The director of the Cultural Center of Thessaloniki’s MIET, Giannis Epamineondas, presents in five parts the history of the construction of the Parthenon and an understandable analysis of its engravings and visual refinements, its sculpture and architecture. A flashback to the adventures of the monument during the 25 centuries of its existence, to the transformations, the explosion, the looting, until the last restoration that already completes more than 40 years (1979-2021).

Digital exhibitions, 360° exhibition tours, micro-sites, videos and ebooks have been the National Archaeological Museum’s allies in its efforts to keep in touch with its friends and audience.

Under the Patronage of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou

The technological inventions of the ancient Greeks unfold interactively in front of you!

Heron, Philon, Archimedes, Ktesibios, Pythagoras and Hipparchos invite you to discover the cutting edge technology of antiquity through their inventions.

From the automatic hydraulic clock of Ktesibios to the Antikythera Calculating Mechanism, we observe that the foundations for many conquests of modern civilization, such as steam and gas propulsion, the computer and robotic constructions, had already been laid by the ancient Greek world. Philon’s automatic servant and magic wine jug, Archimedes’ hydraulic screw and so much more, come to illuminate unknown aspects of everyday life in public and private life.

The 1821 Digital Archive is a pioneering research programme dedicated to the Greek Revolution, coordinated by the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH).

On the occasion of the Bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, the National Library of Greece is introducing a new series of educational programs entitled Issue No. 1821. Print media excerpts of that time, rare documents and manuscripts from the special collections of the National Library of Greece will be used creatively in order to highlight and investigate the Greek Revolution of 1821.

The Issue No. 1821 educational programs, developed for the Greek Libraries Network, will take place between March 2021 and December 2021. Children across Greece are invited to participate in their local Library workshops which were inspired by the archival material of the National Library of Greece.

Freedom is a timeless value. Knowledge of history is essential to achieve and maintain freedom. Let this anniversary be the opportunity, for both children and adults, to search for historical sources, study more thoroughly and gain a deeper understanding of our national identity.

The educational programs are coordinated via the official website of the Greek Libraries Network https://network.nlg.gr/

For the 2021 programme of #OccupyAtopos and with reference to the 200 year anniversary of the Greek revolution, ATOPOS cvc invites artist, historian, and researcher Alexis Fidetzis to curate the hybrid, ever-evolving project #Revolting Bodies, where his own personal artistic practice will interact with that of invited contributors and collaborators.
The project #RevoltingBodies aims to integrate the Greek Revolution into a broader dialogue about the revolutionary phenomenon that to an extent defined modernity, avoiding the glorious, grand narratives and immersing into the stories of the bodies upon which both the revolutionary action and the mythologies around it are imposed. Bodies defined by gender or race, factual or mythical, tender and brutal, glorified and beheaded. Through these bodies the project will see the revolution as something more than an archetypical battle between good and evil. It will investigate the means of turning the individual into a hero and also the revolutionary narrative into a structural element of the national imagination.
#RevoltingBodies will take over the entire physical and virtual space of ATOPOS, transforming its neoclassical building in downtown Athens into its ''Revolutionary headquarters''. A series of installations, actions, workshops and publications will be presented through the participation of theorists and visual artists from Greece and abroad. The project will conclude with a group exhibition that will take place from October to December 2021.

* for the duration of this program, the physical space of ATOPOS at Salaminos Street 72, Metaxourgeio, will be operating in accordance with the government’s precautionary measures against COVID-19.

The exhibition includes emblematic achievements of ancient greek technology and technique. From the great and impressive works of the Mycenaeans, to the Byzantine astrolabe, the visitor travels through more than 28 centuries of history, knowledge, culture, human skills, all over the world of the geographical spread of Hellenism.
The thematic sections presented in both buildings of the Herakleidon Museum are as follows:
BUILDING AND GREAT WORKS, ANCIENT GREEK INSCRIPTIONS WITH TECHNOLOGICAL CONTENT, THE ANTIKYTHERA MECHANISM, ASTRONOMY, TIME AND DISTANCE MEASUREMENT, AUTOMAΤΑ, MECHANICS, TECHNOLOGY IN ARTS AND SPORTS, TRIREME, GREAT WEAPONS, WAR MACHINES, TELECOMMUNICATIONS.

On the occasion of the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Museum of Cycladic Art presents the exhibition Antiquarianism and Philhellenism: The Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection in the Stathatos Mansion. Rare and original in its concept, the exhibition includes important nineteenth-century European and Greek Neoclassical works, in dialogue with ancient masterpieces, and is curated by art historian Dr Fani-Maria Tsigakou and Professor Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis. Organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture andSports, co-organised with and sponsored by the AEGEAS Non-Profit Civil Company for Culture and Social Welfare, the exhibition will open to the public as soon as museums open their doors to the public.

In the meantime, visitors from anywhere in the world have the opportunity of enjoying the exhibition digitally with free access to a specially-designed microsite.

The overwhelming majority of pieces displayed are from the Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection, a unique treasure trove of Philhellenic chefs d’oeuvre, which is presented to the public for the first time. These are European, philhellenic artistic creations, as well as works by Greek artists inspired by subjects of antiquity, in dialogue with authentic antiquities from major museums in Italy and Greece, such as the CapitolineMuseums of Rome, the National Archaeological Museum of Venice, the Ostia Archaeological Museum, the National ArchaeologicalMuseum in Athens, Ancient Eleutherna, and the Rethymnon Archaeological Museum.

The exhibition Antiquarianism and Philhellenism: The Thanassis and Marina Martinos Collection is part of the “Dialogues” which the Museum of Cycladic Art has established in recent years. These are conversations between artworks that bridge different periods, revealing influences of the past in the present. Aim of the organizers is not merely to mount a historical or anniversary exhibition, or to approach the period through the military events, but to enhance two major currents, of Antiquarianism and Philhellenism, the one generative cause and the other fertile consequence, which aided the 1821 War of Independence and the founding of the Greek State.

The exhibition focuses on the antiquarian aspects of the philhellenic movement, before, during and after the Revolution. Antiquarianism was the most enduring link between Europeans and Greece. In the course of the Revolution it was transformed into Philhellenism and was imprinted visually in European artworks, while after the creation of the Greek State it was adopted by Greek Neoclassical artists in their endeavour to show the unbroken continuity of the ancient Hellenic heritage.

The Virtual Team Event - Exhibition titled Schrödinger's Revolution emerged as a creative response to the paradox of the National Gallery's vernissage of March 24, 2021. On that day, the largest gallery in the country was transformed into a cinematic studio to host an exhibition that was only visible through television sets, for an audience comprised of the citizens to whom the actual exhibition was addressed. Unlike other large institutions that transformed their program in the context of the pandemic and formulated creative curatorial approaches using the possibilities offered by the internet, the National Gallery seemed satisfied to open a large exhibition concerning the bicentennial celebrations of the Greek revolutionary war to be only perceived by the general public as a background of political reportage. The only access to the exhibition allowed was as a backdrop to the news footage that depicted the heir to the British throne and other officials enjoying the flowers of Greek patriotic iconography. The whole condition becomes even more interesting and potentially ironic if we consider that this exhibition consisting of a set of historical signifiers of the revolutionary fantasy, ended up itself being opened to the public in the form of a media simulation.
This strange relationship between representation, reality and a museum's institutional role in society was a source of inspiration for this presentation on the occasion of the International Museum Day 2021 with the theme ‘The Future of the Museums: Recover and Reimagine’.
In the context of the #RevoltingBodies project, the artist and historian Alexis Fidetzis, who has been invited by the artistic director of ATOPOS cvc, Vassilis Zidianakis to be the resident artist of the annual residency programme #OccupyAtopos2021, which, this year is dedicated to the celebrations of the 200 years of the Greek revolution, invites in turn seven artists to create original works that negotiate the condition of an exhibition that simultaneously does and does not exist. The projects presented through the digital platform revoltingbodies.gr have been converted to Non-fungible token (NFT), a new digital tool that converts works into a token equivalent to cryptocurrencies and plays with the role of a museum institution as an organization that applies artistic and economic value on its exhibits. Schrödinger's Revolution is an integral part of the exhibitions and discussions that will be conducted as part of the cross-sectional project #RevoltingBodies and are intended to problematize the concept of revolution and diagnose the ways in which revolutionary fantasy is imposed on human bodies.

Curation: Alexis Fidetzis

Participant Artists: Eva Giannakopoulou, Michalis Zacharias, Alexandros Kaklamanos, Eleftheria Kotzaki, Konstantinos Lianos, Panos Sklavenitis, Alexis Fidetzis, Sotiris Fokeas

The exhibition presents the articulated original work of Christos Bokoros with the title "1821, the feast".

Anniversary exhibition for the 96 years of active and creative life of Mikis Theodorakis. The Music Library “Lillian Voudouri” of The Friends of Music Society, which since 1997 has and uses the complete archive of the composer that he has entrusted to it, in collaboration with the Athens Concert Hall Organization and under the auspices and funding of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, will celebrate this great anniversary with an exhibition that aims to illuminate the diverse aspects of the music and politics of the legacy.

On 11 June, the emblematic building of the former Public Tobacco Factory opens its doors for the first time, introducing a new contemporary cultural centre in Athens, open to all. This project is the result of a collaboration between the Hellenic Parliament and NEON to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Greek War of Independence.

The new 6,500m2 cultural space, renovated with funding from NEON, will be inaugurated by an international group exhibition, Portals, featuring 59 artists from 27 countries including 15 new site-specific installations commissioned by NEON. Among them, 18 Greek artists are exhibiting new works or works whose framework of creation and presentation have been renewed to make them site-relevant.

With this year’s commemoration of the Greek War of Independence and continuing to live through the pandemic, “Portals” aspires to give rise to new messages, ideas, and reflections regarding contemporary artistic creation, through the prism of a newly-formed reality composed of change and disruption.

The exhibition takes place in all renovated areas of the building: the atrium, corridors, halls and mezzanines, bathrooms, the former Customs Office, the surrounding area, on the roof / façade of the building and on Kolonos Hill.

The inspiration for the exhibition originates from an article by author Arundhati Roy on the Financial Times on April 2020 which states that “the pandemic is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.” Considering that the rift created by the pandemic on an individual and collective level opens a portal, it is up to us to deal with our transition through it. “We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world.”

The exhibition represents a pluralism of ideas and touches upon issues related to collectivity, cultural understanding of history and politics, public space, and our common past, present and future.

Alongside the physical exhibition, we have also created an online ‘portal.’ The free mobile NEON app enables visitors to virtually browse the exhibition, see and learn about the works and artists, as well as receive notifications on the exhibition’s parallel events.

ΝΕΟΝ app is available for iOS and Android.

Participating Artists

Nikos Alexiou, El Anatsui, Dimitrios Antonitsis, Kutluğ Ataman, Kostas Bassanos, Vlassis Caniaris, Joana Choumali, Anastasia Douka, Eirene Efstathiou, Brendan Fernandes, Apostolos Georgiou, Jeffrey Gibson, Robert Gober, Vangelis Gokas, Sonia Gomes, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Shilpa Gupta, Elif Kamisli, Kapwani Kiwanga, Panos Kokkinias, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Jannis Kounellis, Louise Lawler, Glenn Ligon, Liliane Lijn, Maria Loizidou, Tala Madani, Teresa Margolles, Steve McQueen, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Marisa Merz, Ad Minoliti, Alex Mylona, Nikos Navridis, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Duro Olowu, Maria Papadimitriou, Dimitris Papaioannou, Cornelia Parker, Adam Pendleton, Solange Pessoa, Francis Picabia, Gala Porras-Kim, Michael Rakowitz, Ed Ruscha, Dana Schutz, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Elias Sime, Christiana Soulou, Do Ho Suh, Anna Tsouhlarakis, Alexandros Tzannis, Adriana Varejão, Erika Verzutti, Adrián Villar Rojas , Danh Võ, Daphne Wright, Myrto Xanthopoulou, Billie Zangewa.

The new commissions are by artists: Anastasia Douka, Brendan Fernandes, Elif Kamisli, Panos Kokkinias, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Glenn Ligon, Maria Loizidou, Teresa Margolles, Ad Minoliti, Duro Olowu, Gala Porras-Kim, Michael Rakowitz, Alexandros Tzannis, Adrián Villar Rojas and Danh Võ.

Athens Open Air Film Festival, the most cherished film institution which constitutes for a decade now an integral part of the cultural experience of the citizens and visitors of the capital and is organized by the Athens International Film Festival in collaboration with the City of Athens Cultural, Sport and Youth Organization returns in the mood to transfer the town into a big cinema embrace.