An exhibition of photographs showing 70 historical costumes from the 19th century, worn by contemporary Greeks in daily life and in battle, will be shown at the Acropolis Museum from 20 December 2022 to 26 March 2023.
Entitled ‘Raiment of the Soul’, the exibition at the Acropolis Museum is the initiative by the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation in collaboration with the National Historical Museum of Athens, and under the auspices of Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou.
Most of the costumes belonged to the National Historical Museum of Athens, and were loaned by the late Ioannis Mazarakis-Ainian, General Secretary of the museum, to photographer Vangelis Kyris and embroidery specialist Anatoli Georgiev.
The photographs would have been presented to the public at the National Historical Museum to commemorate the 200 years of the Greek Independence War of 1821, but the coronavirus pandemic forced this exhibition to be postponed last year. To honour this year’s centennial of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the exhibition has also included costumes from Asia Minor.
The exhibit includes costumes which belonged to historic figures; local garments from mainland Greece, the Greek islands and Crete, Cyprus, and areas abroad where Greek communities flourished; costumes and garments relating to the heroes of the revolution of 1821; and eponymous and anonymous protagonists of the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of the photographs included in this exhibition have been exhibited by the artists last year, and again this year in Kalamata, Hydra, Syros, Korea (Seoul), and recently in the Museum of ancient Eleutherna in Crete.
In the exhibition that will take place at the Acropolis Museum, visitors will also see two special creations that subtly refer to antiquity as a small tribute to the museums that are presented: the first artwork refers to the renowned ‘Dame d’ Auxerre’, today on display in the Louvre Museum in Paris, that can be compared with Proto-Archaic sculptures, such as the Eleutherna Kore.
Respectively, a sample was embroidered with ornamental details from the garment of the Archaic Kore of the Acropolis Museum, as they were captured over the white surface of the marble, a small reference to a past that proclaims the community of vested beauty in a timelessfashion to this day.
Entrance to the exhibition ‘Raiment of the Soul’ is free to the public. A free admission ticket is required from the Museum Ticket Desk.
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More images from the official opening on Tueday 20 December 2022 when Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said: "It is with great pleasure that I inaugurate today the exhibition "Garment of the Soul", the creative re-imagining of our national costume thanks to the inspiration of photographer Vangelis Kyris and artist Anatoly Georgiev. I am very pleased that this exhibition in the Acropolis Museum has the space to be fully developed thanks to the initiative of the Marianna V. Vardinoyannis Foundation, in collaboration with the National Historical Museum and the Historical Museum of Crete. I would also like to congratulate the Director General of the Acropolis Museum, Nikos Stampolidis, who responded enthusiastically to the idea of hosting these exquisite creations in the Museum's Temporary Exhibition Hall. In fact, they are supplemented by two separate works that refer to antiquity. This choice underlines the timeless need of man to decorate the garment based on its symbolic function, personal taste, aesthetic perceptions and the socio-economic conditions of the time, bridging the philokalia of the ancients with the elegance of folk tradition".
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