IYP X Thermia Project 2026, Kythnos
Thermia Project presents the group exhibition of contemporary art Convivial Gestures, the outcome of its artist residency programme, which took place on the island of Kythnos for the fifth consecutive year in May 2026. Artists Kyveli Zoi, Giannis Malinakis and Polina Miliou developed new works in dialogue with everyday life on the island and its forms of social coexistence. The exhibition will be hosted at the Primary School of Chora, Kythnos, from 4 to 19 July 2026, curated by Odette Kouzou, with free admission for the public.
The exhibition of Thermia Project, titled Convivial Gestures, turns its gaze toward the gestures of everyday coexistence that shape the social and cultural fabric of Kythnos. The starting point of the artistic research lies in the practices of leisure, recreation, and social gathering that develop in both public and private spaces, such as meetings at the café, spontaneous gatherings in the alleys and squares, festivals, local celebrations, shared routes, moments of rest, music, and entertainment. These constitute forms of intangible cultural heritage that are transmitted experientially from generation to generation and continue to organise the daily life of the island. In a place where memory and tradition coexist with the contemporary conditions of island life, these practices function as carriers of collective identity, social cohesion, and shared experience. The artists, Kyveli Zoi, Yiannis Malinakis, and Polina Miliou, investigate and reinterpret these forms of sociability, seeking the ways in which people form communities, share experiences, and shape relationships with place and with one another. The exhibition proposes a dialogue between art, everyday life, and collective memory, examining how small gestures of coexistence can function as vehicles of cultural continuity and social connection.
Kyveli Zoi’s paintings move between the “real” and the “dreamlike,” highlighting relationships between human communities and their environment. Drawing inspiration from music, history, and everyday moments on the island, she develops a visual language marked by a strong sense of theatricality, where the everyday acquires a poetic dimension and is transformed into scenes of shared experiences and narratives.
