Contemporary artists in creative dialogue with archival material on the Greek War of Independence
Τhe Hellenic Foundation for Culture, the General State Archives (GSA—but the Greek acronym reads GAK, hence the title), and the Hellenic American Union present the exhibition GAK-ART: Recountings and Readings.
As Greece celebrates the bicentennial of the Greek Revolution, 28 contemporary artists drew inspiration, each in their own way, from a reading of material from the General State Archives that recount key moments of the Greek War of Independence or represent the struggle’s iconic figures or unsung heroes. The artists’ works were specially created for this exhibition, each based on a different item of archival material, which will also be on display alongside the artwork.
The exhibition also includes three pre-existing works: a shadow play figure by Evgenios Spatharis, an early 20th century drawing of a work by Raymond Monvoisin, and a sculpture by Yannis Pappas.
The GSA archival material on exhibition include hand-signed letters, stamps, maps, the first issue of the first newspaper of Greece, Hellenic Salpinx, engravings by Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, Adam Friedel, Ludovico Lipparini, Peter von Hess, and others, as well as rare philhellenic sheet music from the archive of French historian and journalist René Puaux.
