Some works seem to exist in a place forever, not only because of their imposing presence, but also because of their transformative power, their ability to change the way we perceive space, time and, ultimately, ourselves. The Chronotopia of Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garrett, the new large-scale facility that joined the collection of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation at the Minos Palace Resort, belongs exactly to this category of projects.
A work that invites you to see-literally and figuratively-with a different look at the history, space-time dimension and multiple levels of reading of a place. The two award-winning Canadian artists have become known for their intervention facilities in the public space and for the collaborative projects they have implemented from Turkey to Japan and from China to North America. In Crete they present a work that talks with the landscape not as a background, but as an active conversationalist. In one of the most impressive places of St. Nicholas, where the sea and the sky seem to conclude a silent light deal daily, Brown and Garrett propose a peculiar architecture of vision. The Chronotopia It's not enough to claim the visitor's look. He demands his participation. She invites you to care for her, to move around and within her, to let the image of the world refractive through her lenses and with her to refractive, even for a while, and your certainties.
This is the winning work of the 2026 Art Award of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation, an institution that has in recent years managed to acquire a special place in the field of contemporary art. The installation is inspired by the relationship between Crete and water, light, space and time. It is constantly transformed according to daytime, weather conditions and the position of the viewer. Sometimes it looks like a sculptural presence that emerges from the landscape and sometimes a fragile build of light, whose form changes as you approach it. As you are curious about the installation in person the arched "pania" that compose the work are revealed: surfaces consisting of thousands of optical lenses, which rise like transparent membranes between the real and perceived world. The image they form is constantly changing, as light, wind and visitor movement activate the project structure.
The facility is part of the long course of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation, which since the 1980s has been building one of the most important outdoor collections of contemporary art in Greece. The institutionalization of the Art Award in 2019 was a natural continuation of this route, enabling artists from around the world to create new works specially designed for the place and to integrate them into the Foundation's permanent collection.
On the edge of the Cretan worldEach work of the collection offers its own reading of the landscape. Chronotopia, however, seems to be talking particularly about another iconic work that dominates the opposite side of the peninsula: Virtuous Spiral ("Haired Speira") by Danais Stratou. Like an invisible line linking the two works, creating a dialogue between different generations and different approaches to public sculpture. At the same time that Virtous Spiral beats you with her "hospitality", Chronopia from afar looks almost immaterial. As if it is there to unite the water with the mountains that are distinguished on the horizon, the sea and the air, the individual elements of the landscape in a single experience. As it reflects the light of the Cretan sun, it appears as a silver trace engraved upon the horizon.
But when the visitor approaches, construction reveals its complex materiality. About 1,500 optical lenses-between progressive and bifocal lenses which had been found unfit for further use;acquire a second life through artEach captures fragments of the environment and turns them into tiny image universes.
In this case, the landscape of Agios Nikolaos does not function as a setting. It turns into a co-creator. Mediterranean light, wind changes, reflections of the sea and the presence of people constantly activate the work, which never remains the same. The concept of space-time thus acquires an unexpected materiality. ‘This place is charged with so much history and symbolismMaybe it sounds classic, but... The iconic image of looking towards the sea and the horizon creates a feeling constant continuity and vastness“ The two creators say. "It was something that fascinated us from the first moment".
An experience triggered by the lookAll these thoughts arise after a discussion we have with them at the restaurant of the Minos Palace Resort, a place fully harmonised with the environment. For Brown and Garrett, the relationship with the site has already been decisive since the submission of their proposal. "The first thing we noticed when we opened the link to the award was space, the place," they explain. "We were immediately drawn by his relationship with the Mediterranean Sea, which for us, as Canadians, was a completely new experience. We live in Calgary, at the foot of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, an area without direct contact with large water areas. This was of particular importance to us, since we do not have an experiential relationship with seas of this magnitude - and even more with a sea like the Mediterranean, which carries such a dense load of myths, history and modern social and political complexities."
Perhaps that’s why Chronopia looks so organically integrated into her environment. Those who know the work of the two artists easily recognize their firm pursuit of creating works that are not imposed on the site but develop with it a relationship of mutual influence. THEthe landscape thus acts as an active interlocutor, forming the scale, form and eventually the meaning of the installation.
In the case of Crete, this relationship becomes particularly intense. The fierceness of light, the sense of open horizon and the long coexistence of man and nature are transformed into structural elements of the work. Through this symbiosis one opens up dialogue between human and non-humanIn the visible and invisible. A treaty reminiscent of Maurice Merlo-Ponti's analyses of mutual gaze, for the moment when the observer simultaneously becomes part of what he observes.
‘Much of our work revolves around searching for these moments of public intimacyThey say. "Insights of personal meditation unfolding within a shared space." The experience of Chronopia reminds, in this case, more wandering than observation. Through the lenses, the distant horizons are condensed into domed micropices that are constantly pulsating with air and light. The work is not for you. He invites you. It offers a sequence of different versions of itself, depending on your position, the time of day or the duration of your stay.
Perhaps this is where his greatest power lies: in his refusal to offer a single perspectiveWatching it from afar, he sometimes imagines with a strange, shiny totem. Like an upside down shrine of a place where the horizon still maintains an almost mythical dimension. When I convey this impression to them, they smile themselves. "We do not speak in religious terms," they respond. "But we believe that contact with nature can be a deep, almost spiritual experience. We are interested in the idea of being in meaningful communication with one's environment. And when we say "environment," we mean everything.
For themselves, Most of their projects are primarily experiential. They are designed on a human scale and aim at creating multiple levels of experience. "From far away, the work works more as sculpture presence“ They explain. "Something you notice and that attracts you out of curiosity. Maybe it's obvious. more impressive or brighter from a distanceWithout revealing immediately what it is. The possibility, however, of entering the work and sitting in it is a very personal invitation. It's as if the viewer is invited to take time, slow down his pace and meditate. The form of the project is designed to surround it, creating the feeling of as complete a sinking as possible in the project area. In this way, the viewer is not simply opposite the work; He feels that he is involved in this, that he becomes part of it" they end up.
Chronotopia finally seems to suggest a different way of view. No, an experience of consuming images, but a process of slow observation-a constant exercise of presence.
An art of presenceAt a time when art is often exhausted in reproduction of images for social networks, Chronotopia recalls the importance of physical presence. The work takes time and requires curiosity. In fact, he asks the visitor to abandon, at least temporarily, the speed of consumption and be left in an observational experience.
Perhaps that is why his effect proves so strong. It does not offer answers or impose a specific interpretation. Rather, it creates the conditions in which multiple readings and different personal accounts can be born. In the light of the Minos Palace, where the sea meets the sky and the horizon seems endless, Chronopia acts like a perception machine. A project that Reminds us that the world is never one and only, but consists of countless versions, as much as the looks on him.
A completely democratic taskOur discussion inevitably returns to the concept of participation. I point out to them that their works are constantly opening new communication paths with space and the other, often acting as a counterweight to an increasingly individual-centric and rather nacrissistic concept of experience. At a time of successive crises, the sense of connection to something wider seems more necessary than ever. They agree, although they approach the issue through the practice of creation. "There's a special complexity in creating a project within an operating space“ Here there are bathers, water sports people, garden workers. All these activities form an integral part of the landscape, in which the project is part."
For Brown and Garrett, the challenge is not to isolate art from everyday life, but to connect it with it. "At the same time, there is the possibility of a more thoughtful relationship with the horizon-with the line where the sea, sky and land meet. This experience of observation and presence was of particular interest to us" they complement. "It's interesting to see the work, when around it is a lot of people, because then it works completely different than in quiet moments. In fact, we created it with precisely these moments of calm in mind. The moment a single person, who doesn't even know there's some work of art on the site, discovers it by accident. Someone wanders and suddenly lies in this experience. There you hope something meaningful can happen, perhaps even deeply touching" describe features.
The concept of 'Public familiarity“ To which the two artists often come back, he has a special weight here. "A large part of our work revolves around the search for these moments of public intimacy- moments of personal meditation unfolding within a shared space. Another thing I find particularly interesting about today's placement of the project is that You can observe someone while he's watching. That way you become part of the project in a very literal way.. Your body is dissipated visually, as is the landscape when you are inside the facility. So it becomes absolutely clear when you are a participant and when an observer."
That's right.It is the shift between the viewer and the spectacle, between its experience and observation, that makes Chronopia more than an impressive installation in the landscape. This is a work that constantly activates our relationship with space, time and others. A play that does not represent the world, but invites us to see it again. Finally, it is worth noting that the Committee for the Evaluation of the Art Award of the G. & A. Mamidakis Foundation – made up of art historian and curator Polina Kosmadakis, the artistic director of the Foundation and art historian Sotirios Bachtsetzis, as well as the visual and university scholars Nikos Nauridis and Alexander Psychoulis – separated the proposal of Brown and Garrett considering that "they contribute essentially to contemporary artistic dialogue, proposing innovative methodologies and practices that bridge conceptual thinking with the experience and enhance the cross-thematic approach of art, broadening the boundaries between artistic practice, environmental and social planning."
Perhaps this wording accurately describes the substance of Chronopia. No, as a work that claims to dominate the landscape, but as a open viewing proposal. A reminder that reality is never given, but it is constantly shaped through the way we choose to look at it.