Maria Belivani: “What would you take with you? Uprooting / Borders”

The art gallery “Technohoros” will host an innovative art exhibition based on painting, sculpture, installation and creative writing by Maria Belivani entitled, “What would you take with you? Uprooting / Borders”. The opening ceremony will take place on June 9, at 20.00 and the exhibition will last until July 2.

Maria Belivani’s personal exhibition will take place under the auspices of the UN Refugee Agency in Greece within the framework of the World Refugee Day campaign. The exhibition was previously presented in January 2016 at the Fοlklife and Ethnological Museum of Macedonia-Thrace.

During the opening, Christina Aggelopoulou, the granddaughter of Stratis Myrivilis, one of the most influential Greek writers of the 20th century, will recite excerpts from the latter’s novel “Mermaid Madonna”. Dr Dimitrios Keridis, Professor of International Relations at Panteion University, will open the event.  Barbara Hendricks will attend the event as Honorary Lifetime Goodwill Ambassador of UNHCR.

During the exhibition, visitors will be asked to choose an object, which they would take with them, if they were forced to leave their home and their country, possibly forever. Faced with the collective human pain and nostalgia, visitors will be invited to develop their own perspective of the notion of uprooting.

The exhibition registers and connects the past with one of the most serious and unresolved international problems, the refugee crisis, based on reliable historical sources, with references to the refugees from Asia Minor, Pontus and Armenia, who arrived in Thessaloniki and other areas of Greece, to Muslims who left during the population exchange of 1922 and to Jews deported to Nazi camps in 1943.

On World Refugee Day on June 20th, people commemorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees. This year, World Refugee Day also constitutes an opportunity for the public to show support to families forced to flee by signing the petition #WithRefugees at www.refugeeday.org. Through this petition people from across the globe can call on governments to work together and do their fair share for refugees. The #WithRefugees petition will be delivered to UN headquarters in New York ahead of the UN General Assembly on September 19.

Info:
Opening: Thursday 9 June 2016, 20:00
Duration: 9 June – 2 July 2016
Art Gallery “Technohoros”
4, Lebesi str & Makrigianni, Athens
Tel.: 211 182 38 18
www.technohoros.org
Opening days and hours:
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: 11:30 – 15:00 & 18:00 – 21:00
Wednesday, Saturday: 11:30 – 15:00
Sunday, Monday: Open upon appointment

SOURCE: UNHCR
PHOTO: Art Gallery “Technochoros”