
The Sotiris Haridimos Shadow Theatre Figure Collection was named after the well-known family of shadow puppet masters “Haridimos”, who was famous for their performances and the folk painting, mainly of the Greek shadow puppets from the beginning of the last century until the 1980s. The collection presents the old and more recent history of Karagiozis (Greek shadow puppet character of Turkish origin), as well as the evolution of the shadow theatre characters from 1850 to the present day.
The collection at the Melina Mercouri Cultural Centre hosts 900 original exhibits of three generations of the Haridimos family and some copies of old figures made of leather, cardboard, gelatin, and pencil traces, focusing mainly on Karagiozis and other well-known heroes of shadow theatre, such as Hatziavatis, Barba-Giorgis, Nionios, Morphonios, Vesyropoula, the Pasha, Alexander the Great and of course the three little children of Karagiozis (kolitiri). There are also old and modern sets, like the Sarai and the Karagiozis shack, the lion, the hut, the Italian of the 40s with the red boot, Theseus with the Minotaur, the heroes of 1821, as well as paintings inspired by Greek mythology, bound books with original sketches and dialogues from the performances given by the Haridimos family, folk paintings, and many photographic documents.
Information
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday 11:00-19:00, Saturday and Sunday 10:00-15:00, The exhibition is closed on Mondays
Telephone: 210 3452150