbouring fallow allotments just scythed - in weeds, pods, tops and hay...all for long term composting...
Windrows raked from the scythings of fallow allotments either side of plot 14
...while the bays by the fence may have produced some humus by this time next year...with one bay providing almost usable soil though full of annual weed seeds.
This bay includes much of the couch grass weeded out over the last year
I've realised my friend Ziggi's point that it's not good just growing stuff, however successfully. You must grow it to eat and ensure that you bring it for cooking by agreement with the cook. Don't just turn up like the 'hunter-gatherer' with a bag of veg and expect Lin to be grateful. Check what's needed. Scarf what's to be cropped into her plans for meals. Allow also for the extra time involved in preparation compared to veg off the supermarket shelf.
Lin didn't ask for these but I needed to do some thinning of the parsnip bed
Once cropped every one of these sweet little parsnips needs to be topped, tailed and scrubbed.
That took me half an hour at the sink, slightly less time than it took me yesterday to shell fresh peas for two, or today, for Lin to shell a saucepan full of broad beans. The same goes for the many small new potatoes that were 'ordered' for a Sunday family supper..
From Amy who brought the cakes to finish the meal: Thanks mummy for cooking dinner for all of us was very yummy and much needed. Liz says thank you too smile emoticon
My stepsister and her husband, Eric, having stayed with us this last week:
Dear Fiona. I'm enjoying a large filter coffee in Plous Bookshop in town having dropped you two off at the airport. Hope it wasn’t too hectic and that you are home safe and sound. I guess your flight will be overhead any time now. I think I hear its rumble.
I’m so pleased you decided to visit us, and would like to think that, even with your immaculate politeness, I detect a sense that you really did enjoy yourselves - wasps and snails apart...We did - without too much bustle - get a lot into our week together, even though we didn’t climb Mount Pantocrator, visit Old Perithia, The British Cemetery, sail the boat, or visit the Aristeidis Metallinos Museum or go to Albania for the day or climb up to Angelokastro! But we did take a boat for a picnic on Mouse Island, watch the planes landing and taking off from Kanoni, visit Mon Repos in the rain, eat at George’s, at San Stephano, at Strapunto, walk the streets of Corfu city, swim off Dassia Beach and gaze at the remains of the Club Med site where you holidayed in the 60s; walk the village, meet our friend Cinty, stroll and nearly get the car stuck at Avlaki beach. We bathed too at Paleocastritsa, struggling with a sunshade in a warm sea wind...
At Paleocastritsa
...and went to the Monastery there; visited tourist-jammed Kassiopi, strolled the misty streets of Sokraki after climbing the 29 (or is 27 or 28?) hairpin bends from Ano Korakiana, descending via Trompetta with its panoramas north and south over the island, and took the caique that plies between the Old Harbour and Vido Island where we met the rude waiter Dimitrios at Taverna Menios (I promised to name him!) and I swam off that pebbly little cove as we watched the big cruise liners leaving the narrows. Love to Eric. It was great to get to meet him for more than a passing handshake. He's a fine man, kind, generous, and funny and looking enviably good as an ‘old man’ like me - with the requisite amount of shared grumpiness to put me at my ease. Love to all the family. (Send us some photos of your sojourn on Corfu). That poem I mentioned by John Pudney...
Do not despair
For Johnny-head-in-air;
He sleeps as sound
As Johnny underground.
Fetch out no shroud
For Johnny-in-the-cloud;
And keep your tears
For him in after years.
Better by far
For Johnny-the-bright-star,
To keep your head,
And see his children fed.
xxxx Simon
On Vido
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22 Sept 2014 for the moment no meetings on the matter of the laic sculptor but a letter from Dr. Eurydice Antzοulatοu-Retsila…
Dear Simon. Thank you very much for your letter and the right use of my name! Actually all my international friends like this version. I am deeply touched by your philhellenic feelings. Greece needs distinguished friends like you to survive nowadays.
Your thoughts about Metallinos and the 'background' concerning his ideas had occupied myself too and I was wondering what was really happening there. having some ideas parallel to yours and thinking that research was needed to go further. So, I am glad that you are doing it. I think it has to do with ‘mentalities’ and ‘stereotypes’ of local behaviours within the framework of a local community influenced by the general 'clima' of a certain historical period, with all its exaggerations (very usual for a Mediterranean hectic milieu). It will be my pleasure to hear more about progress….All best greetings, Eurydice
Dear Eurydice. Yes that’s the name we learned in school (:))
Thanks for your most flattering complements. My area of academic work for thirty plus years has been local government in its many forms and in several countries. My specialty has been the subtleties of the working relationship between politicians and administrators - relationships that make, or fail to, make governmentI am a social anthropologist in my initial training and inclinations, but now I suppose a generalist and journeyman researcher into things that intrigue me.
I really enjoy digesting your reflections on the laic sculptor and will, with your permission, continue to put extracts that capture these in the fragmented narrative I call 'Democracy Street’. I will stay in touch and share further thoughts and pass on further questions if I may - those that arise from your reflections and others arising from mine. Gradually we learn more. Kindest regards, Simon
208 Οδός Δημοκρατίας, Άνω Κορακιάνα 49083, Κέρκυρα, Ἑλλάς
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Meanwhile back in the UK, an exchange, necessarily kept anonymous, re trouble between a friend, expert in monitoring the probity of credit unions, and a particular credit union official with which they were asked to be associated I’m unclear about the letters on the list ‘b’, ‘e’, ‘g’. Perhaps they refer to clauses in that CU’s constitution. The letter copied to me:
Evening X. The appeal letters went out during last week, please find copy attached. The date is the xxx at xxxx. This letter was sent to all current adult members. Not sure why yours has not arrived as members have rung from all parts of the country to ask what's its for or to give apologies etc. I will arrange for another to be sent tomorrow.
You requested what charges are sought against you,
b. Divulging confidential information obtained by virtue of being a Member of the Credit Union;
e. Maliciously and knowingly spreading incorrect reports about the management of the Credit Union;
g. Actively working against the interests of the Credit Union and/or its membership;
Xy has told me you rang while they were out...I'm in for the rest of the evening. But in Tx tomorrow. Xxx Chair of Credit Committee, President of Credit Union
23 Sept...my reply to my beleaguered friend:
The charges against you are absurd, which is perhaps why it has been so difficult to obtain them.
Words and phrases have been spun to make honest, and indeed required, monitoring and reporting pre-requisite to your official role in the CU, look quite the opposite.
Had you not carried out the actions which this CU has turned into accusations and recriminations of maliciousness and impropriety - you would have been acting illegally and improperly.
For the derogatory term ‘divulging’, read instead ‘imparting' or ‘reporting’ - and, in this case, ‘reporting' information to which you, in your role, were entitled to and needed to carry out your work for the CU - information which you imparted under confidential conditions to a regulatory agency concerned with the conduct and management of the CU.
You were doing nothing less than the job that was required of you when appointed to it.
The use of the words ‘malicious' and ‘knowingly' as applied to an agent of the CU carrying out their required duties is slander.
The use of the term ‘knowingly’ linked to ‘maliciously’ is an oxymoron. Of course you made your reports ‘knowingly'. These terms are linked to intensify the accusation.
The charge of 'actively working against’ contains similar oxymoronic intensifiers, demonstrating the weakness of your accusers’ position. What difference does ‘actively’ make to the strength of these allegations?
Your accusers are angered and embarrassed that you did your duty in the role to which they and others elected you.
Can I say more? Lots, but I’m keeping it short. I wouldn’t even grace this behaviour with the term ‘vendetta’. You are being set up to face charges from a kangaroo court whose members seem unwilling to afford you due process. They hold over you charges which ought, rightfully, to be directed at them. It is your accusers who are bringing the CU, and indeed the whole CU movement, into disrepute by their arrogant and ill-judged actions...Instead of taking advantage of your skills, experience and integrity in managing the affairs of a Credit Union, certain key officials decided, not just to ignore your cautions about their procedures, but have add insult to the injury by, in effect, accusing you of ‘doing your job properly’. Best, Simon
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Several villagers in Ano Korakiana have sought my views on the Scottish 'referendum' in most cases, knowing the poll result before we did, having no Wifi or TV at Democracy Street. I asked my politician friend from Walsall, Dave Church to share his opinion of the result, which pleased me more than him. I'd been unaware of 'DevoMax'…
His letter on 19th Sept…Simon. The 55%-45% referendum result was much what I expected (in the pub I gave it 53%-47%) given the desperate promises made by the leaders of the 'No' campaign. Although opinion polls suggested a tighter result, it has always been my view that 'undecided' voters who do then vote, tend to favour the 'status quo' option. It was I think ironic that Cameron refused to include the 'DevoMax' option on the ballot paper but then had to promise this to avoid what he thought could be a 'Yes' vote, yet the end margin suggested that this may not have been necessary. In a sense it turned out to be a referendum between Yes and 'DevoMax' so the 'No' campaign lost at least to the extent that in the end there was not a 'status quo' option.
Although I personally favoured a 'Yes' vote, I must admit that this was probably because of my "anti status quo" outlook as much as it was my hope that an independent Scotland could demonstrate a fairer society. In many ways the result could not have been better. Independence for Scotland could have allowed a 'no real change' situation for the rest of the UK, but the promised level of devolution will I think require significant though to be given to the democratic structures here. If we could extend this further than merely excluding Scottish Westminster MPs from voting on issues devolved to the Scottish parliament, there could be real gains towards real democracy.
Look forward to meeting in November. Dave
Coignafearn on the Findhorn a few years back (photo: Dave Roskelly)
