Monday 9 July 2012

A week in Athens. (Part B)

So here comes the second part of my trip to Athens.
Part A covered Monday to Thursday and now we go on to Friday.
On Friday 6th we spent the morning at one of the Benaki Museum Departments. This one opened a month ago and it was suggested by my cousin and he was absolutely right in his suggestion. We adored it and we will definitely go again the next time we are in Athens.
The museum is in the house of Greek artist Nikos Hatjikyriakos Gigas. One floor is his house, the other floor is his workshop and the rest of the three floors house a huge selection of paintings, books, sculptures and other parafernalia of various artists of the generation of the 30's as it is called in Greece. Some of the famous representatives of this generation are Seferis, Elytis, Ritsos, Melina Merkouri and lots more.There was so much to see and photography was allowed but without flash so most of my photos are blurred.
 The outside of the museum.
A building opposite.
 Sotitis Spatharis shadow puppets.

 The Seferis Nobel prize for poetry.
 Gikas workshop.

 Gikas house.



 A Picasso in Gikas' house.


 Old balcony railings repurposed by Gikas as heater covers.


 Ships painted as a cross stitch design by Tsarouhis.
Kapralos horses.
 Elytis Nobel,


 Moshos  Neighbourhood in Tinos island
Eggonopoulos Pireaus landscape with clothed statue.
After such a great morning we had hoped that the day would continue as beautifully. Unfortunately in the afternoon we were told that hubby's shadow puppet performance was cancelled because anarchists occupied the open theatre where we were going to perform on Strefi Hill in order to do a concert. Our disappointment was great as our original aim for this trip to Athens was this performance at the festival and all the expenses were covered by hubby. Also all my relatives wanted to attend this performance. The organisers of the festival took us all out to dinner where we met fellow shadow puppet performers and exchanged ideas.

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