“The Memorial: 16 Artists Propose”
The Jewish Museum of Greece, the Prefecture of Attica, and the Jewish Community of Athens inaugurated on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011, the exhibition, The Memorial: 16 Artists Propose. The exhibition was part of a cycle of events dedicated to the occasion of the January 27th- National Holocaust Memorial Day.
This temporary exhibition held a special place among those presented by the Jewish Museum of Greece within the past 12 years. It was directly connected with a recent and important historical fact: the redemption of a great debt of memory and honour, by the creation of the Holocaust Memorial in Athens, in May 2010. The exhibition presented the proposals of 16 artists and the procedure that led to the establishment of this new memorial place within the urban landscape.
Art historian and curator of the exhibition, Anna Michailidou, mentioned in the catalog of the exhibition:“… this unique for the civilized world locale, charged with symbolisms and memories, where the ancient Greeks created the most important monuments of art, in the brilliant tombstones that adorn the most important cemetery in the city of Athens, becomes the most appropriate place for the Holocaust Memorial. There, in the wider area of Kerameikos, started the Panathenaic procession in order to end up at the sacred rock of the Parthenon and there, the sounds of memory and the doleful echoes coming from Melidoni street will resonate forever, as the primordial breath of the historical drama of the Greek Jews…”.
The Jewish Community of Athens chose the Jewish Museum of Greece, as the place to organize and host the exhibition, as it is the foremost institution that deals with the education, the remembrance and the research of the Holocaust in our country. The exhibition was extended until August 2011.
In the exhibition participated the following artists (in alphabetical order):
Angelidakis Andreas, Baboussis Manolis, Dambassina Lydia, Demassieux François, Georgiadis Giorgos, Ganis Maurice, Grammenos Kornelios, Gyparakis Giorgos, Haralambidis Nikos, Hadjimichalis George, Karachalios Georgios, Katzourakis Michalis, Korovessi Aggelika, Kratidis Anastasios, Liti Afrodite, Maganias Deanna.
