The art exhibition “Impressions of Memory…”

The art exhibition “Impressions of Memory…” with works by 13 visual artists was inaugurated on Wednesday, October 10, 2018, at 7.00 pm, at the Museum of the Macedonian Struggle (Alexandros Haitoglou Hall). The exhibition is about the suffering and consequences of war and is held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, the most destructive (until then) in world history. The curator of the exhibition is Stavroula Mavrogeni, Assistant Professor of PAMAK and Director of the Centre for Research in Macedonian History and Documentation, while the artistic curators are George Katsagelos, Professor of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Nikos Papageorgiou, Dr. of Art History.

This year marks the centenary of the end of the First World War. Monumental in its extent and intensity, colossal in losses, tragic in its absolute exhaustion of human, economic, as well as intellectual resources. The world after the war will never be the same. Hemingway observes in his work The Farewell to Arms: “There were many words you could not bear to hear … Abstract words like glory, honor, courage were obscene beside the concrete names of villages, roads, rivers, battalion numbers and dates.”

In the field of human creation, not only the literary text, but also the visual discourse, i.e. the image, constitutes a tool for reacting to the suffocating reality of war. The study of works that contribute to a better understanding of the nature of war as well as the multiple levels of expression of the anti-war message is the best tool of memory. In fact, using some of these works as a source of knowledge, we can make fruitful associations to understand the struggle of life to sustain itself in war. As life and death struggle, life, using as weapons humanity, love, art, friendship and solidarity, tries to prevail. On the other hand, death, through violence and hatred, fanaticism and intolerance, emerges as a strong opponent. Its tragic outcome is thousands of refugees from all warring sides. Forcibly abandoning their homelands, populations from various countries are experiencing the harsh reality of refugeeism. For several years, new needs and different priorities have defined their daily lives, which have become a constant struggle for survival.

The memory of the refugees is a central place of remembrance. It begins with the dramatic movement of populations across Europe after the First World War and the agonizing efforts of people to find a condition of life in the new situation. The way they form their identity is gradually carved out as they try to balance experience and new truth. The expectation of a new beginning, the desire to avoid oblivion, the need to re-found their lives, is their main concern. Their memory is not intangible, it is linked to institutions, institutions and practices, it is the result of the political will and the networks in which those who played a leading role in its formation moved.

Through its intervention, visual production creates an independent and symbolic space, in which both human relationships and their social context are redefined.
Stavroula Mavrogeni
Assistant Professor of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies, PAMAK
Director of Κ.Ε.Μ.I.Τ.

The artists participating in the exhibition “Impressions of Memory…” are: Evangelia Athanasiadou, Babis Venetopoulos, Eleni Theofilaktou, George Divaris, George Drosos, George Katsaggelos, Stelios Dexis, Athanasios Pallas, Stavros Panagiotakis, Sotiris Panousakis, Vangelis Ployaridis, Xenis Sachinis, Lambros Psyrrakis.

Duration: 10/10/2018-28/02/2018