Tales from an Old Fort Town

 TALES FROM AN OLD FORT TOWN 

Exhibition in Chania, Crete, October 2018.

A PERSONAL RESPONSE TO THE JEWISH HISTORY OF CRETE THROUGH ART

(The Old Fort Town referred to is my birthplace of Herakleion, Crete).

As I prepare for the exhibition of prints at Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Chania  I am grateful that the little book has been augmented by input from a sympathetic editor John Chapple of Lycabettus Press and supported by the Synagogue director Anja.  I was fortunate to be introduced to the talented poet Shelley Tracey, whose poems now accompany the illustrations, adding a new powerful aspect to the book. 

The illustrations from the book were used as a backdrop to the Holocaust teacher training event in May in Crete, in memory of  Nikos Stavroulakis, who was the driving force behind the Synagogue's restoration. As an addendum to the exhibition of the nine colour Giclee prints, I produced 5 editions of 10 prints, using five of the original drawings that were used to create the illustrations for the book.  These are printed in archival ink of Heritage paper and have been posted to Crete.  

Below is a glimpse of the book in its transient form as it is currently being typeset; I also include a little about the process of hand printing. 

 All the illustrations were originally completed as monochrome pen and ink designs for screen prints. They are an important part of my on-going work into the many histories of the island of Crete. The images are shown here with the addition of colour to be used as illustrations for the book.  Later on, they are shown being made into monochrome limited edition prints.

The book is my personal response to the history of the Greek Jewish community of Crete; a community which played an important part in the life of the island but which, through ignorance, racism, and greed, has now all-but-disappeared.  

Extract from the 'Tales from the Old Fort Town': 

From 1350 (under Venetian rule) Cretan Jews were forced to reside in a specified quarter (Zudecha), and not only to wear the Jewish badge on their clothing but also to affix it to their houses. The badge consisted of a yellow oval shape. 

On Epiphany, they had to donate a ducat a head to the church for the lighting of candles. There were occasionally protests that the Jews had concentrated the major part of the commerce in their hands. When the Greek population rioted in 1364, the Jews of Castel Nuovo were massacred by the rebels. The area acquired its name from a fort that was constructed in 1206 under the auspices of General Enrico Pescatore. It is believed that this is the site of the ancient city of Aina near modern-day Moires in the South part of the Herakleion Municipality. The illustration above is entitled 'The heart out of..' and attempts to describe visually the loss of the community of Castel Nuovo. 

 Some photographs from the making of the book.

'The People' drawing in progress and finished.

Similarly, Crete’s Arab past has all but been buried.  That past is examined in my illustrated book ‘The Forgotten Conquerors’ which I also hope to see published soon.  

The community had been so thoroughly eliminated that I had to search long and hard to find its few remaining traces.  My motivation for making this book is so that the Cretan Jewish community is remembered and the hate that destroyed it, is recognized and addressed.  I do not purport to have written a detailed or complete history of the community. Far from it, in fact.  This book is not an academic historical work; if I had to define it I would say it is a brief personal tribute, an echo of a Greek community that is no more and a work of love for the island of my birth.

The Jewish Virtual Library (https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/crete); Zvi Ankori, “From Zudecha to Yahudi Mahallesi: The Jewish Quarter of Candia in the Seventeenth Century,” Vol. 1, pp. 63-127, Salo Wittmayer Baron Jubilee Volume, Columbia University Press 1975; and Nikos Stavroulakis writing on the Etz Hayyim website (http://www.etz-hayyim-hania.org/) have been major sources of information for this book and are referenced whenever quoted.

Making the prints

Each screen has to be coated in UV sensitive emulsion. Because I want the lines to be clear and visible, I use a very fine screen mesh between 90 - 120 The higher the mesh count, the finer the threads and holes are in the screen.

Once coated and dried the screen is exposed to a  UV light protected by a transparent copy of the drawing, printed on acetate.

The Transparent copy of the drawing protects the emulsion where the lines are and hardens the exposed areas. This means that when the screens are washed with water the soft unexposed emulsion is washed away, leaving a graphic copy of the original image. This allows me to push ink through those gaps, depositing it on the paper under the screen, and leaving a layer of ink; a copy of my original drawing.

 Prints before signing them.

One of the editions drying on the rack.

One of the finished monochrome screen prints. 

© GEORGE SFOUGARAS 2017

Tales from an Old Fort Town will soon be published by the Jewish Museum in Athens, with the support of Etz Hayyim Synagogue and under the capable editorship of John Chapple.