Thessaloniki-Cultural Capital of Europe

Church of Evangelistria, Thessaloniki.

In 1997 Salonika was declared  Cultural Capital of Europe, an idea developed by the Greek actress Melina Merkouri as Minister of Culture in the Greece. It involved a city being nominated by various National Governments, during the year countries from the four corners of the globe send a variety of exhibitions, musical and theatrical performances, writers and artists conferences to the host city. Salonika as Thessaloniki is commonly called, staged some two hundred individual events throughout the year, so that no matter what time  you visited, there was always going to be some thing worthy of viewing. It would be hard for me to pick and chose what was best, but some events I was lucky to see are worth a mention.

One of the most popular exhibitions would have to have been the treasures of Athos. The morning I visited there appeared to be just about every women in Greece, queueing to view items that are hidden from female eyes. I feared that they must have been disappointed, despite some wonderful Cretan Icons and the large collection utensils that keep the monks company in their hermit like existence on Athos Peninsula. Only males allowed are allowed to visit ,this collection of Greek, Russian and other Orthodox monasteries.

Salonika has a large and diverse mix of nationalities. At the time of independence it was the largest Jewish city in the world, in fact Greeks were a minority. The large populations of Armenians , Bulgarians, Albanians all seem to be represented along with half the nationalities of the planet. This seems to have produced a very handsome population, stunning women and good looking men, all dressed to kill, the result of centuries of hybridisation. Another side effect of this was the numerous exhibitions, theatrical , musical performances during the Festival dedicated to these ethnic groups. The Armenian painting exhibition was disappointing, it was an historical or retrospective survey from 1840 to 1980, the works were all owned by Armenian families still living in Salonika of which there seemed to be a large number.

The Museum of Modern Art proved to be a surprise, the building being a work of art in itself not that you could tell from the outside. The interior however was consisted of a large light well raising three stories with a green glass staircase in the middle. The floor itself was also glass exposing sections of  Roman and Byzantine   

walls and foundations. The bottom of the staircase rested on a marble plinth and occupied about one third of the floor space. At each floor galleries radiated out like spokes of a wagon wheel, these were of a more conventional nature. One was exhibiting the work of a Greek textural artist of the Tapie type. He had started  working in a gestural style in the 50's and then developed through the use of shadow to his current photo montage work. Another exhibition nearby was Goya's war etchings the details at times being hard to view.

Umbrella Sculpture. Symbol for Thessaloniki Cultural Year.

Saloniki's Harbour frount with the unbrella sculpture.

This multi cultural identity became the main theme and symbol for Salonika's year in the sun.

Large sculptural umbrellas were commissioned to run around the harbour boulevard, these symbolised the shelter the city has offered to displaced and homeless people over the last two thousand years. They were very beautiful and most appropriate. In a strange way Thessaloniki is not a Greek city, but has gone beyond this definition. As Alexander the Greats city ,this is also appropriate, as he was the first world leader to suggest the natural unification of humans kind. He ordered his officers to take foreign wives in order to integrate all the different nationalities of the world into one. Unfortunately the policy did not survive his death  subjecting the world to centuries of war. The harbour's edge had been used to exhibit some fifty large outdoor sculpture , but once again the work was somewhat uneven, but some of the figuretive work was of a higher order.

"Nude". Outdoor sculptural exhibition.

The evenings were taken up with theatrical and dance performances. One that still remains in my memory was the Nroirayya Sinthese an Athenian modern dance group, who performed a series of related dances focused on what one would call women's issues. Rape, child birth , violence and so on, the impact was very stark and dramatic and studding with a minimum use of stage setting support. Before leaving Salonika year  I should mention one of the public sculpture dedicated to the death of university students killed by tanks during those dark days of the rule by the army junta. I believe they were holding a march when the tank much to everyone's disbelief ran over them. People today still leave flowers at this site.

"Martyrs for Freedom"

One evening Heather and I discovered an old Turkish Haman, now a fish taverna. The establishment had an array of wine barrels suspended on the back wall. Each had a plastic hose running from the barrel to a tap from which you could refill your wine jug.  Not that one needed to as Greek hospitality kept sending over jugs of wine from other tables when ever they felt ours was looking too low. This establishment seemed to attract all sorts of characters who from time would start to play Rebetica music at a moments notice. It was not dissimilar to an Irish pub were anyone could start to entertain. We spent the evening with a couple of young Greeks who were still arguing over the outcome of the Peloponnesian War. this is one of the great qualities of  the Greeks, time stands still, so that it is possible to become passionate about events that took place several thousand years ago. There is a saying in Greece, when you have three Greeks you have two parties and one break away group.This is what makes the country such a delight.