50 years since the restoration of Democracy
80 years since the Liberation of Athens
H. Doukas: “Let’s inspire future generations for a fairer and more democratic society.”
The year 2024 marks 50 years since the restoration of democracy in July 1974 and 80 years since the liberation of Athens from the Nazi occupation in October 1944. The City of Athens, in a spirit of unity and collaboration, is honouring these two crucial milestones for the country’s journey to freedom and democracy, as well as the struggles of the Greek citizens for national independence, by organizing a series of events called “1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates freedom”. This program is being designed and carried out by the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organization (OPANDA) and the Technopolis City of Athens in collaboration with other city agencies and organizations.
Until next November, the City of Athens is organizing various events and artistic and educational activities, with free admission, in most cases, to many landmarks and neighbourhoods. The aim is to highlight the city’s vibrant historical memory and initiate a dialogue with our modern history.
The Mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, stressed: “Athens honours all those who fought for democracy and freedom. We keep the memory alive so that younger people can learn and decide with knowledge and vigour about their future. The anniversary program of events put together by the City of Athens for this double anniversary will remind us, move us, teach us and raise our awareness. Nothing can ever be taken for granted. Modern democracy and our freedom face many challenges and cannot be considered as something given. I invite you all to participate in this grand celebration of the two highest values many people still lack today. Let’s strengthen Democracy and Freedom in Athens in 2024 and inspire the next generations for a fairer and more democratic society.”
The President of the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organisation, Eleni Zontirou, noted: “This year, we are not celebrating just one but two anniversaries. These significant milestones allow us to look back at the critical events that determined the future of our city and country. With a series of events and happenings, we recall the values of freedom and democracy that should never be taken for granted. The emergence of our recent history brings memories to life and helps us understand the present based on past lessons. We hope you enjoy this historical retrospective in many parts of the city and landmarks of important events related to the Metapolitefsi (post-dictatorship period) and the Liberation of Athens.”
The President of the Technopolis City of Athens, Kostis Papaioannou, declared: “The City of Athens commemorates two important events in its history: its Liberation and the Metapolitefsi. These two significant milestones of the 20th century are remembered through events that aim to promote knowledge, preserve memory, and inspire art. We pay tribute to the individuals involved and contemplate the true essence of democracy and the modern challenges that threaten an open society.”
Central historical exhibition “1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates freedom”
The exhibition “1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates freedom”, the centrepiece of the City of Athens’ celebrations, is hosted at the OPANDA Arts Center in the Eleftherias Park. The venue, with its buildings of profound historical and architectural value, is part of the memorial site of the old Detention and Interrogation centres of the EAT-ESA. From July 22 to October 28, the grand historical exhibition, a joint effort of the Technopolis City of Athens, the Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI), and the General State Archives, commemorates this double anniversary. It brings to light the days of celebration, while also recalling the short redemptive autumn of ‘44 overshadowed by the civil war, and the hot festive July of ‘74 marked by the Cypriot tragedy. The exhibition, with its rich photographic and audiovisual material, rare documents, and personal belongings, provided by the ERT Archive and the City of Athens Historical Archive, serves as a poignant reminder of the collective historical memory and the people’s struggles for Freedom and Democracy. It focuses on the feelings of hope and joy they generate. The exhibition is complemented by a diverse program of concurrent events to be announced in September.
Exhibitions: Visual arts, comics, photography, multimedia
A special tribute to Cyprus and the 50 years since the Turkish invasion comes from July 10 to 31 through the photography and multimedia exhibition by Sotiris Danezis entitled “Famagusta 3.5%” hosted at the City of Athens Cultural Center “Melina”. Historical testimonies and revealing photos from 3.5% of the enclosed ghost town allow us for the first time to see what the city is like after 50 years of looting and captivity, but mainly imagine what life was like in Famagusta on the day the invaders forced its 40,000 inhabitants to abandon it.
How was life in Athens during the Nazi occupation? Who and how did they resist? And how, in the end, did the liberation come? Fourteen Greek comic book creators challenge memory, promote knowledge and call for alertness through the comic book exhibition entitled “A Sweet Dawn. 14 stories about the Athens of the Occupation” organized from September 5 to 17 at the Technopolis City of Athens.
Art, as an expression of human thought and action, is a component of historical reality and becomes a shaper of historical memory. From September 26 to November 3, the City of Athens Art Gallery (building B) hosts the “The Restoration of Optimism” exhibition. This exhibition, with works from its permanent collections, visually touches upon concepts and symbols of unfreedom, cruelty, violence, resistance, bravery, hope, optimism, joy and anticipation. The works belong to many artists, including three whose work represents consciously and unquestionably the darkest periods of Greek history, making it a significant historical event.
With the concept of conflict as a cultural phenomenon at its heart, the group exhibition “Democracy and Conflict” is hosted from October 3 to November 17 in the City of Athens Art Gallery (building B). The participating artists, along with the audience, are invited to ask and face questions about the meaning of democracy, conflict, and violence, starting from the 50 years since the restoration of democracy in our country and the conflicts that marked it.
Concert and music events
Musical tributes to the songs of the resistance and the rebetiko of the occupation are organized in cultural centres of the city, while Beethoven’s opera “Fidelio”, organized by OPANDA, is staged in Greek at the Olympia Municipal Music Theatre “Maria Callas”, carrying the same libretto with the symbolic messages that the young Maria Callas sang at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus in August 1944, just a few months before the withdrawal of the German troops from Athens. Also, the great concert “Nothing is Wasted: 50 Years of Songs for a Better World” is staged on October 15 at the City of Athens Lycabettus Theatre, organized by the Technopolis City of Athens. Great representatives of three generations of performers (Spyros Grammenos, Phivos Delivorias, Manolis Mitsias, Giorgos Dalaras, Maria Papageorgiou, Vasilis Papakonstantinou, Miltos Paschalidis, Maria Farantouri, etc.) present, under the artistic supervision of Odysseas Ioannou, songs that served as a cohesive link in the struggle for a better and fairer life.
Panel discussions: The value of democratic debate in the spotlight
During the anniversary events, a series of lectures and discussions will be open to the public at the Athens Book Space at the Eleftherias Park, the Technopolis, and the City of Athens Cultural Center. Distinguished historians, academics, representatives of the arts, and scholars of the periods of Nazi occupation and dictatorship will shed light on the dark years of that time. Topics of discussion will include the solidarity of the European peoples in the anti-dictatorial struggle of Greece, censorship, and women in the resistance.
Athens through theatrical and historical journeys
Walks in emblematic landmarks linked to the anti-dictatorial struggle, guided tours in the shelters of Athens during World War II, theatrical routes to the unknown Petralona of the resistance and the occupied Pagrati, as well as visits-experiences at the Site Historical Memory 1941-1944 “4 Korai Street” invite visitors to discover another aspect of Athens throughout the anniversary events. Among other things, the memory route at the 3rd Cemetery of Athens entitled “Those who did not make it” stands out, a route to the burial site of executed and victims that recalls memories of the events, the occupation, the resistance and the great famine of of the ‘41-‘42 winter.
Performing arts: Promoting artistic expression
Theatrical performances, dance, literature and poetry readings honour the voices of the writers who recorded the moments of the occupation and the post-dictatorship period. Among them, the performance entitled “4 Korai Street Moments, 1941-1944” by the graduates of the Drama School of the Athens Conservatory, directed by Akyllas Karazisis, sets up a sound-visual landscape in the basement of the Korai 4 Street building, which served as a detention centre during the German occupation, as well as the theatrical performance “Tank-All Night Here” by the theatrical group RMS MATAROA at the Elefterias Park dedicated to the Athens Polytechnic Uprising. On the occasion of the performance, from Tuesday, June 25 and for two weeks, Athens 9.84 will broadcast a total of ten short audio excerpts of testimonies that compose the oral history of the events of that November in Michalis Leanis’ show “Ship crashed by train” (15:00-16:00).
Screenings: History on the Big Screen
An imaginary bridge connecting history with the present is set up with the aid of the big screen. For five nights in July, Eleftherias Park is transformed into an open-air cinema with free admission, hosting a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Metapolitefsi, held in collaboration with the Greek Film Archive and includes, among others, masterpieces by Luis Buñuel, Gilles Dassin and Nikos Koundouros. In October, selected episodes from the documentary series “Chronicle of National Resistance” of the ERT archive, one of the most important productions focusing on the occupation period in Greece, will be screened free of charge at the Creative Learning Centers in various neighbourhoods of Athens. The screenings will be accompanied by commentaries by historians and discussions with the public.
Happenings for children and schools
Educational programs for families and children, a theatrical performance for primary school students based on the book “When the Statues Left” by the award-winning author Angeliki Darlasi, tours for student groups in places associated with the years of the German occupation and the liberation of the city but also in buildings related to the years of the dictatorship and its fall, rhetoric workshops and student debates frame this autumn’s anniversary events, aiming at strengthening the democratic ethos and educating active democratic citizens. The events organised for schools are implemented by the educational program of the City of Athens “Kids for the city”
*The program of the anniversary events “1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates freedom” is designed and implemented by the City of Athens Culture, Sports and Youth Organisation (OPANDA) and the Technopolis of the Technopolis City of Athens in collaboration with the Contemporary Social History Archives (ASKI), the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency (EATA), Athens 9.84, the educational program of the City of Athens “Kids for the city”, the City of Athens Historical Archive, the City of Athens – Department of Cultural Heritage, the General State Archives and the ERT Archive. Special thanks to the Greek Film Archive, the Greek Film Centre, the French Institute of Greece, Monumenta, the Hellenic Parliament TV, the Melina Mercouri Foundation, the National School of Dance (KSOT), the Association of Greek Dancers, the Hellenic Association for the Promotion of Rhetoric in Education for their support.
**The anniversary events program is subject to modifications.
***Most events are free of charge.