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A walk through ancient Olympia

A walk through ancient Olympia

Digital Projection

This programme provides a complete tour to the sacred site of ancient Olympia in the 2nd century BC. Monuments and sacred buildings come to life, enabling visitors to participate in the events and the rituals of the Olympic Games and to learn about the history of the city: the temple of Zeus, a model of Doric peripteral temple with magnificent sculpted decoration, the Heraion, the oldest monumental building of the sanctuary, dedicated to the goddess Hera, the Gymnasium, which was used for the training of javelin throwers, discus throwers and runners, the Palaestra, where the wrestlers, jumpers and boxers trained, the Leonidaion, which was where the official guests stayed, the Bouleuterion, where athletes, relatives and judges took a vow that they would upheld the rules of the Games, the Stadium, where most of the events took place, the Treasuries of various cities, where valuable offerings were kept, the Philippeion, which was dedicated by Philip II, king of Macedonia, after his victory in the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

1 March, 2017 to 31 December, 2022
Info: 

A complete digital tour in English to the sacred site of Ancient Olympia in the 2nd century BC.

Venue: 
Tholos
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
1 h
Hours: 
13:00
Tickets: 
7€-12€
Special remarks: 
Parking
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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01/03/2017 to 31/12/2022
 
A Walk Through Ancient Miletus

A Walk Through Ancient Miletus

Virtual Reality

The city of Miletus on the western coast of Asia Minor, one of the most important cities in Ionia, comes to life again in the Virtual Reality production
“A Walk Through Ancient Miletus”. This production, in the special environment of immersion of “Tholos”, uses some new technical characteristics, which allow the development of multiple directions of digital life in the virtual space and not a predetermined course.

4 September, 2017 to 31 December, 2022
Info: 

Starting again in September, guided tours are offered in Greek & English for groups.
At the Virtual Reality programme there is a tour at the meninsula and the city of Miletus, as it was 2,000 years ago. Visitors can explore the virtual city and learn about the most important public buildings. Starting from the gate at the Port of the Lions, they enter the sanctuary of Apollo Delphinios. Then, they visit the Ionian Stoa, which housed the stores of the city, the Hellenistic Gymnasium, the North Agora and the Bouleuterion, being able to see even the details of the buildings' architecture. They can “fly” over the city for one last panoramic view of the perfect city planning design, or even “dive” into its port.

Organization / Production: 
FOUNDATION OF THE HELLENIC WORLD
Venue: 
Tholos, Virtual Reality Theatre
Language: 
Greek
Duration: 
30-50 min
Hours: 
Projections offered only by appointment for groups
Tickets: 
5-12 euro
Special remarks: 
Parking
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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04/09/2017 to 31/12/2022
 
Dinosaurs at Dusk

Dinosaurs at Dusk

Digital Projection

Dinosaurs at Dusk is a 44-min show produced by Mirage3D for digital dome theatres. It is presented at "THOLOS", the Virtual Reality Theater of Hellenic Cosmos.
A learning adventure of a father and his teenage daughter Lucy, who share a fascination for all things that fly.
You’ll travel back in time to meet the pterosaurs and the ancestors of modern-day birds: the feathered dinosaurs. Lucy and her father navigate from continent to continent, looking for clues about the origins of flight.
When time runs out they experience first-hand the cataclysmic “last day” of the dinosaurs.
Science content includes topics such as continental drift, proper motion of stars, asteroids and impacts, extinctions and the convergent development of flight among species.

2 March, 2019 to 31 December, 2022
Organization / Production: 
HELLENIC COSMOS
Venue: 
Hellenic Cosmos Cultural Centre
Language: 
Greek
Duration: 
45"
Hours: 
-
Special remarks: 
Parking
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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02/03/2019 to 31/12/2022
 
EUREKA: Science, Art & Technology of the Ancient Greeks

EUREKA: Science, Art & Technology of the Ancient Greeks

Exhibition

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.

14 May, 2021 to 31 August, 2023
Info: 

The collaboration between ΕΔΑΒυΤ and Herakleidon Museum has resulted in the present exhibition thematic sections dedicated to emblematic achievements of ancient greek technology and technique.

Organization / Production: 
Herakleidon Museum & ΕΔΑΒυΤ
Hours: 
Wednesday to Sunday, 10:00 - 18:00 (last admission at 17:15)
Tickets: 
5 € normal ticket (for both buildings), 3 € reduced ticket (for both buildings)
Special remarks: 
Credit cards are accepted
Tags: 
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14/05/2021 to 31/08/2023
 
Theaster Gates: Vessels

Theaster Gates: Vessels

Exhibition

Theaster Gates’s oeuvre is among the most conceptually and materially rich in contemporary art, anchored equally in the canons of art history, the racial ideology of the Black diaspora, and the artist’s own personal history.

4 February, 2022 to 30 April, 2022
Info: 

Through an art practice predicated on cultural reclamation and social empowerment, Gates exchanges and recharges objects and ideas, proposing the artwork as a communicating vessel or sacred reliquary of recollected histories, critical vitality, and shared experience.

"I always find myself returning to the vessel. It is part of the intellectual life force of my practice and it precedes all other forms of making", Theaster Gates.

Gates first began using clay as a student in the 1990s. After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in ceramics and urban planning from Iowa State University, he spent a year in Tokoname, Japan, studying pottery. For Gates, it is the cycle of labor and everyday use that sacralizes the clay vessel, endowing it with transcendent communal and ritualistic meaning.

The Benaki Museum is pleased to present a group of Gates’ recent large-scale ceramic works in the Prehistoric, Classical and Roman Antiquities Galleries of the Museum of Greek Culture. Juxtaposing contemporary and ancient works will prompt open-ended associations between objects and their materiality, addressing the importance of making and manual labor as well as the spiritual relation to the earth embodied by ceramic practices throughout time and across cultures.

In this diverse group of seven unique large-scale vessels, glazed and fired to produce a range of effects —from chalky white and crackled to dark and biomorphic with a lustrous metallic sheen— Gates synthesizes ancient traditions and modern aesthetics, drawing elective affinities between Eastern, Western, and African techne. His consideration of the clay vessel as a universal object of ritual significance, which testifies to the primordial relationship between humankind and clay, is given full expression in the Benaki Museum galleries by virtue of comparison with ancient ceramic works from across the Eastern Mediterranean zone.

Biography
Gates was born in Chicago, where he lives and works. He received a BS from Iowa State University, Ames, in 1996. After graduating, he studied pottery in Tokoname, Japan, before receiving an MA in fine arts and religious studies from the University of Cape Town in 1998 and an MA in urban planning from Iowa State in 2006. Public collections include the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Tate, London. Solo museum exhibitions and projects include “An Epitaph for Civil Rights”, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2011–12); “Processions”, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2016–19); “True Value”, Fondazione Prada, Milan (2016); “Black Archive”, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2016); “How to Build a House Museum”, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2016); “The Minor Arts”, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (2017); Black Madonna, Kunstmuseum Basel (2018, traveled to Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany); “Black Image Corporation”, Fondazione Prada Osservatorio, Milan (2018–19, traveled to GropiusBau, Berlin); “Amalgam”, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019, traveled to Tate Liverpool, England); “Assembly Hall”, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2019); and “Black Chapel”, Haus der Kunst, Munich (2019–20), “China Cabinet”, Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (2021); “Bad Neon”, Tank Shanghai, Shanghai, (2021); and “A Clay Sermon”, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2021). Gates participated in the Whitney Biennial, New York (2010); Documenta 13, Kassel, Germany (2012); the 56th Biennale di Venezia (2015); and the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2015 and 2019). He is the recipient of the twelfth Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts (2021); the Crystal Award (2020); the J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionaries in Urban Development (2018); the Nasher Sculpture Prize (2018); the Sprengel Museum Kurt Schwitters Prize (2017); and the Artes Mundi 6 prize (2015). In April 2018 Gates was appointed the first distinguished visiting artist and Director of Artist Initiatives at the Lunder Institute for American Art, Colby College, Waterville, Maine and received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London in 2018. In 2022, Gates will design the Serpentine Pavilion as the first non-architect commission.

Venue: 
Benaki Museum of Greek Culture
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
04/02 - 30/04/2022
Hours: 
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday:10:00-18:00 Thursday:10:00-00:00 Sunday:10:00-16:00 Closed on Tuesday
Tickets: 
Entry to the exhibition is included in the standard ticket for the Benaki Museum of Greek Culture: € 12, € 9 Tickets can be bought in advance at tickets.benaki.org or by attending the Museum on the day of the visit.
Special remarks: 
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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04/02/2022 to 30/04/2022
 
Amazonomachy

Amazonomachy

Exhibition

Amazonomachy (“Battle of the Amazons”) is a project by Clara Carvajal that proposes a reassessment of the myth of the amazons within its historical framework.
The exhibition is under the auspices of the Embassy of Spain in Athens.

2 March, 2022 to 29 May, 2022
Info: 

Based on recent scientific discoveries that confirm the existence of these female warriors (the Amazons) during the 6th cent. B.C., the artist creates a contemporary amazonomachy. The exhibition is curated by Carmen Fernandez Ortiz and comprises 30 works.
Clara Carvajal begins with the reproductions of the fourteen metopes of the western side of the Parthenon, with photographs she took in the new Acropolis Museum of Athens. She adds texts and images to adapt them to the historical evidence, painting phrases on the protective acrylic sheet using a font that she herself has designed. The narration is complemented by a 12-minute video that shows the survival of women today in domains forbidden to them.

Hours: 
Wednesday to Sunday, 13:00 - 17:00
Tickets: 
With the museum ticket
Tags: 
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02/03/2022 to 29/05/2022
 
The Four Eras of Ancient Philosophy

The Four Eras of Ancient Philosophy

Seminar

The Four Eras of Ancient Philosophy will be analysed in four seminar cycles by Giannis Stamatellos (PhD), which will take place during the months of the equinoxes and solstices, starting with the cycle of March 2022. The cycles of June, September and December 2022 shall follow.

14 March, 2022 to 19 December, 2022
Info: 

The seminar will cover the main sectors of the history of ancient Greek philosophy and will present the basic ideas of the ancient Greek philosophers. Selected texts will accompany our exploration of the journey of philosophical ideas and their timelessness, their relevance and their value in modern times will be discussed.

Venue: 
16 Herakleidon Str., Athens
Language: 
Greek
Duration: 
2 hrs
Hours: 
Monday, 18:30-20:30, 14, 21, 28-Mar-2022 & 4-Apr-2022 / 6, 20 & 27-Jun-2022 / 19, 26-Sep-2022 & 3-Oct-2022 / 5, 12 & 19-Dec-2022
Tickets: 
15 €
Special remarks: 
Credit cards are accepted
Tags: 
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14/03/2022 to 19/12/2022
 
Medusa Art Gallery (1979-2017)

Medusa Art Gallery (1979-2017)

Exhibition

The exhibition complements the idea of Maria Dimitriadis, founder of the Medusa Art Gallery, to put together a comprehensive publication in order to mark the anniversary of the gallery’s almost 40 years’ operation.

24 March, 2022 to 22 May, 2022
Info: 

Though the life of Medusa was cut short by the premature passing of its creator in 2017, she had the foresight to entrust her closest associates with the double undertaking of the book publication and the accompanying exhibition, and to provide for its realisation.

The exhibition chronicles the activity of the Medusa Art Gallery through historical works by its artists, shown for the first time at the gallery on 7 Xenokratous Street. This presentation illuminates the personal artwork collection created by Maria Dimitriadis and which, in accordance with her wishes, was bequeathed to the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum. The exhibition also includes works on loan from Medusa’s artists, collectors, museums and institutions, in order to be as illustrative as possible of the character of the gallery itself and the work of the artists during the specific periods it promoted and represented them.

Through a loosely chronological timeline and a wealth of photographic and archival material, but, most of all, through a sequence of units based on the eclectic affinities between the artists and their works, the exhibition not only showcases the historical development of the Medusa Art Gallery and the avant-garde – even in current terms – nature of Maria Dimitriadis’ choices, but also rouses thoughts and questions regarding an entire life cycle of Greek art galleries from the post-junta “Metapolitefsi” era until the present. Shining through this voyage emerges inevitably the distinctive personality of Maria Dimitriadis, who left an indelible mark upon the Athenian art scene of the past four decades.

The exhibition presents over 230 works by 57 artists and accompanies a fully illustrated 456-page book, published in separate Greek and English editions. In addition, the exhibition will be complemented by a series of parallel events (guided tours, round table discussion, etc.), the details and dates of which will be announced shortly.

Venue: 
Benaki Museum / Pireos 138
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
24/03 - 22/05/2022
Hours: 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: 10:00-18:00 Friday, Saturday: 10:00-22:00
Tickets: 
€ 7, € 3,5 Tickets can be bought in advance at tickets.benaki.org or by attending the Museum on the day of the visit.
Special remarks: 
Parking
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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24/03/2022 to 22/05/2022
 
KAMBANELLISLAND: Naxos, Mauthausen, Athens

KAMBANELLISLAND: Naxos, Mauthausen, Athens

Exhibition

Iakovos Kambanellis has a prominent position among the Greek creatives who shaped the intellectual and artistic life in the country during the second half of the 20th century.
Naxos, Mauthausen, Athens: the places that informed a particular and unique life path.

30 March, 2022 to 30 July, 2022
Info: 

A life full of experiences, which shaped his personality, influenced his creative work, demarcated his contribution and presence in the public sphere.
- The most distinguished and distinguishable author in Greek theatre, he contributed to its revival, linked dramaturgy with realism and social concerns, creative work with thinking.
- Author of an internationally renown play of anti-war literature that recounts his experiences in Mauthausen.
- A lyricist, whose lyrics became the popular songs that accompanied the joys and sorrows of many post-war generations, and enrich the everyday sensitivity in 21st century Greece.
- Author of scripts for many landmark films, a stage and film director.
- An active citizen who was involved in public dialogue with openness, impartiality and reflective frankness.
- During his multifarious course, he engaged into dialogue with acclaimed creators.

The exhibition Kambanellisland explores his versatile course, highlights the elective affinities that connect him with a wide range of artists and thinkers in modern Greece, traces and sheds light on the correlations between his work and the works of the creators that are permanently presented in Benaki Museum / the Ghika Gallery.

Venue: 
Benaki Museum / The Ghika Gallery
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
30/03 - 30/07/2022
Hours: 
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, 10:00 - 18:00
Tickets: 
Entry to the exhibition is included in the standard ticket for the Benaki Museum / The Ghika Gallery: € 9, € 5
Special remarks: 
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
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30/03/2022 to 30/07/2022
 
Katerina Kaloudi: Emptying my parents’ house

Katerina Kaloudi: Emptying my parents’ house

Exhibition

“Emptying my parents’ house” is a series of photographic works that emerged and was completed while the artist was emptying her parents’ house, after her mother’s passing.

31 March, 2022 to 22 May, 2022
Info: 

The process of emptying her family home elicited a storm of emotions, became part of her self-analysis and a retrospective of her life and the life of her parents and her ancestors.

Her need to manage grief, to be in touch with her vulnerable feelings and to look back into the family’s past, coinciding with the coronavirus pandemic that gifted her with an unexpectedly generous period of time, propelled Katerina Kaloudi to transform the dining room of the parental house into a photographic studio and create images with the objects, fabrics, clothing, old photographs, memories, family stories and her own imaginary, internal conversations.

The creation of these works transformed the whole internal and external process of emptying the house and gave her both the fortitude and the means to more deeply recognize her connection with those who came before her, to honour them, thank them and forgive them… and, to take another step towards setting herself free.

The work presented here runs along two threads. One is the photographic dialogue between artist and object; the other is a sentimental dialogue of an individual’s reaching her. Each path is invisible and the two are rendered as one.

Venue: 
Benaki Museum / Pireos 138
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
31/03 - 22/05/2022
Hours: 
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday: 10:00-18:00 Friday, Saturday: 10:00-22:00
Tickets: 
€ 6, € 3 Tickets can be bought in advance at tickets.benaki.org or by attending the Museum on the day of the visit.
Special remarks: 
Parking
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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31/03/2022 to 22/05/2022
 
John Craxton: A Greek Soul

John Craxton: A Greek Soul

Exhibition

A very special centenary touring exhibition, celebrating the life and work of the Philhellene painter and designer John Craxton (1922-2009), is launching at the Benaki Museum.

13 April, 2022 to 4 September, 2022
Info: 

This uplifting personal saga, reflected in brilliant pictures, charts a voyage from darkness into light.

With much of his work never previously exhibited, he can only now be recognised as an unrivalled portraitist of Greek faces and places from the middle of the 20th century. Featuring many unknown works from the Craxton Estate, the revelatory Benaki Museum survey will comprise 90 artworks arranged in four galleries covering every period of the artist’s career. The display ranges from prints and drawings to paintings and a vast tribute tapestry, plus photos and personal effects.

The highlight of the display will be the huge Landscape with the Elements tapestry Craxton designed and oversaw in Edinburgh while exiled under the Colonels. Inspired by traditional Cretan weaving, it sums up his love of the Greek world.

From October 2022 until January 2023, the exhibition will travel to Crete to the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania and later it will be presented to London.

Venue: 
Benaki Museum of Greek Culture
Language: 
Greek, English
Duration: 
13/04 - 04/09/2022
Hours: 
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday: 10:00-18:00, Tuesday: closed, Thursday: 10:00-00:00, Sunday: 10:00-16:00
Tickets: 
€ 8, € 6 Tickets can be bought in advance at tickets.benaki.org or by attending the Museum on the day of the visit.
Special remarks: 
Reservations are accepted
Credit cards are accepted
Wheelchair accessible
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13/04/2022 to 04/09/2022