[MGSA-L] Benaki show sheds light on Balkan Wars

[June Samaras]

Benaki show sheds light on Balkan Wars

http://ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite4_1_15/12/2012_474641

By Christina Sanoudou

The entire face of Europe, and particularly the Balkans and Greece
underwent fundamental changes in 1912 and after, yet the knowledge
today’s younger generations have of the sociopolitical circumstances
before and during the Balkan Wars is frequently fragmented. On the
occasion of the centennial of the start of the conflicts, “Balkan Wars
1912-1913: The Beginning of the Greek 20th Century,” a new exhibition
at the Benaki Museum’s flagship in Kolonaki, seeks to piece those
fragments together to present a whole picture.

The exhibition features a selection of photographs and memorabilia
including war medals, spoils of war, officers’ diaries and Eleftherios
Venizelos’s pistol from the Theriso revolt. It covers events up to the
Asia Minor Catastrophe in 1922.

>From the advancement of the Greek army, the development of the economy
at the beginning of the 20th century and technological improvements
(such as warplanes and the steam engine) to improvements in medical
treatment, the arrival of soldiers in foreign cities and countries and
mass population shifts, “Balkan Wars” offers a comprehensive overview
of the entire period by shedding light on different facets of history
and society.

Beyond the history of the actual war itself, other images provide
valuable information about everyday life during the period. They also
highlight how rapidly the Greek landscape changed at the beginning of
the century. Many volunteers lost their lives during the conflicts,
and their portraits serve as a centerpiece for the exhibit, with the
dates and places of death noted on the back of the photographs. These
images are only a small selection of an extensive archive rediscovered
in 1973 on the island of Chios which had been compiled by writer and
war correspondent Elda Lambisi.

The transformation of Thessaloniki from a key hub of the Ottoman
Empire to an integral part of the Greek state, meanwhile, is explored
in a screening of Lakis Papastathis’s documentary “Seeking the Lost
Images of the Balkan War.”

The exhibition – a collaboration with the Eleftherios K. Venizelos
National Institute for Research and Studies and the Municipality of
Thessaloniki – is slated to run through February 10, and also includes
guided tours for the public with curator Tassos Sakellaropoulos.

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Benaki Museum, 1 Koumbari, Kolonaki, tel 210.367.1000, www.benaki.gr

-- 
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com