#WeRemember
A digital candle will illuminate the City Hall of Athens tonight, signifying that Athens does not forget!
The City remembers that Jewish communities have existed in Greece since pre-Christian times, and over time, the pre-war population reached 100,000 people, fully integrated into Greek culture and society. However, according to the Jewish Museum of Greece, during the Occupation, 85% of the Jewish population of Greece was lost, one of the highest percentages in Europe.
The digital candle at the City Hall is the symbol of the international campaign #WeRemember, implemented in Athens by the Athens Digital Arts Festival (ADAF).
Outdoor double photo exhibition in VasilissisOlgas Avenue(28/01)
On the occasion, the City of Athens organises a double outdoor photo exhibition at the stands of VasilissisOlgas Avenue, following the collaboration of the Jewish Museum of Greece and the artist Artemis Alcalay.
“The Holocaust of Greek Jews 1941-1944” depicts moments from the life of the Greek Jewish communities before and during World War II.
Nearly eighty years after the end of the most devastating war the world has ever known, we are still living with its consequences, even though they are not immediately apparent. Apart from the significant geopolitical upheavals this war brought about, which only in recent years have begun to faint, the storm of destruction affected communities of people at the local level, often radically transforming the previous order of things, causing a dramatic loss of human life and changes, which dramatically determined the post-war world.
In the photos from the photographic Archive of the Jewish Museum of Greece, we see joyful family moments, snapshots of weddings, professionals, students, and pictures of neighbourhoods and places of prayer showing the lives of people who were either displaced or lost.
“Trauma as Memory and Life”. In her photography exhibition, Artemis Alcalay raises issues of freedom and memory, loss and trauma from a visual perspective. She talks about identity, personal and historical memory, trauma, loss and, simultaneously, resistance through creation. The house, a symbol of security, family warmth, and play in times of peace, is distorted and destroyed during the war. As an idea, point of reference, shelter and place of memory and experiences, it essentially defines this order. It becomes a tool of remembrance and introspection, but also the demarcation line between the inside and outside, safety and the terror of loss. The red tangle of memory unravels, connecting the past, present and future. Thought travels to the before and after, to the beautiful and challenging, the inseparable. A. Alcalay approaches the theme and memory of the Holocaust using cottage industry and miniature craftsmanship materials. The fabric, the canvas, the paper, the yarn, the wood and the glue play a leading role and determine the material substance and the content of her work. With roots in history and faithful to the Greek cultural tradition, she borrows techniques that she transforms into a modern, personal artistic idiom.
The double photo exhibition was curated and coordinated by the City of Athens Cultural Office.