“As you can see, I’ve been living and working in this fifty-square-meter space for many years. I neither had nor ever wanted more,” said Odysseas Elytis in a 1975 interview with journalist Soula Alexandropoulou for the Kathimerini newspaper. Embracing the “simple life,” the Nobel Prize laureate poet resided in a small, book-filled apartment on Skoufa Street. Every item within those walls held a special significance, reflecting his poetry, life experiences, and journeys.

Therefore, it seems appropriate that the invitation to the opening of this new “home” for Elytis in Plaka contains the lines: “[…] the house is not always smaller than the mountain, and man is not always bigger than the flower.” The Elytis House, a museum dedicated to the memory and work of the Greek Nobel laureate poet, will open on November 1st, one day before the 113th anniversary of his birth (November 2, 1911) and 28 years after his death.

Poet and author Ioulita Iliopoulou, the poet’s partner and the guardian of his archive, proposed the establishment of the Odysseas Elytis Museum to the Greek Ministry of Culture in 2013. Her role in the design of the museum was crucial, and as she says, she feels the “anxiety that comes before giving birth.” The process for the creation of the space and the restoration of the house on Dioskouron Street began in 2020. It will be a home-museum “that will house elements that represent both the material aspect of his life and the aesthetics and simplicity he advocated.”

The museum will give visitors the opportunity to engage with the poet’s sense of aesthetics, his simple lifestyle, and his views on art. It was necessary to systematically display and properly preserve a substantial part of his personal archive due to the varied nature and prolific output of his work, which included poetry, prose, visual art, lyrics, and translations. The building has been designed to include spaces for exhibitions as well as for the preservation of Elytis’ archive, including visual material showcasing his diverse body of work. At the same time, the poet’s life will be vividly presented through photos and texts, as well as audio and video materials, while his office and personal things will be restored.

The restoration of the building was part of the Ministry of Culture’s broader initiative to highlight buildings of special architectural interest and repurpose them for cultural use. “Since September 2019, our strategy has been to highlight and allocate cultural uses to buildings that demonstrate the historical continuity of the capital, serving as points of interest for visitors to the city of Athens,” stated Culture Minister Lina Mendoni. The ministry has previously confirmed that it will fund the museum’s operations while also providing technical knowledge and support.

This article was previously published in Greek at kathimerini.gr