Modern sculpture meets ancient Greece

Antony Gormley's steel sculpture 'Shift II' lies among sculptures from ancient Greece dating back more than 2,000 years. -AFP

A stone's throw from the Greek island of Mykonos lies Delos, an uninhabited islet a world away from its neighbor's glamorous nightlife. It is there, on an island best known for its archaeological treasures, that British contemporary artist Antony Gormley is showing 29 of his sculptures. 

Gormley is perhaps best known for his gigantic Angel of the North, a 20-metre high steel work that since 1998 has been an unmissable landmark in its home at Gateshead, northern England. But this new exhibition -- including five works specially created for the event -- sets his contemporary work among the remains of ancient Greece.

'It's an extraordinary responsibility,' Gormley told AFP at the opening. 'It's an amazing privilege to occupy a site that hasn't been occupied by a living artist (for) over two thousand years -- that's a bit of a challenge isn't it?'

The archaeological finds on Delos date back as far as the 3rd millennium BC up to the Hellenic era of classical Greece. Its UNESCO World Heritage listing describes it as an 'exceptionally extensive and rich' site, reflecting its past as a cosmopolitan port. 

The exhibition is intended as a dialogue between contemporary civilization and the past, says Elina Kountouri, who heads up NEON, the non-profit that organized the show along with London's Whitechapel Gallery. A mark of the respect accorded to the site is that none of Gormley's sculptures have been placed inside the ruins of the ancient sanctuaries of the Greek gods Apollo and Artemis.