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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Helena Smith in Hydra

‘There’s a raw energy’: Hydra, artists’ haven, still casts its spell

American artist Jeff Koons’s latest project, a 9.1-metre wind spinner titled Apollo, on the Greek island of Hydra.
American artist Jeff Koons’s latest project, a 9.1-metre wind spinner titled Apollo, on the Greek island of Hydra. Photograph: © Jeff Koons

Perched on a hillock in Hydra, Jeff Koons’s Apollo wind spinner is hard to miss. The gargantuan sun sculpture welcomes visitors at all hours, its golden rays and face a vibrant (if lurid) reminder that art is alive and well on this Argo-Saronic isle. If the 9.1-metre spinner were not enough, Koons has also turned the slaughterhouse on which it stands into a shrine dedicated to the sun god.

A little further away, in the port whose beauty still mesmerises more than 80 years after Henry Miller eulogised its “wild and naked perfection”, tourists jostle to enter other exhibitions. It’s rich pickings for the curious. Along a 50-metre stretch of waterfront there are three shows, all drawing crowds.

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