Sitting, as it does, on the edge of Santorini’s much-coveted caldera, Mystique is a hotel usually quite content – nay, designed – to showcase the natural spectacle it surveys: rugged peaks, stirring sunsets and the inky expanse of the Aegean sea. But this month its already gallery-white walls play host to an exhibition of the more traditional kind.
Firstly, though, it played the role of muse – to the in-demand Barcelona-born photographer, Pia Riverola. Her pictures, often in soft pastel palettes, tend to transmit a quiet intimacy, be they South American street scenes or campaigns for the likes of Flamingo Estate and Rowse beauty. Here though, over a two-week period at Mystique and fellow Kanava hotels in Paros, her assignment was to capture, in her words, ‘the location, focusing on the environment – sustainability, preservation and tradition – whilst showcasing how the hotels can coexist within the landscape’.
The resulting pictures alight on those moments of calm and contemplation that such hotels in such landscapes inspire – quite the tonic for our travel-starved eyes. Make the trip to Oia, though, and not only can you browse’s Pia’s pictures up close, but you can soak up those art-inspiring views IRL, too. And, if you’re particularly taken, two of the works will be on sale, with Riverola and the Kanava group deciding to donate all profits to the Cyclades Preservation Fund which works to promote the environmental preservation of the islands. It sure beats a postcard…
The Greek Islands Seen Through Pia Riverola’s Lens runs until 15 October at Mystique, Santorini.