Τετάρτη 6 Οκτωβρίου 2010

Map of the hidden treasure PAI 2011in Samothrace


In July 2011 Xene's Lapis Exilis PAI, will be hidden somewhere in the windswept, occult, mountainous landscape of Samothrace.  In order to discover it, the participants in the Game will have to follow the instructions in a special map, prepared by Kasda and Kaltsou and illustrated by A. Papantoniou, solve riddles, clean themselves in sublime waterfalls, climb on mountains, discover symbols, reach by boat inaccessible by road coastline wanders . The landmarks of this virtual reality treasure hunt are scattered all-over the cabirian island.

The Gate of the Sun in Samothrace island will be one of the stops in our  hunt map

This ancient map carved on stone embedded in the rocks of Palaiopolis
will be part of the immersive hunt-game PAI 2011
The natural carving of a creature on the stones facing the Chora


Primordial space
article by unforgettable friend and writer -anthropologist VASILE AVRAM who is now in the other floor of the world.
 We find ourselves in a place that could be defined, without any reservations, as the primordial space. A strange island, rising from the sea as a granite giant, supreme breath of Gaia, searching in the pieces of her existence a space prepared for a new world beginning. There is no wonder that here, lies the strangest source of myths, structured around the original mysteries of Cabiria, linking the human being to the secrets of the Earth, from whose bowels, the forces that give meaning to life arise, like an Athanor of cosmic dimensions.
An island inhabited in illo tempore by a population whose senses are open toward the two infinities – the stars in the sky and the stars in the depths of the earth, toward the macro-cosmos and the micro-cosmos, to the music of the spheres and pulses of the grass that rises from a soil burnt by the volcanic fires. A population that built, in a synchronic time to the Egyptian, Sumerian, Mycenaean, Thracian, not only a citadel defended by gigantic walls, built from rocks brought from the mountains, but also a model for integrating man in the cosmic mysteries.
Again, there is no wonder that the ancient world as a whole, from Homer and Herodotus to Plutarch and Strabo, was fascinated by the rites celebrating the powers of the Great alchemic Gods of Samothrace, because it was here that Poseidon followed the development of the Trojan War, it was here that Macedonian king Philip found Olympia, the one that would bring to the world, in a cosmic wedding, Alexander the Great, here Arsinoe built a spherical temple devoted to the primary mysteries founded on the strange magnetism of the porphyry stone thrown out of the Earth depths, it was here that the true image of the most exciting Goddess known by the human spirit – winged Nike – was revealed, supported by the winds that never stop blowing on this island.
There is surely no place more adequate for crowning the mythical network, structured in an essential way by Polyxène Kasda in her bold incentive to restore the primary sense of existence, to bind immanence to transcendence, to rehabilitate, not only in a cultural way, but in an ontological way as well, the great myth from which all the elements of the World were born.

27.07.1996, Samothrace
Speech held at the PAI 96 symposium, curated by P.Kasda, in the Island of Samothrace, Greece, 21- 28 July 1996
 Transilvania Review 1-2-3/1996
Translated from Romanian by Emil Matei Videa and Ileana Daian

Project Myth/Network 1990-2011, european heritage integration in modern perception



Kasda's project Myth/Network 1990-2011 is an enduring work of integration of our cultural primordial heritage to our present perception:
Sub-project PAI 2010/ “the eon is a child playing”, was realized in Alexandroupolis-Samothrace (org. Union of Cultural Associations of Evros) and was extended in Patmos-Thebes-Athens. 
PAI (Child) is an inscription on votive utensils, in the museum of Palaiopolis, in Samothrace. Based on the ‘archetype of the Child', project PAI fuses the present state of crisis with its timeless principle of Dionysian regeneration
.Her concept triggered a series of cultural events that involved the participation of local craftsmen, musicians, poets, dancer, fishermen. More than sixty international, selected, artists responded to her call and donated their works to create a municipal pinacotheque on the island and children interacted with the artists by creating an installation dedicated to the return of the storks, indices of fertility and health of eco systems. A polycentric exhibition of the local artists was held all over the Chora, which, the international guests visited and were acquainted with the local residents. 
The local municipality offered a traditional building in the Chora, in order to be restored and converted, into a small museum hosting the PAI international collection. Project PAI extended in 2011, with a cultural Treasure Hunt Game based on Heraclitus enigmatic fragments, associated to a deck of cards illustrated with the sites to be discovered on the island. The revenues from the deck of the treasure hunt and the game organized by the local group IDEA, will be invested in the creation of a small theatre. 
 
In her sub-project Gargling Sky for the Year of Astronomy 2009, she co-created another international polycentric pinacotheque, in the form of a constellation,in the remote, mountainous village of Crete, Gergeri. Watermills, storehouses, abandoned schools were transformed into art places; a process that inspired the creative participation of local artists, shepherds, housewives and of the youth who linked the different spots of the exhibition by paving the streets with hand-made star constellations. A happening in the Forest of Rouvas, sanctuary of wild life and in the 'Diogene’s Lake, (Vromolimni), ground meteorite recession and home of wild birds, were part of the inauguration process, which lasted two days!. In 2010, the old school was demolished and rebuilt as a hostel for visitors, the only one in the village and the paintings moved to the library, to the elders' home, to the shelter {cafe], which was built, in the meantime, in the site of the Vromolimni. After her visit to France. in October 2009, as honorary guest of the French mayor of Chateau Landon, Kasda proposed the cultural liaison of the two sites and her proposal was accepted, by both the Greek and the French mayors.
These two last sub-projects can be considered as applications of her Maps of the Hidden Treasure 1994-96, in which, participants, mainly from the European Network of Poetry, following her instructions, were sensitized to their psychic connection to mythical landscapes. In this process of mapping a new/ old world, mythical sites lying outside mainstream tourism, were consecrated by her act, cleaned and restored by the local municipalities, e.g. the temple of Artemis Tavropolos, in the municipality of Artemis in Attica, was unearthed from under the trash and the village Kamilari in Crete entered a European conservation program in 94. Her itineraries have inspired many artists and poets to write articles about the ontological value of our European cultural/ landscape heritage. Artooth- team telecommunications project 2007, Miorita, Melusina and the Sphinx for the twin European capitals of Europe, was a hi-tech application of these principles; a project questioning the hybrid interchange of cultural landscapes/ local legends in modern globalization procedures, while in search for our European identity. 
Code Lexomorphes 1991-2009, her research into the aesthetic forms generated by the Pythagorean numerical modelling of Greek language, was applied to her Cup-shaped Word monument 'Chrysalis' which hosted the Olympic Flame, in P. Faleron, Athens in 2004, linking, with a word, the Olympic event with its seed principle of regeneration. A twin Word -monument 'Chrysalis' was installed in 2005, in occupied North Leucosia, in the center of a green Palamanova-like model of the ring-city where it became known as the Flame of Peace.
All her sub-projects can be considered as extensions of her initial Chrysalis installation in 1990, initiated, in the bottom of the Lake of Mornos in Greece, that had surfaced, for a while, with the drought, uncovering, for a short while, cultural treasures, dressed in oysters. Her archetypal sculptures, made out of mud, were disseminated to hundreds of international artists, who installed them in selected sites of the world in 27 countries; the visitors of her first earth installation, had to travel all over the world, in order to discover the Chrysalii, which, in the meantime, had melted in the rain; they were left with the feeling of belongingness to our geocultural natural and mythical heritage and with the knowledge of the secret treasure still lying in the depths of the Lake of Mornos. They were also left with the experience of this technology-free geocaching game and global interactive network activity, as early as 1990 .
Her 20 years old, innovative, project is outstanding because of its internal consistency, its duration in continuous change, the poetic beauty and the depth of her generic research that triggers the enthusiastic involvement of audiences from all backgrounds and inspires the interest and involvement of local authorities, producing, thus, concrete changes in real life, but, also lasting changes in their state of mind. Polyxene proposes, through her projects, an outlook of abundance and hope in an age of national debt, moral collapse and socioeconomic crisis, by shedding light on our cultural roots which are directly linked to our psychical makeup and human destiny.Through her dedicated and continuous work, she provides a solid platform for the forging of our european identity. 
Detailed description 

Project Myth/Network 1990-2011
An enduring work of integration of our European cultural heritage in our present perception
Sub-projects (selection):
PAI 2011: Tinkering with Heraclitus fragments in the primordial landscapes of Samothrace
Concept/ Project: Polyxene Kasda
Illustration: A. Papantoniou
Game design and organization: local group IDEA
Auspices of the Municipality of Samothrace
With the help of a deck of cards illustrated with the special sites to be discovered, while having in mind a set of fragments by Heraclitus, building blocks of western philosophy, The revenues from the selling of the deck of cards by IDEA will be donated for the building of a new theater on the island.

PAI 2010/ 'The eon is a child playing' Heraclitus
Alexandropolis/Samothrace-Patmos-Thebes-Athens-
Concept/ project : Polyxene Kasda (inspired from her french poetic essay PAI, translated in 5 languages (Sept Dormants co-ed University Lucian Blaga, Ro. 1997, Frankfurt Inter/al Bookfair)  
General Organization : EPOFE/ Union of the cultural associations of Evros/ gen. secretary K. Kaltsou
Under the auspices of the Museum of Natural History and of the Ethnological Museum of Alexandropolis, the Prefecture of Evros, the Municipalities of Alexandroupolis and Samothrace .
International collaborators: D. Sacquegna Primopiano LivinGallery Lecce, Italy- P. Chirouze, Paris-
C. Angelou, Thebes, M. Pesmazoglou, Patmos, Greece.
Sponsors of communication: Wooloo Coppenhagen, Culture News, Artooth.
The PAI collection was also hosted in Technopolis AthensArt exhibition 2010, under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture and of the Municipality of Athens.
The PAI collection was complemented by the children installation 'Cicognia, cicognia come back', dedicated to the return of the storks, which in European legends carry PAI/ the child.
 PAI (Child) is based on an inscription on the sacred utensils in the museum of Palaiopolis Samothrace and links the present state of crisis with its primordial principle of Dionysian regeneration.
The main tangible result of this project was the creation of an international collection of works of art, donated by 62 selected artists, as a tribute to the cultural impact of the archetype of the Child (PAI) on our European soul. The abandoned school in the Chora was donated to EPOFE, by the local municipality, to be restored and converted, in into a municipal pinacotheque hosting the PAI 2010 collection, creating a new international spot of reference in the island. (its realization must be under follow up survey)
The Cabeirion of Thebes, which is completely forsaken and neglected, was highlighted in the context of the PAI local events.The artists in the island of Patmos, interacted with parallel cultural events.

2009: Gargling Sky in Gergeri Crete for the Year of Astronomy
Concept/ Project, international collaborations and org.: Polyxene Kasda
Local organization contacts: Ch. Vathianaki 
Creation of an arch of cultural diversity inside an arch of biodiversity.
Co-Curators: Pierre Chirouze, K-Droz Paris-Donatella Bisutti, Poesia e Spiritualita review, Milan- with the cooperation of the University of Crete and of the Local Board of Youth presided by Efi Koutentaki and the supervision of M. Prinianaki
Auspices of the Municipality of Rouvas, Gergeri, Crete
The project was presented in the Municipality of Athens 31/10/09 in Urania's Gardens conference organized by P. Kasda
Sponsors: Municipality of Rouvas, the Rouvas water association, Minoan ferries
Gergeri is a remote village on the flanks of legendary Mt Ida, at the proximity of the ecological Forest of Rouvas, a wild life sanctuary. Through this project, a connection of this closed society with international artists was established. 
The aim was to create in Gergeri a permanent spot of international reference by giving international prominence to its special cultural/ ecological heritage. 62 selected international artists donated their works for the creation of the Gargling Sky international pinacotheque. To this end, a polycentric cultural arch, in the form of a constellation, extending throughout the village was created. In this process, the Foyer, a traditional stone building, used as a storehouse, two 16thc and 17th c. watermills and an old school, at the end of the village, where the small museum of natural history is situated, were cleaned and restored in order to host the paintings. The youth of the village was inspired to pave the way connecting the different spots of the exhibition, with star constellations, drawn on the streets and installed with ribbons and threads on the walls of the houses, reminding Ariadne’s thread in the labyrinth.The local artists carved roots and trunks of ancestral hollies and stones.The inauguration was accompanied by the traditional music of shepherds with their ‘askomandoures’, self made musical organs. The inauguration happenings in the Forest of Rouvas and in the Diogene’s Tomb,or, Vromolimni; a ground recession caused by the fall of a meteorite, home of aquatic turtles, water snakes and wild birds. The Vromolimni was painted by one of the artists, while local residents improvised ‘mantinades’, the 15 syllable rhyming couplets in Cretan dialect. In October 2009, Polyxene, as guest of honor of the mayor of Chateau Landon in France, proposed its unification with Gergeri, thing which was accepted by the respective mayors. Thus, the small remote village Gergeri turned out to be a cultural site of international reference.
In 2010, the old school was demolished by the local municipality to build a hostel and the paintings were moved to the library of the village, to the elders house and to the cafe that was built on the site of the Vromolimni. Now, the municipality of Rouvas is merged to the wider municipality of Gortyna and special follow up care must be given for the safety of the Gargling Sky international collection.






 Maps of the Hidden Treasure 1994-1996
Concept, research, project realization: Polyxene Kasda
Under the auspices of the Municipalities of Artemis Attica, Ano Karyes Arcadia, the Greek Ministry of Tourism and the Municipal Radio of Athens, the European Centre of ultural Dialogue East-West Constantin Noica in Romania, the European Network for the Promotion of Poetry, the University of Lucian Blaga of Sibiu Romania, the Biennale di Poesia of Alessandria, Italy.
Subprojects and sites:
1994: The Gate of Fire, Crete: itinerary from the museum of Herakleion to Agiopharango. Kamilari village enters the European conservation program. Polyxene's concepts inspire their application in schools, e.g. the  foundation of the group of the Tracers, by prof. P. Chatjimanolaki, auspices of the Schools of Kostea Geitona, Athens.
1995: Arcteia/ Tracing Artemis: itinerary on the isosceles triangle linking Artemis temples in Brauronia Attica-Icaria island- Mount Lykaion, Arcadia. {Tradition et Modernite, les Sept Dormants, Leuven 1995}
1997: Samothrace PAI 1: Conference in Palaiopolis based on the archetype of the Child/ PAI and its significance in the ancient Cabeirian rites, as well as in our changing present; laying the ear;y grounds for PAI 2010 project.

Gargling Sky 2009 and PAI 2010-11 could be considered as applications of her research and experimentation in her Maps of the Hidden Treasure 1994-96, in which, participants, mainly from the European Network of Poetry and the Biennale of Poetry of Alessandria, Italy, following her instructions, on her illustrated maps, were made conscious of their deep structural connection to mythical primordial landscapes, revealing the trans-temporal initiatory importance of mythical sites and symbols, mostly, lying outside mainstream tourism, which were, thus, consecrated by her act. Her maps propose an alternate form of tourism in Greek mythical sites, as a rite of self- regeneration. In this process, neglected ancient sites are cleaned by the local authorities to host her events, like the temple of Artemis Tavropolos, lying on the seashore of Loutsa, which was unearthed, in 1996, by the local municipality, from under the trash.

Our Artooth Team telecommunications project Miorita, Melusina and the Sphinx, selected by French Arscenic for the twin capitals of Europe 2007, was a modern application of these principles; a hi-tech project questioning the interchange of cultural landscapes/ local legends in modern hybrid globalization procedures, while in search of our European identity.

CODE Lexomorphes 1991-2010-
The Numerical modelling of Greek words: modern application of the Pythagorean structure of Greek language
First research publication: Poesia e Spiritualita review of Milan
First official presentation: trans-Hellenic conference on Greek language, org. by the Greek Chamber of Visual Arts EETE/ Ministry of Greek Culture, in the Ancient Parliament of Athens 2009
First applications as Word public monuments: Municipality of Athens 1991- Municipality of Palaion Faleron Athens Olympics 2004, Municipality of N. Leucosia, Cyprus 2005, Municipality of Rouvas, Crete 2009..
In her innovative research on the visual dimension of Greek language, she devised a way to generate aesthetic forms from the numerical modelling of Greek names, based on their ancient Pythagorean structure. Her system was applied in the construction of her Word- generated public monument Chrysalis in Palaion Faleron, which hosted the Olympic Flame in Athens 2004.
A twin Word monument ‘Chrysalis’ was installed in 2005, in occupied North Leucosia, It was installed in Leman Square, in the centre of a green replica of the Palmanova model after which Leucosia was built, a city which was called Heavenly Jerusalem, now torn by irresolvable conflict.

Chrysalis world installation 1990-94-
Under the auspices of the Municipality of Athens, the TV studio ICON, the editing house Govostis, PAND USA, the Meeting of the Worlds Joensu Finland, the State University of Cleveland USA..

In 1990, the bottom of the lake of Mornos, in Greece, surfaced because of the drought, uncovering an old village with a stone basilic of rare beauty and an ancient city with Hellenistic mosaics, all dressed in oysters. There, she performed creating, with the mud, the Chrysalii sculptures. These earth primitive sculptures were distributed to hundreds of artists who interacted with them and installed them in selected sites of the world, thus, spreading the information about the cultural treasure sunk in the bottom of the lake of Greece; image of our European cultural treasure sunk in the depths of our unconscious. The visitors had to travel all over the country, in order to discover the Chrysalii, which, in the meantime had melted in the rain and he was left with the experience of the discovery of these fabulous, unknown, landscapes.
Myth/ Network project is outstanding because of the originality of its poetic approach; its verticality and associative power that integrates current events to their primordial principles, providing a stable axon, for a dynamic global change. It is outstanding because of its flexibility coupled with the inner consistency of her thought pattern.The generic concepts slide from one project to the other,getting deeper and deeper in research and more and more applied to tangible real life situations; Myth/Network is a process of mythological Begrundung [grounding] and Grundung [founding].
Her multi-level projects attract the creative interaction of large numbers of audiences from all disciplines and cultures. They raise our awareness for neglected sites and forgotten symbols, high lightening their trans-temporal ontological importance and, thus, producing new spots of world interest; they propose and sustain an alternate form of tourism based on ecology and culture. Her projects transmit the enthusiasm of the spirit of our age and inspire the synergy of the local residents, forcing, thus, national authorities to work for the preservation and enhancement of our cultural heritage as a prerequisite for the foundation of our future. 
Text by Constantine Angelou, president of Artooth.org   



 “We can describe her work as an authentic outpouring of mythical knowledge…. Myth thus becomes a ritual of initiation adapted to contemporary sensitivity” Eugene Van Itterbeek, Cahiers Europeens de Poesie n.159, Belgium’97
“She starts from the depths of the earth to lead us to the next level of our consciousness” J. J Caldwell, Ohio press release, state university of Cleveland, 3/3/91
“Her work is an open system that evolves on many ontological levels” Elzbietta Koscielac, ICA, the web, Govostis ed. 3/2/91, Athens
“Her bold initiative to restore the primary sense of existence, to bind immanence to transcendence, to rehabilitate, not only on the cultural level but also on the ontological, the great myth through which all the elements of the world up surged”. Vasile Avram, Transilvania’96, Cultura Nationala, Rumania.
"Polyxene  Kasda belongs to this transtemporal and biomatic pionnering, in the sense that, by analogy speaking, the Pythagorean and Orphic mysteries would seem pioneering in our days." Victor Ivanovitch, writer, critic.
“Her work is, simultaneously, an artistic proposition and a philosophical system”. Georges Marcou, ICA, Art and philosophy, Greece s weekly 3/2/91



Polyxene Kasda, Samothrace, 22/8/10. ph. Hakan Akcura

Letters of reference for Polyxene Kasda’s Maps of the Secret Treasure
Milan, 29 June 2010
Polyxene Kasda by Donatella Bisutti
"I met Poly Kasda in Crete, where I participated in her itinerary Myth/Network 5. I was in no way prepared to live this experience from which I don’t believe to have much recovered.
I also had the opportunity to participate, with a group of international artists and writers, in her Myth/ Network 6 dedicated to Artemis and this was another extraordinary experience in Attica, Peloponnesus and Icaria Island.
In due time, I entered more directly in the essence of her work and I was convinced that it treats of something extraordinary and unique in its genre.
Poly Kasda was born in Alexandria, Egypt, she is Greek and she actually lives and works in Athens.
She is an artist with experience in the field of informatics, a poetess that has studied chemistry, physics and at the same time, has a spiritual vision that holds on the psychology of the unconscious. Her extraordinary point of departure is that mythology must come out of the pages to become action of the soul in the very sites where the myth was born; to extract it and reconstitute it as a present through a series of intuitions and  metaphors, symbolic interactions that rediscover language as active and creative. The world and nature become again, in this way, living books of cosmic knowledge, in which mythology is still operating. The mythical collective unconscious is objectified, confirming the poets intuitions, through a web of precise and organized references linked to the most advanced scientific knowledge, projecting themselves in a cosmos beyond the dimension of time. We can define her work as ‘landscape semiotics’; a mode of reading a landscape through all the possible correlations, in order to decipher its message;  point of intersection of lost and occult energies. Her aim is not to revive a pre-historical knowledge, but to serve as a trajectory of the soul. Mythology is for Poly Kasda and this is her major originality, a process of initiation, which is possible even today with  modern sensitivity like old times. As she says: “the earth reveals its spiritual reality; our consciousness is laid out on the living fabric of the soil’.
An example of an itinerary addressing contemporary man, is the Tracing of Artemis, the Goddess of the rejuvenation of nature and archetype of mental/ psychical integration in man; ‘Artemin’ means to reveal and to actualize one's self.. This state can only be experienced and mythology for P. Kasda is always a living experience.
The maps of her itineraries, that are transmitted from hand to hand, are based on a series of subliminal, symbolic coordinates and synchronistic events that elevate in front of our eyes the matrix of meaning that sustains the world.
Through collective synergy which is sustained by pure subjectivity, her itinerary maps are transformed into concrete experience for the participants; an experience tending to be reduced into abstraction, through rational elaboration and writing.
To seek to enter in this dimension seems at first sight difficult, but, once you accept to make the effort, doors will open to unsuspected dimensions.
I sustain that Polyxene Kasda can be included as one of the most notorious representatives today, on an international level, of a culture capable to realize the conjunction of antique traditions with the discoveries of contemporary sciences and can furnish an original and fascinating key to explore the interaction of the universe with the human psyche in the research of a new spirituality. At the same time, her research re-actualizes the immense mythical patrimony that the Greek civilization has left to us, which she proposes as a trans-temporal, operating living reality, which we can continue to attain.
For these reasons Poly Kasda is in the stuff of my review that proposes to explore the territory of a new spirituality and  which she has significantly contributed to initiate".
Donatella Bisutti
Chief editor of Poesia e Spiritualita review, Milan
Rivistapoesiaespiritualita.blogspot.com

The Maps of the Hidden Treasure by Dores Sacquegna
"Myth and history are the fundamental terminals of the grand theoretical debate of Romanticism. The romantics recur to myth in order to interpret the tumultuous and chaotic present. W. Blake writes a propos of nature and its mythical dimension: ”see the world in a grain of sand”,  restituting, for the isolated from history and fragmented individual, a sense of belongingness and communion.
And with this historical promise, I would like to introduce the project “Maps of the hidden treasure” conceived and coordinated by Polyxene Kasda, artist, curator, myth researcher, with the involvement of international personalities and artists. Human adventure is suspended on natural teleology and Polyxene Kasda restores the sacredness of creation in order to understand the ambivalent relation between myth and history.
It is in his subjective space that the artist reconstructs the world. By revisiting myth, Polyxene revisits and, in fact, reconstructs history itself: Myth becomes an auto-representation of a subject that is in search of an appropriate form. Starting with the presupposition that creation is not something perfectly concluded and inaccessible, but, is open to a continuous dialogue with the world, Poly Kasda, with her projects, invites us to observe, listen, perceive its evolution; the vital and expansive force, the rhythm, as Novalis wrote “ he who possesses the rhythm, possesses the universe” .
In this sense, we can approach her “Maps of the hidden treasure” which are based on the mythical/ linguistic/etymological triad. They activate in the participants, a new personal consciousness, by inviting them to connect the antique symbols with the geometrical designs on the map. In some cases, precise instructions are given for the search of symbols of archaeological and ontological importance, in the landscape. This project represents a moment of encounter, of communion, of dialogue; of knowledge
To understand our individuality is the capacity to generate a collective experience of observation of the world, to supersede the dualism in the perception of the nature of this world; to perceive the apparent and the hidden to the senses. Nothing is what it seems to be. This is the prehistoric origin of the feeling that nothing is what it appears to be. This is the revelation of a profound meaning, of a hidden reality more real than the apparent.
In this sense of the existence of a world that exceeds our immediate experience accompanied by the driving force of  curiosity which is the engine of knowledge in this project. From this study of the landscape, amplified by observation, scientific research, linguistic analogies and involvement with the local residents, a precious project was born; a “doc” important for the future generations and for all people that would like a form of tourism based on ecology and culture.
The Maps of the hidden treasure realized by Polyxene Kasda, concern local sites, lying outside common touristic circuity and represent the history and the mythography of the place. Myth and history result, here, in the perception of existential places, possibly, natural vessels of  past/ present connection.
History always exhaled the figure of the artist with the creative genius; crucial time artist, her word is mythic; a sacred language and original thought and this work is inscribed in the universal history of humanity. Her project represents a precious cultural testimony on Greece, an extraordinary objective and intellectual contribution; a vehicule of information on the ancient history and on the contemporary situation, but, also and primarily a window of intercultural, participative and educative dialogue".
Dores Sacquegna
Director of PrimoPiano LivinGallery, Lecce, Italy.

On Polyxene Kasda's work by Yael Navaro-Yashin
"Polyxene Kasda's work merges the mythological and philosophical with the artistic at each and every point. Her artistic work is not only aesthetically of the highest quality, it also exhibits a profundity and depth of conceptual engagement with ancient Greek philosophy. In this light, her artistic work generates immense impact in public awareness about the philosophical scope of ancient Greek heritage. At each and every point of her art, Kasda re-casts and re-interprets mythological and philosophical concepts, bringing them back to life in aesthetic form.“
Dr. Yael Navaro-Yashin
Senior Lecturer
Department of Social Anthropology
University of Cambridge
http://www.socanth.cam.ac.uk/staff

΅Il percorso organizzato nell'agosto del 1995 da Polyxene Kasda ha portato un gruppo di operatori culturali di varia nazionalità a scoprire luoghi dell'antichità dedicati alla dea Artemide.
Seguendo itinerari - non turisticamente convenzionali - ci si è spinti all'isola di Ikaria, per ritornare poi al Peloponneso, in Arcadia, e a Brauronia: in ogni luogo si sono visitati i resti archeologici e si sono riscoperti miti e leggende.
I partecipanti al tour hanno anche potuto esibirsi in momenti spettacolari e scrivere testi poetici e prosastici che, successivamente, sono stati pubblicati nei loro luoghi di provenienza.
L'esperienza è stata decisamente indimenticabile e il merito va tutto all'ottima capacità organizzativa dell'artista Polyxene Kasda.΅
Aldino Leoni 
Fondatore e presidente della Biennale di Poesia di Alessandria

I participated in three of Polyxene’s Maps of the Hidden Treasure, meant for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Greece and for intercultural dialogue on an ontological basis. Specifically:
1. The Gate of Fire in Crete 1994 was an itinerary from Herakleion to Agiofaraggo, linking, with mythological information and intuition, ancient symbols to natural sites, inspiring poets and writers from all over Europe to feel with their body and mind and soul, the Greek mythology in the land where it was born
In this process, the small village Kamilari was declared as a site for cultural preservation and the audience of our poetry symposium in an old school consisted of its residents, who for the first time had such an intercultural dialogue.
2. Arkteia 1995, was a huge itinerary linking with mythological correlations the temples of Artemis in Icaria, Brauronia and Arcadia
In this process, the local authorities of these places were inspired to do things for the preservation of their precious cultural heritage, for example, the wife of the mayor of Loutsa with the help of the local municipality, cleaned the temple of Artemis Tauropolos from the sand and the trash and we had a poetry symposium there, while, simultaneously, in Icaria, another group of our colleagues had an event in the temple of Artemis Tauropolos. The detailed maps of the banks of the river Chalari, illustrated by Antonis Papantoniou, helped us raise our awareness of the natural elements and to feel why Artemis was worshipped as Goddess of wild nature
3. In Axieros, Samothrace 1998, her maps made us feel connected under the common denominator of PAI, the Child , the mysterious birth that took place in the Cabeirian mysteries .
It was an experience that changed us for ever and there I understood that Polyxene’s Maps of the Hidden Treasure were leading us to find our deeper self; the treasure was our we-ness behind all cultural diversities
And this is why, I believe that it was something outstanding, adding in the European value system.
Angela Spoerl