Perasma’s exhibition series in Leros returns this summer, once again inviting art lovers into dialogue with the island’s layered history and natural landscape. Now in its third year, the Leros Project listens closely to the island’s rhythms, transitions, and shared moments under the evocative title Folding The Sea Into Dresses That Dissolve Like Salt. Taking place between June 29 and August 24, 2025, artworks of 28 participants from America, Africa, Asia and Europe will be presented at the Kandioglou Mansion, and The Primary School of Lakki.
Folding The Sea Into Dresses That Dissolve Like Salt
The exhibition explores the rhythm of coexistence—of finding freedom while staying connected, of touch that transcends boundaries. Meaning is not anchored in fixed destinations but emerges through relationships, movements, and a shared pulse.
Inspired by the compass metaphor in John Donne’s “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” the exhibition describes a movement that expands outward while one foot remains firmly planted. In Donne’s poem, the compass symbolizes two lovers bound together despite physical distance, and here it similarly represents one side rooted while the other explores the world. It speaks of an experience seeking not direction but rhythm; like the invisible yet unbreakable bond between two lovers, the movement in the exhibition stays true to its center even as it stretches outward. This approach mirrors the island itself. Leros is at once solid ground and shifting rhythm. The island’s edges stretch with the sea, the wind, and memory, forming a fragmented yet interconnected narrative.
Rejecting linear storytelling, the exhibition inhabits a space where movement, rupture, and transformation are active forces. Influenced by Alejandro Jodorowsky’s concept of psychomagic, transformation here does not arise solely through thought but through action, symbol, and emotional intuition. The works are not made to explain. They exist to resonate, much like a bird that sings not because it has an answer but because it has a song. The relationship between land and sea embodies this same tension. Island and water cannot be thought of separately. They are complementary yet constantly shifting forces. Sometimes the sea marks a boundary. Sometimes it opens a path. At times the island is protected. At others, it is left exposed.
Exhibition Participants and Venues
Folding The Sea Into Dresses That Dissolve Like Salt,presents artworks, including commissions as well as other materials of artists; Deniz Aktaş Hüseyin Aksoy, Kent Andreasen, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Mirna Bamieh, The Centre for the Less Good Idea, Margherita Chiarva, Giorgio de Chirico, TM Davy, Brian Eno, Laura Footes, Lucio Fontana, Alice Guittard, Ali Kazma, Gülsün Karamustafa, William Kentridge, Joline Kwakkenbos, Dora Maar, Lola Montes Schnabel, Neo Muyanga, Marcus Neustetter, Ömer Pekin, Takis, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Rinus van de Velde, Evgenia Vereli, Kostis Velonis and Chen Wei.
The artworks are exhibited at two main locations on the island: the Kandioglou Mansion and The Primary School of Lakki. Kandioglou Mansion is an exhibition space located in a neoclassical mansion built in 1886 in Agia Marina, dedicated to Perasma. The Primary School of Lakki is an iconic rationalist building completed in the 1930s as part of Portolago’s new town development during the Italian occupation of the island.
The PERASMA Store
Inspired by this year’s framework, the Perasma Store will present a selected collection of contemporary designers and artisans whose work enters into dialogue with the artworks, the island, and the conceptual framework of this year’s edition. The names of designers and artisans will be announced later.
Previous Editions
Each year, the Leros Project invites artists to develop new perspectives around the island’s history, nature, and geographical context. It continues to carve out a distinct place in the international art scene. Past editions have featured artists such as William Kentridge, Goshka Macuga, Cevdet Erek, Martin Creed, Alice Guittard, Maria Joannou, Lindsey Mendick, Pawel Althamer, Necla Rüzgar, and Nermin Er. The dialogue between artists and the island’s varied spaces has offered audiences a layered and dynamic experience.
Press release from Perasma
Image: Gülsün Karamustafa. Berlin Collages 5. 2018. Image courtesy of the artist
