Beyond History: Thessaloniki through photography
Warehouse A
Thessaloniki Port
GR 541 10
Beyond History: Thessaloniki through photography / Part A’ – From Liberation to the Interwar period
The current exhibition (Part A) covers the period from Liberation to the Interwar period while Part B from the Second World War to the Political Changeover (March-April 2013) and Part C, from the Political Changeover till today follow (May-June 2013). All three exhibitions are part of the Museum Series “Glances at the city”, they belong to the Parallel Program of the PhotoBiennale and are the Museum’s contribution to the city’s celebrations of its 100th anniversary since its liberation.
The images of this exhibition attempt to create the atmosphere of an époque as that was experienced by its photographers and to bring on to the surface the sounds which had faded with the passage of time. In the introductory section there are indicative photographs of the Ottoman Thessaloniki, before the liberation, where an “unintentional multiculturalism” dominates. The White Tower surrounded by its walls, portraits of different ethnicities, children’s faces from the last century.
The first section The Tumult of War presents a city which is in constant turmoil, a step before a conflict or on the verge of another. The images here describe this “swinging” between those events, while the main importance is shifted to the simple everyday life of the soldiers.
The second section The Roar of Fire, refers to the big fire of 1917 which changed completely the appearance of the city, leaving a great part of its architectural heritage to the silence of the ashes.
The third section which is the main part of the exhibition is The City Buzz. Families, images from photographers’ studios, landmarks and neighbourhoods, middle class people, uprooted refugees, wedding and funeral scenes, school excursions, strolls –a city alive.
In the back of the exhibition the sound of the city becomes more intense, as there are selected documentaries of Thessaloniki and relevant bibliography, which enable the viewer to use also historical tools in order to reach beyond history.