«One evening in Rome, having dinner with Silvia at her place, the decision was made. She invited us to spend one summer month in Kastellorizo to work on our new project.

We arrived in the island on the first week of July. It was already a day since we left the busy port of Piraeus behind us. We took the twenty-three hour boat to arrive to our destination, a journey that is already an experience by itself. Arriving to the port of Kastellorizo by boat is magical. When the boat turns a protected little port full of colourful houses appears. The captain gives to the island a special hello with the horn. We arrived at the eastern borders of Greece, the most east part of Europe itself. It feels like the island is waiting for us and it take us only a few minutes to arrive to “PORTA ROSSA”, our residency for the month ahead. Having both, thanks to Silvia, visited the place before it feels like a reunion. We are here to read, to think, to make music and to draw. Giacomo made a small music studio at the second floor and Sofia decided to move her art supplies to the mysterious “CASA DELL’ULIVO”. The days were spent with swimming in the most transparent sea, reading literature and essays (Ueda Akinari, Mircea Eliade, James Frazer, Carl Gustav Jung, Nikolaos Politis) we had with us and talking about our ideas and solutions, cooking at the Porta Rossa kitchen and exploring the island. Giacomo made some first sounds, with the guitar and the keyboard. We came back with some direction. Also we made a lot of drawings, not all part of our project but it is impossible not to draw when you have such time and space. All these drawings became a small private exhibition in Casa Dell’Ulivo; being inspired by an object found in the Casa, we called it “THE CAULDRON AT THE END OF THE SEA”.
These days of summer are never to forget.»

Sofia Stevi and Giacomo Mercuriali
A few words, July 2023. PORTA ROSSA—Società delle Api residency program