The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the War Museum, Mr. Anastasios Liaskos and the Board of Directors of the War Museum invite you on Tuesday, January 10, at 4:00 p.m. in the foyer of the War Museum, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition “CHRONICO ANTAPOKRISISIS” by Pelagia Kyriazi.

Pelagia Kyriazi’s solo exhibition entitled Chronicle Responses approaches the historical events of 1922 with a series of group portraits of soldiers that are placed chronologically in two events: The parade of 2 May 1919 in Smyrna, and the soldiers’ dance on 25 March on a plateau in Asia Minor.

The artist focuses on the theme of collective experience, of group participation in a situation in which the individual element is hardly discernible. Visual thinking effortlessly reproduces the psychological dynamics of the mass in collective action that has many moments and encompasses the reactions of people uniformly dressed in uniforms. Pelagia Kyriazi visited the War Museum’s collection and, by researching the archives and anniversary events for 1922, began a new reading on the subject and the common codes of painting.

He studied the work of George Prokopiou and Thalia Flora-Karavia with the desire to learn how their on-the-ground engagement with the soldiers and the everyday situations of battle, heroism and trauma worked for them. How did they as artists experience the year that ended in August 1922?

As the artist says: “Chronicle 1922, from a complete historical entity, is transformed into a dynamic in the present. I approach the artists who lived on the Asia Minor front, Thalia Flora-Karabia and George Prokopiou, and begin my own response with them through the painting experience.

The responses awaken, touch different parts of history each time, recall the adventure, become a voice… people crying out in a reconnection with today. And in the heart nestles loss, collective loss and individual loss. I studied the anguish of loss, wearing the face of the uniform, the face of the healer.”

The brochure accompanying the exhibition contains a text – an extract from the latest book by the historian Tasos Sakellaropoulos.

The brochure of the exhibition is sponsored by the Hellenic Diaspora Foundation.

Place: the War Museum, Vas. Sofias & 2.

Opening hours : Monday – Sunday 9am – 5pm.

Exhibition curator: Pelagia Kyriazi