Wind Blues (B&W) & Tilting at Windmills (coloured), Panagiotis Georgiadis, Greece

Wind Blues (B&W). Music : Nikos Ntounousis
Tilting at windmills (Coloured). Music: Angelos Athanasiadis

Lemnos has a surprisingly large number of windmills, located in both common and bizarre places. Possibly more than any other island of the Aegean and/or the Mediterranean.

Each and every one of them is equally beautiful, similar and at the same time different from the rest. “Similarity fused with difference” as the Jesuit poet Gerard M. Hopkins states, wishing to define “art”.

It is, unfortunately, extremely sad and exceptionally disheartening, that the vast majority of them go to pieces, proudly and quietly, on their “perches”. They fade away to neglect, abandonment or perhaps inability to be maintained by their owners. They constitute a unique privilege for Lemnos, part of its essence, its heritage and identity. Additionally, they present an untapped and dwindling priceless resource. We have but to open our eyes and broaden our thought in order to include them in our times, with new uses, roles, and purposes.

As part of a broader sustainable economy, which, in any case, constitutes the sole way forward towards our survival.

Leaders of the past, the mills require your attention, in order to lead once again in the future.