July 23 - October 28, 2024
Arts Center, Eleftherias Park
Free entrance
The Municipality of Athens presents the major historical exhibition "1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates its freedom" which is coming to the Arts Center of the Culture, Sports and Youth Organization of the Municipality of Athens (OPANDA) at Eleftherias Park from July 23 to October 28 with free admission. The exhibition is designed and implemented by Technopolis of the Municipality of Athens in cooperation with the Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI), the General State Archives and the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Athens and is the focus of the anniversary celebrations that will be spreading in the city centre and the neighbourhoods of the city until November.
On the occasion of two landmark anniversaries, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Athens from Nazi occupation in 1944 and the 50th anniversary of the fall of the military dictatorship and the restoration of democracy in 1974, the exhibition turns back the clock and presents a city alive, Athens, celebrating its freedom at two different historical moments. The aim of the exhibition, the only one that commemorates both anniversaries at the same time, is to highlight the collective historical memory and the struggles for freedom and democracy.
Divided into two major sections, dedicated to the events of 1944 and 1974 respectively, it narrates a journey from darkness to light, from the extreme cruelty of the Nazi occupation to the frenetic celebration of the first days of freedom and from the brutality of the junta to the expectations generated by the fall of the authoritarian regime. Through rare photographs, audiovisual material, documents, newspapers, posters, works of art, proclamations, personal objects and rich archival material, the more than 500 items in the exhibition "1974 & 1944. At the same time, the exhibition cannot but unite joy with sorrow, redemption with pain, relief with anxiety, as the double festive outburst was burdened by both the fear of the civil war and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
More specifically, visitors will discover, among other things, documents from the period of the great famine in Athens, audiovisual material relating to the arrest and torture practices of the junta, an installation with personal stories of three women of the Resistance who sacrificed themselves for liberation, and an installation dedicated to the 25 murdered fighters of the Polytechnic. And on the other hand, in the centre of attention, unique impressions of the river of people who flooded the flag-draped streets of the capital with songs and dances, tricolours, banners and improvised placards full of festive slogans, celebratory headlines about the triumph of democracy, snapshots of hugs with those who returned from places of exile. Some of the most bitter moments of Athens' modern history are joined with its most joyful ones, in a unique exhibition that is a tribute to two different eras and two different worlds united by the same city, Athens, but also by the common demand of its inhabitants for democracy and freedom, the collective dream for a better life.
Information
Exhibition "1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates its freedom"
23.07 - 28.10.2024
Arts Centre, Vassilissis Sofias, Eleftherias Park, PO 11521.
Free entrance
Opening hours:
23.07 | 11:00-19:00
24.07 - 31.08 | Wed. to Sun. 11:00-19:00 (12-18.08 closed)
01.09 - 28.10 | Mon. to Sun. 10:30-18:30
Info: cultureisathens.gr
