On the main street of Kardamila, where Patrick and Joan Lee Fermor now live, the cryptically named Equinox space exhibits art, old and rare books, works of art, modern Greek and English literature.

The owner is Michalis Stavrianeas, but the soul of the project is Xenia Russu, whom we met at her headquarters to tell us the story of an art space that is branched with the lives and memories of many people, with a great love for books. and works of art.

What does George Steiner’s historic piano “After Babylon” have to do with the Equinox? What unites people on their parallel paths, if they are not united by a common love and desire to come out of darkness and meet in the light?

Xenia Russu, a notary by profession, is a passionate person. During the day, he works hard studying notarial acts, and at night he dreams of books and great friendship. One of them lived with the writer and translator Alexandros Isaris, a friendship that united them for many years, with a common love of books and Kardamyli.

According to her, “they planned this store together from the very beginning.” Unfortunately, he passed away and didn’t have time to see it completed as the store only opened a few months ago. Izaris, looking for her name, gave her his own copy of George Steiner’s After Babylon. Searching for a name for this frugal storehouse of memory and perspective, the word “Babylon” popped into her head.

“They planned this store together from the very beginning” Xenia Russu, a notary by profession, with the writer and translator Alexandros Isaris.

Her need to build a store like a home stems from an attempt to communicate through art in a world that is more Babylonian today than ever. And Kardamily is a very characteristic miniature of that.

This was the original naming idea that was never implemented, but remains the goal throughout the enterprise. An attempt to bring people together with the language of art. Finally, the owners owe the name of Equinox to the extremely talented and special graphic designer Danny Kargas, a unique creator, as Ms Russo points out, “he is the best graphic designer in Kalamata and beyond.” The name not only marks the change of season that begins on March 21, the day the store opens in Kardamyli, but coincidentally is World Poetry Day, a symbolic day for the entire project.

The space was organized with music in mind, as well as meeting people who love books. In summer, Kardamyli becomes the center of attraction for both musical events such as the independent Jazz Festival and the International English Literature Festival (organized by Englishman James Heneage). Equinox is there because it already holds most of the English Literature books. But he always had a craving for musical evenings. As she confesses to “K”, she owns a historic grand piano.

She recently purchased a signature piano with history. Bought in 1902 by a lord, it passed into the hands of a demonic man, an English actor and professor in the 1980s, who at the time opened one of Mayfair’s famous restaurants. Shortly thereafter, the restaurant closed because the English owner had lost close friends to AIDS and had rheumatoid arthritis himself. Then his old friend, or perhaps on the wave of the wonderful life of the Fermors, persuaded him to come to Kardamyli to come to his senses. 1988 was also the year when Xenia Russu also found herself from Athens and Kalamata to Kardamyli as a notary, along with an English cosmopolitan who arrived at the same place to calm down, along with his piano. They had a long friendship. In 2014, when her boyfriend died, she bought a piano. Thanks to this friendship, the store displays important works by Tsaruhis bought by Xenia Russo.

Relationship store – Equinox. But, as she admits, “the biggest relationships in her life are books. In her younger years, she wanted to become a philologist, but she was to become a journalist, which ultimately did not happen. However, her connection with books and art continues and grows stronger. Like people of art. This space is her desire to contain all these people who have passed through her life and those who will come, to accommodate the beloved creators, their books, to accommodate the beauty in a personal journey of self-discovery and focus on the fundamentals of life. Small Chest of Precious Works.