Odette Kouzou: “I want contemporary art to become part of everyday life in Kythnos”

On the occasion of this year’s edition of Thermia Project in Kythnos, we spoke with Odette Kouzou about memory, community, and the vision behind an initiative that began in a family home and evolved into a vibrant contemporary art residency.

Every May, an old house on Kythnos comes back to life. Three emerging artists move in for a few weeks, sharing rooms, meals, ideas, and everyday routines while drawing inspiration from the island’s landscape and its people. “I jokingly tell them they are sleeping in the room where my grandfather was born,” says Odette Kouzou.

The house is deeply intertwined with her childhood memories of Kythnos. She grew up there, spending nearly every summer of her childhood on the island with her brother. Years later, after studying Art History and working closely with young Greek artists, she began to see the old family home differently: as a place where contemporary art could meet the Cycladic landscape.

This is how Thermia Project was born in 2022. Since then, it has grown into one of Greece’s most compelling independent artist residency programmes. Every spring, three artists live and work together on Kythnos, developing new projects inspired by the island and its people.

On one hand, there was a house filled with memories. On the other, there was the realization that Greece still lacks substantial residency programmes capable of providing artists with the time, space, and support necessary to develop their practice. Kythnos, an island that until then had no comparable initiative, became the natural starting point.

The annual exhibition is hosted at the Primary School of Chora, thanks to a collaboration with the Municipality of Kythnos. Yet the activities of Thermia Project extend far beyond the exhibition itself. They include encounters with local residents, workshops for children, collaborations with the local school, and an ongoing effort to make artistic creation part of everyday life in a place that remains far removed from major urban centres. The impact the programme leaves on the local community is therefore equally important.

In a place where there is no permanent visual arts teacher and access to arts education remains limited, these initiatives take on particular significance. Part of the programme’s proceeds are also returned to the school, helping cover practical needs and improve its equipment.

“I would like to believe that we give something back to the community,” Kouzou says. “Kythnos gives us its landscape, its stories, its inspiration, and its hospitality. It is important for us to find ways to reciprocate.” One of Thermia Project’s central goals remains introducing contemporary art to local residents and building bridges where little contact with it previously existed.

A small community of creators

Selecting the artists is perhaps the most personal aspect of Thermia Project. Participation is by invitation only, but each invitation follows extensive research, studio visits, and close engagement with artists’ practices. Kouzou looks for artists who not only possess a compelling visual language but are also open to engaging meaningfully with a place and allowing that experience to shape their work.

Equally important is the composition of the group itself. Each year, the three participants are invited to live together under the same roof, sharing their daily lives, creative questions, and uncertainties. “I want there to be common threads between their practices, even aesthetically, so that a real group can emerge,” she explains.

Living together is an essential part of the experience. The artists work alongside one another, exchange ideas, and witness the evolution of each other’s projects. Often, the bonds that develop become just as meaningful as the artworks themselves. “They get emotional when it’s time to leave,” says Kouzou. “A very special connection develops between them.” Through this collective experience, Thermia Project functions not only as a space for artistic production but also as a place for dialogue, encounter, and artistic growth.

Convivial Gestures: An exhibition about shared experience

This year’s exhibition, Convivial Gestures, emerged from observing everyday life on Kythnos. Rather than focusing on the island’s landscape or architecture, it turns its attention to people and the ways they create communities: gatherings at cafés, village festivals, spontaneous meetings in public squares, shared routes, and all those small gestures that shape social life.

For Kouzou, these everyday practices constitute a form of intangible cultural heritage that continues to be passed from one generation to the next. At a time when isolation and individualism are increasingly prevalent, the exhibition seeks to highlight the importance of togetherness and shared experience.

The three participating artists, Kyveli Zoi, Giannis Malinakis, and Polina Miliou, approach the theme from different perspectives. Some draw inspiration from everyday encounters and the relationship between people and landscape; others move between memory and imagination or create sculptural interventions inspired by local objects and traditions. Kyveli Zoi’s paintings transform everyday scenes into poetic compositions where the real and the dreamlike coexist. Giannis Malinakis explores the tension between solitude and the desire for connection through references to memory, mythology, and local narratives. Polina Miliou works with found objects and everyday materials, reinterpreting traditional customs and communal practices through sculpture.

What unites their work is an attempt to capture what often goes unnoticed: the bonds that connect people and the ways in which a place continues to generate collective experiences.

Odette’s Kythnos

Although Kythnos has attracted increasing numbers of visitors in recent years, Kouzou still sees it as a place that retains many of its secrets. What fascinates her most is not only its beaches or the beauty of its Cycladic landscape, but also its lesser-known aspects: stone-paved footpaths crossing dry-stone walls, unexplored archaeological sites, and routes that connect small human stories with the natural environment.

“Kythnos has a unique colour, a feeling I have never encountered on any other island,” she says.

When she is not exploring the island’s trails or hidden archaeological sites, she enjoys Kythnos through its everyday rituals. She mentions long-standing tavernas such as the one at Agios Dimitrios and Koutsikos in Loutra, two places that continue to embody the authentic spirit of Cycladic hospitality.

For food and drinks, she recommends Margiora, a relatively new venue that has become a meeting point for both locals and visitors. For her, places like these reflect the coexistence of old and new, revealing a Kythnos that continues to evolve without losing its identity.

Looking ahead

Just as she remains deeply attached to Kythnos, Kouzou’s vision for Thermia Project extends beyond institutional growth or wider recognition. What matters most to her is deepening the programme’s relationship with the local community.

“I want to bring local residents closer to contemporary art and make it part of their everyday lives,” she explains.

On an island where cultural life is often shaped by tourism and seasonality, she envisions Thermia Project as a platform that creates opportunities for people to encounter new forms of artistic expression while remaining firmly rooted in the place that gave birth to it.

The story behind a name

Before concluding our conversation, I ask Kouzou about her unusual first name. It turns out to carry a family story that seems drawn from another era. She inherited the name from her grandmother in Lefkada, who was baptised shortly after World War I by her godfather, a man who had fallen in love with a French dancer during his time in France. Returning to Greece, he chose to give the newborn girl the name of the woman he had loved: Odette.

A century later, the name remains in the family, carrying with it a story of love, travel, and memory.

Perhaps it is no coincidence that Odette Kouzou feels such a strong connection to the stories of places and the people who inhabit them.