Under the stars

The 7th Athens Open-Air Film Festival enlivens the urban landscape by bringing free-of-charge screenings, concerts and a string of interactive activities to key public spaces in Athens, including monuments, parks, squares and museum gardens, as well as other suprise venues. This year’s edition includes a tribute to British gothic horror, award-winning films, lesser-known productions and a selection of feature-length and short Greek films.

Maritime tales

The exhibition “Voyage: Greek Seafaring and Shipbuilding” presents 40 handmade wooden models of Greek ships that tell the country’s naval history as it unfolded in the Aegean and the Mediterranean from prehistoric times to the early 20^th century, highlighting great conquests and technological achievements.

The ship miniatures – ranging from a prehistoric single-log vessel to the classical trireme – are complemented by displays of navigation instruments, maps, video projections, details of how the ships were built and specialized publications.

Cy Twombly and Greece

Cy Twombly visited Greece for the first time in the summer of 1960, but his acquaintance with its ancient culture predated that, as is attested by the role that Greek mythology played in his work from the mid-1950s.

The exhibition “Divine Dialogues: Cy Twombly & Greek Antiquity” presents 27 works by the great American artist – such as Aphrodite, Apollo, Orpheus, Pan and Nike – beside 12 ancient artworks, instigating a dialogue between ancient and contemporary art.

Musical Voyage

The gypsy jazz group ManoucheDrome Trio and clarinetist Alexis Stenakis will take the audience on a journey to the 1930s with a performance inspired by the music of Django Reinhardt. The set list that they will perform in the garden of the Athens Concert Hall will feature original pieces and classic gypsy jazz tracks included on their recently released album, as well as new tracks from their forthcoming album.

Space Age

Seventy years since the Soviet-built Sputnik became the first manmade satellite to enter into orbit and the term “space age” became an everyday phrase, the cultural center Romantso is hosting the exhibition “Electric and Electronic Art in Greece, 1957–1989.”

The exhibition will explore the utopian application of future technologies in the fields of music (Xenakis, Logothetis, Christou, Mamangakis, Adamis), the visual arts (Takis, Xagoraris, Zongolopoulos, Triantafyllou, Argyrakis), cinema, architecture and urban planning. The exhibits include artworks, posters, vintage tin toys and video projections.

A Rare Friendship

The exhibition “Ghika, Craxton, Leigh Fermor: Charmed Lives in Greece” explores the bonds of friendship between three leading lights of the 20th-century art and literary world, and the wonderful locations (Hydra, Kardamyli, Crete and Corfu) that helped inspire them.

Through the paintings of Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika and John Craxton and the writings of Patrick Leigh Fermor, together with letters, manuscripts, publications, photographs and personal dedications, the exhibition reveals their love for Greece and their influence on each other.

The Life of a Diva

Medea’s wig, the score from “La Traviata,” a gold cross, autographs, costumes, dresses, furnishings, performance programs, handwritten letters and photographs all shed light on various aspects of the life and career of Maria Callas.

Forty years on from the premature death of the great Greek opera singer, the B&M Theocharakis Foundation presents the exhibition “Maria Callas: The Legend Lives,” featuring over 200 of her personal items.

Greek Naïve Painters

Fifty works by Greek and Cypriot artists (inspired by traditions and daily life in the city and the countryside) from the collection of Christos and Polly Kollialis feature in the exhibition “Naïve Art in Greece.” The focal point of the exhibition are scenes from 19th- and 20th-century Athens, set against the backdrop of the neighborhoods around the Acropolis.

The Theater of Disappearance

“What does it mean to have the ground beneath our feet?” asks the Argentinean artist Adrián Villar Rojas. For “The Theater of Disappearance,” his new art installation at the National Observatory of Athens, he has intervened radically in the layout of the grounds, prompting visitors to explore a new fantastical environment with multiple references to the things that comprise our historical knowledge and shape our collective consciousness.

Over an area of 4,500 square meters, he has created two different scenes, through which the various important aspects of the ground are highlighted. A lush, fertile zone with 46,000 plants of 26 different species is directly juxtaposed with 11 sculptural installations that have been placed in glass cases on the remotest side of the Hill of the Nymphs. Rusty cables, a replica of the Winged Victory of Samothrace marred with graffiti, a replica of Lucy, mortar shells and military helmets, laptops and flags symbolize greed, the thirst for new conquests and the desire to dominate.

Human εmotions

Rage, mirth, sadness, fear, lust, despair, mania: 129 archeological findings from significant museums – among them the National Archeological Museum in Athens, the Louvre and the British Museum – display the world of emotions of ancient Greece.

The ancient Greeks deified many of these emotions and discussed their significance and the consequences of their uncontrolled expression through literature and art. The temporary exhibition “εmotions,” jointly organized by the Acropolis Museum and the Onassis Foundation, offers a five-part journey through the different pathways of the human soul.

Women’s Struggle

Photographs, newspaper articles, handwritten manuscripts, posters, books, magazines and audiovisual materials depict the battles waged by the Greek feminist movement from the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974 to the end of the 20th century.

The exhibition “Feminism and Transition to Democracy, 1974-1990: Ideas, Collectives, Claims,” hosted by the Hellenic Parliament Foundation, explores the efforts of feminists to improve the position of women in the social arena, labor market and family.