Art is always the answer when external factors, like a pandemic, “attack” life. The municipality of Athens brings a part of history, as well as the vision of contemporary artists to its citizens. Two great exhibitions aim to cause a stir in the city’s cultural scene.
An original exhibition for the 100th anniversary since the birth of Melina Mercouri
The first exhibition approaches the life of the unrivalled Melina Mercouri, 100 years from her birth, at a time when her vision for the return of the Parthenon sculptures is revived and finds support both within and outside Greece.
The exhibition about Melina Mercouri, organised by Technopolis, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and the Melina Mercouri Foundation, for the 100th anniversary since her birth, will take place from January 18 until March 11, and will visit some of the greatest moments of the Greek star’s life.
The exhibition titled “Remember me and love me” is divided in three sections: one about her film career, one about her theatre roles, and one focused on her activist and political action. The audience will see some unknown aspects of Melina Mercouri and be reminded of instances of her life and career.
Rich photographic and audio-visual material will be on display, as well as various memorabilia, some on display for the first time: thirteen theatrical and film costumes, 25 posters from her films, 37 photographs of her together with great international personalities – with Salvador Dali, with Pope John Paul II, with Queen Elisabeth, with Indira Gandhi, Catherine Deneuve, Felipe González
– scripts with her handwritten notes, 6 unpublished letters, personal items, her dressing room, as well as items she had with her during her last trip to New York.
One hundred years since her birth, we remember and love Stella, Illya, from “Never on Sundays”, Phaedra, Blanche Dubois from “A Streetcar named desire”; Melina as Clytemnestra in Epidaurus, directed by Karolos Koun; Melina who charmed Cannes and New York and who took the world by storm with “Ta pedia tou Pirea” (The Children of Piraeus, a song she sung in Never on Sunday – which was also known by its original Greek title – Ta pedia tou Pirea); as well as Melina with the loud voice and the anti-junta action, the woman who came up with and established the institution of the European Capital of Culture, the longest serving Greek Minister of Culture to this day, the person worked more than anyone else for the return of the Parthenon marbles to Greece.
The Melina Mercouri Foundation describes her with these words: “She has been described as the ‘last Greek goddess’ and a ‘flame-woman’. Her whole life was full of dreams, hopes, worries and struggles. Melina Mercouri is one of the great women figures of Greece in the 20th century. A many-sided and vibrant personality, she played a leading role in the struggle against the Colonel’s Junta in 1967 – 1974 and was a great theatre and film actress of international fame. The parts she has portrayed have made cinema history. She was also a politician who left her mark on Greek culture. She believed that culture was our main “industry”, that it was an invaluable product, and that showcasing it was of outmost importance.”
The exhibition opens at Technopolis on January 18, a date that has its importance, as 18 was Melina and Jules Dassin’s number: they first met on the 18th, the got married on the 18th, and they had their premieres on the 18th.
Under the supervision of Manouella Pavlidou, Secretary General of the Melina Mercouri Foundation
Curated by archaeologist and Museum of Cycladic Art director, Nikolaos Kaltsas,
Information:
Date: 18 January – 11 March 2022
Time: Tuesday – Sunday | 11.00 – 20.00
Technopolis | New Retorts
Free admission
The second exhibition, entitled Eidyllia Odos / Romance Street, through the contemporary works of 33 Greek and foreign artists, wandering the streets of past centuries, restructures the timeless Athens of the pandemic.
Eidyllia Odos / Romance Street: 33 works of contemporary artists
33 artists in total, both Greek and foreign, participate in the modern art exhibition entitled “Eidyllia Odos” that is organised by Technopolis from 18 January till 6 March.
The participants manipulate many different materials in support of the idea that the artist reflects their own personal view of the world they live in. The city of Athens as a landmark together with its centuries-long history are linked to a variety of materials: the earth that turns into clay, the hardness of the marble, the threads and textiles, the materials of the earth and nature, the embroideries, the paper, the work of art.
The works, influenced by the pandemic and the global confinement, reveal an effort to escape in thoughts and dreams. Strolling around an empty Athens, on the paths of Lycabettus, the Roman Agora, the Anafiotika. Streets of today, streets that have been around 25 centuries: Panathineon street, Tripodon, Leokori, Dipylou. Roads to Piraeus, to Elefsina, to the suburbs, to Iries Piles or Iera Odos.
Through the works of contemporary artists, “yesterday” meets “today”. In the first decades of the 21st century, the artists listen to the ancient streets. Citizens walk and converse here, but also slaves carrying heavy loads, animals and carriages transporting daily goods, products that will be stored at the ports before being shipped.
Participating artists:
Nikos Alexiou / Dimitrios Antonitsis / Evgenia Apostolou / Antonis Volanakis / Lynda Benglis / Zoi Gaitanidou / Voula Gounela / Marianna Ignataki / Anestis Ioannou / Ilias Koen / Thanos Kiriakidis / [Blind Adam] / Kalliopi Lemou / Vasiliki Lefkaditi / Elena Lyra / Despina Meimaroglou / Mihalis Mihailidis / Efsevia Mihailidou / Konstantions Paleologos / Malvina Panagiotidi / Angelos Papadimitriou / Raymondos / Dimitris Rentoumis / Adrián Villar Rojas/ Efi Spirou / Danai Stratou / Magda Tammam /Nakis Tastsioglou / Nobuko Tsuchiya / Panos Famelis / Maro Fasouli / Sokratis Fatouros / Despina Flessa / Pantelis Handris
Curated by Maria Maragkou, art critic / director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Crete
Information:
Date: 18 January – 6 March 2022
Time: Tuesday – Sunday | 11.00 – 20.00
Technopolis | Machine Works – Courtyard
Tickets: € 5 | Concessions €3
Get your tickets at: viva.gr
Read also:
Inside the National Gallery in the centre of Athens
Cultural outing to Piraeus, ranging from the Municipal Theatre to the ancient walls
