During DESTE Art Week, we celebrated the launch of the Bellevalia Olive Grove art residency and its first artist, photographer Stefan Dotter. Together with Rampias family, Mnemosyne Projects gathered Hydra friends for an evening of art, music and food in traditional Hydriot way.
The Bellevalia Olive Grove Art Residency started with a decision to preserve rather than build. On Hydra, a small island in the Saronic Gulf struggling to keep up with the rapid changes, the Rampias family chose to protect their olive grove near Plakes Beach instead of developing it for more commercial purposes. The residency takes both its name and guiding principles from that decision.
Based in a historic Hydriot family home that operates as a boutique hotel, the Bellevalia program invite artists to stay on the property off-season to experience the local life and create work in response to the surrounding nature.
Architect Marilia Lezou and curator Ekaterina Juskowski
For the inaugural Spring 2026 residency, curator Ekaterina Juskowski and architect Marilia Lezou invited photographer Stefan Dotter, a Tokyo-based photographer, whose documentary practice takes him around the world. Inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation, Dotter explores connections between people. Hydra was his first stop in a larger project about belonging, community, and the ties that connect people to places. During the Bellevalia dinner, he shared a first look at the photographic series he developed during his residency.
Hélène de Cartier de Marchienne, Stefan Dotter, Ekaterina Juskowski & Tristan Tancredi De Paoli
Joanna Halpin and Daniel Askill
Dotter’s experience of the island life, his insightful observations about the social dynamics of the local community and the visual essay he created during the residency became the starting point for this year’s theme, Belonging(s).
"No man is an island," John Donne claimed in 1624, and on Hydra, of all places, the words ring truest. Still evolving, Belonging(s) reveals how our relationships, possessions, and memories bind us to one another and to the places we belong to.
Photographer Stefan Dotter, inaugural artist in residence at Bellevalia Olive Grove Art Residency on Hydra Island.
Photographer Stefan Dotter, inaugural artist in residence at Bellevalia Olive Grove Art Residency on Hydra Island.
Dotter's photographs of borrowed possessions feature objects displaced from their owners and scattered across Hydra's landscape. Set down among rocks and shrubs, they form an ecosystem of where the traces of human presence merge with nature, imported objects sit alongside those created on the island, each transformed through use and care over time. The images turn the biological concept of "niche construction" into a poetic demonstration of how we create the very ecosystem that claims us.
Bellevalia's Olive Grove
Diane Alexandre presenting White Goddess (2023) and Birds #2 (2023) as part of the exhibition Vessels.
Alongside Dotter's work, the site-specific exhibition Vessels brought together pieces by four ceramicists across the setting of the grove. Curated by Ekaterina Juskowski, with spatial design by architect Marilia Lezou, the exhibition looked past ceramics as mere function and returned the medium to its older vocations of symbol, ritual, and art. Works of artists Diane Alexandre, Dana Aviv, Zen Du, and Nadiia Shapoval appeared among the trees in a shared material way with the surrounding soil and vegetation.
Architect Marilia Lezou
Stefan Dotter
The evening was organized and designed by Ventus Events, who place tradition and continuity in the center of the experiences, with Katarina Trikon shaping the atmosphere as curator of the night.
Art critic Timothee Chaillou with artists Dana Aviv and Dianne Alexandre
Grigoris Rampias welcomed the guests on behalf of the family
Hosted by the Rampias family, the dinner centered around food from Tassia’s Tavern, Bellevalia’s seafront restaurant at Plakes. It began as a family kitchen and has grown into one of Hydra’s most beloved gathering places, shaped by the warmth of Tassia Rampia, whose legacy continues through home-style dishes and traditional recipes passed down through generations. Today, the family carries Tassia's spirit under the Bellevalia name, preserving the warmth of her cooking.
From the food to the wine by Vassaltis Vineyards, the connection to the past, family, traditions was in everything. Founded by Yannis Valambous after he returned from London to revive the Santorini vineyards inherited from his father, Vassaltis brings a similar sense of family history and renewal to winemaking, combining respect for local tradition with a contemporary vision for Greek wine.
Friends enjoying wine from Vassaltis family vineyards.
Aggelos Aggelou performed rebetika, music shaped by displacement and carried across generations by those who had lost one home and were learning to belong to another. The previous evening, Aggelou had been invited by Nari Ward to perform as part of Until That Day at the DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse. For the occasion, he brought together an ensemble of avant-garde musicians from Athens. New York-based Andrew Kamel followed with songs from his forthcoming album, offering the gathering an intimate first encounter.
Dianne Alexandre and Andrew Kamel
Film director Pawel Pawlikowski and photographer Stefan Dotter
Friends at the Bellevalia's Olive Grove dinner.
Everyone told their own story of belonging. Being on Hydra among friends reminded us that belonging is something we share.
Photo Credits: Douglas Martin Eveleigh
Location: Bellevalia Olive Grove, Hydra, Greece
Hosted by: Mnemosyne Projects & Bellevalia Hydra with support from the Old Carpet Factory
Event Planning: Ventus Events
Wine by: Vassaltis Vinyards
Special Thanks to: Grigoris Rampias and Rampias family, Katerina Trikon & Dimitris Markantonis, Stephan Colloredo Mansfeld.
Lydia
Biliaeva
Lydia Biliaeva is a writer, researcher, and photographer based between Rome and Athens. She is pursuing a degree in political philosophy, with a focus on the ethics of AI, alongside research into behavioural economics and decision-making. Her interests center on rational systems, intuition, and the processes through which ideas become actions.
Douglas
Eveleigh
Douglas Eveleigh is a photographer from Massachusetts, based in Athens, Greece. Working across lifestyle, editorial, events, football, fashion, and documentary photography, he creates images that balance authenticity, energy, and visual storytelling, capturing people and places with a keen eye for atmosphere, culture, and human connection.
Lydia Biliaeva
Lydia Biliaeva is a writer, researcher, and photographer based between Rome and Athens. She is pursuing a degree in political philosophy, with a focus on the ethics of AI, alongside research into behavioural economics and decision-making. Her interests center on rational systems, intuition, and the processes through which ideas become actions.
Douglas Eveleigh
Douglas Eveleigh is a photographer from Massachusetts, based in Athens, Greece. Working across lifestyle, editorial, events, football, fashion, and documentary photography, he creates images that balance authenticity, energy, and visual storytelling, capturing people and places with a keen eye for atmosphere, culture, and human connection.