Latest news with #AcropolisMuseum
Al-Ahram Weekly
01-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Second edition of Tale of Two Cities links Milan and Alexandria - Visual Art - Arts & Culture
CulturVator's Art D'Égypte has launched the second edition of Tale of Two Cities, a cross-continental exhibition taking place in Milan, Italy, and Alexandria, Egypt. Tale of Two Cities functions not only as an exhibition but also as an initiative aimed at reconnecting various Mediterranean cities with Alexandria through art, history, and human dialogue. The initiative's first edition, held in 2024, was hosted by Greece's Acropolis Museum and Egypt's Bibliotheca Alexandrina. It reaffirmed Alexandria's historic role as a cultural bridge and celebrated the exchange between the two nations. This 'curatorial pairing' featured Greek artists such as sculptor Costas Varotsos (born 1955) and visual artist Danae Stratou (born 1964), alongside their Egyptian counterparts, including the late painter Mahmoud Said (1897–1964), Alexandrian sculptors Omar Touson (born 1972) and Said Badr (born 1965), and Cairo-born interior architect and photographer Karim El-Hayawan. The second edition of Tale of Two Cities runs from 30 June to 31 July 2025 at Galleria Fumagalli in Milan, where it is co-curated by Art D'Égypte and Maria Vittoria Baravelli. Inspired by the ancient Milan Papyrus—one of the oldest known documents of poetry, discovered in 2001—and structured around three poetic fragments from the text, the Milan segment of the exhibition offers a lens through which artists contemplate the transience of cities and the enduring power of art. Contemporary Egyptian and Italian artists and designers engage with the papyrus's poetic themes in innovative and multidimensional ways. Participants include Jamal Bassiouni, Hassan Ragab, Ahmed Farid, Luca Boffi, Giacomo Cossio, Clarulecis, and Luigi Pensa. The exhibition also features designers from the Designer Circle by Art D'Égypte, including Kahhal 1871, Ahmad Elsherif, and Shewekar, whose projects reinterpret heritage and materiality within the context of contemporary design. In addition, a segment of this year's Tale of Two Cities will be presented at the MA*GA Art Museum in Gallarate—a city in the Milan metropolitan area—on 1 and 2 July. Titled Geography and Mystery, the MA*GA showcase presents Italian photography that explores identity and the spirit of place. These works go beyond documentation, offering meditations on the unknown and the hidden within nature and human history. Following its time in Italy, the exhibition will travel to Egypt, where works by artists from both countries will be displayed at several venues in Alexandria in October and November 2025. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Egypt Today
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Egypt Today
Tale of Two Cities: Italy & Alexandria: Reviving Cultural Dialogue Across the Mediterranean
Following the great success of the first edition of the "Tale of Two Cities" exhibition, which brought together Athens and Alexandria, Art D'Égypte by CulturVator returns this year with a new edition of this pioneering cultural initiative, linking Italy and Alexandria. This marks a continuation of the mission to revive the cultural and historical ties between Egypt and the Mediterranean countries and to foster cross-border artistic dialogue. The previous edition of the exhibition, held at the Acropolis Museum in Athens and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in 2024, served as a visual and human bridge between the civilizations of Greece and Egypt. It featured works by artists from both countries and hosted a wide range of cultural and intellectual activities in collaboration with the Cavafy Archives, the Benaki Museum, and the Onassis foundation. This year, the exhibition will be held in Milan, Italy, taking place at Galleria Fumagalli from June 30 to July 31, 2025, and on July 1 and 2 at MA*GA Museum, one of the leading institutions for contemporary art in northern Italy. A curated selection of Egyptian and Italian artists will participate within a creative framework that reflects the richness and intersection of cultural narratives across the Mediterranean. The exhibition will also travel to Alexandria in October and November 2025, where it will be hosted across several prominent cultural venues, further deepening the artistic exchange and fostering creative dialogue between the two nations. Nadine Abdel Ghaffar, founder of Art D'Égypte by Culturvator, said: "I'm proud to be launching the second edition of 'Tale of Two Cities' in Milan, a city that has long been a hub of art and civilizational dialogue. This project is an extension of our vision to reconnect Mediterranean cities through art and culture, offering platforms that reflect the diversity and shared creativity of the region's people. We believe that art can transcend borders, and that Alexandria will always remain a symbol of this cultural convergence. Our ambition is to transform this project into an annual initiative, partnering with a new Mediterranean coastal country every year." "Tale of Two Cities" is more than just an art exhibition; it is a sustainable cultural initiative that seeks to reconnect Mediterranean cities through art, history, and human dialogue reaffirming Alexandria's role as a historic bridge and a city that celebrates openness and cultural exchange.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Yahoo
David Frost is wrong about the Elgin Marbles
Dull is the eye that will not weep to seeThy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removedBy British hands… The campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles began almost from the moment of their removal. Byron's lines have been quoted for two centuries by restitutionists. If there were a way to restore the mouldering shrines to the Parthenon itself, it would surely have happened by now. Who could resist making whole the Temple of Athena? There would be no need for long-term loans. My colleagues Lord Frost and Baroness Debbonaire would not be insisting that their surrender would be 'good diplomacy'. But there is no way to restore them to the original structure. All sides agree that those magnificent metopes and pediments – bleached and numinous yet, at the same time, eerily realistic with their flowing robes and flared horses' nostrils – need to be preserved indoors. A few carvings have found their way into collections in Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna and Würzburg. But most are housed either at the Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009, or at the British Museum. The argument is therefore whether to move them from one museum to another, which raises the question of what makes a successful museum. I would set the following tests. Where will any given artefact be most carefully looked after? Where can we best appreciate its cultural impact? Where is it most accessible to specialists and scholars? Where will the largest number of people get the greatest pleasure from seeing it? The Greeks unquestionably have a great location. To admire those white Pentallic stones on the slopes of the Acropolis, glimpsing its heights through the windows, is quite an experience. But the British Museum is the most visited museum in the world (at least if we count the Louvre as a gallery rather than a museum). Museums, as the etymology implies, are secular temples to the muses, those ancient goddesses who inspired sublime feelings in mortals. They were designed to raise the spirits of the masses, not only to spread knowledge, but also to elevate artistic sensibility. The British Museum has been carrying out that function since the mid-18th century, and in a remarkably universalist spirit. It was the first public institution to call itself 'British', yet it never saw its vocation as national. It was intended from the start to be encyclopaedic, a place to display curios from every culture. This universality is rarer than people realise. Most museums have a national or ethnic focus. In Washington DC, for example, you will find the National Museum of the American Indian, the Chinese American Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. But the British Museum, as its former director Neil MacGregor put it, 'remains a unique repository of the achievements of human endeavour, and there is no culture, past or present, that is not represented within its walls. It is truly the memory of mankind.' If our aim is the greatest happiness for the greatest number, there is a good case for keeping the stones divided, and using modern technology to fill in the gaps with exact replicas (the Acropolis Museum currently represents the missing stones with deliberately rough plaster casts so as to emphasise its grievance). But this is not really about aesthetics. It is about nationalism, and the desire of successive Greek administrations to claim a direct link to the ancient city states. And here, I part ways with my House of Lords colleagues. For demands that rest on collective racial entitlements are incompatible with freedom, property and the rights of the individual. Commentators are often conflicted about these ethnic claims. The kinds of people who insist on performing indigenous land recognition ceremonies in Canada and Australia would be horrified at the idea that second-generation immigrants to Britain were here contingently. Yet free contract rules out ancestral claims. If my grandfather sold his house to yours, I have no right to turf you out. There is no question that the British Museum purchased the collection legally from Lord Elgin, who had acquired it with the full permission of the authorities. Elgin had not at first intended to remove the carvings. He wanted to sketch and measure them, but changed his mind when he saw passers-by carting them off. 'The Turkish government attached no importance to them,' he told a parliamentary committee. 'Every traveller coming added to the general defacement of the statuary in his reach.' Elgin saved the stones. Free contract and private property trump the superstitious idea that being descended from someone, or at least living in the same part of the world, establishes some kind of ownership right. If the Acropolis Museum wants the collection, it should put in an offer. Frankly, the way Britain is going, we might soon need the money. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Telegraph
11-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
David Frost is wrong about the Elgin Marbles
Dull is the eye that will not weep to see Thy walls defaced, thy mouldering shrines removed By British hands… The campaign for the return of the Elgin Marbles began almost from the moment of their removal. Byron's lines have been quoted for two centuries by restitutionists. If there were a way to restore the mouldering shrines to the Parthenon itself, it would surely have happened by now. Who could resist making whole the Temple of Athena? There would be no need for long-term loans. My colleagues Lord Frost and Baroness Debbonaire would not be insisting that their surrender would be 'good diplomacy'. But there is no way to restore them to the original structure. All sides agree that those magnificent metopes and pediments – bleached and numinous yet, at the same time, eerily realistic with their flowing robes and flared horses' nostrils – need to be preserved indoors. A few carvings have found their way into collections in Paris, Copenhagen, Munich, Vienna and Würzburg. But most are housed either at the Acropolis Museum, which opened in 2009, or at the British Museum. The argument is therefore whether to move them from one museum to another, which raises the question of what makes a successful museum. I would set the following tests. Where will any given artefact be most carefully looked after? Where can we best appreciate its cultural impact? Where is it most accessible to specialists and scholars? Where will the largest number of people get the greatest pleasure from seeing it? The Greeks unquestionably have a great location. To admire those white Pentallic stones on the slopes of the Acropolis, glimpsing its heights through the windows, is quite an experience. But the British Museum is the most visited museum in the world (at least if we count the Louvre as a gallery rather than a museum). Museums, as the etymology implies, are secular temples to the muses, those ancient goddesses who inspired sublime feelings in mortals. They were designed to raise the spirits of the masses, not only to spread knowledge, but also to elevate artistic sensibility. The British Museum has been carrying out that function since the mid-18th century, and in a remarkably universalist spirit. It was the first public institution to call itself 'British', yet it never saw its vocation as national. It was intended from the start to be encyclopaedic, a place to display curios from every culture. This universality is rarer than people realise. Most museums have a national or ethnic focus. In Washington DC, for example, you will find the National Museum of the American Indian, the Chinese American Museum and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. But the British Museum, as its former director Neil MacGregor put it, 'remains a unique repository of the achievements of human endeavour, and there is no culture, past or present, that is not represented within its walls. It is truly the memory of mankind.' If our aim is the greatest happiness for the greatest number, there is a good case for keeping the stones divided, and using modern technology to fill in the gaps with exact replicas (the Acropolis Museum currently represents the missing stones with deliberately rough plaster casts so as to emphasise its grievance). But this is not really about aesthetics. It is about nationalism, and the desire of successive Greek administrations to claim a direct link to the ancient city states. And here, I part ways with my House of Lords colleagues. For demands that rest on collective racial entitlements are incompatible with freedom, property and the rights of the individual. Commentators are often conflicted about these ethnic claims. The kinds of people who insist on performing indigenous land recognition ceremonies in Canada and Australia would be horrified at the idea that second-generation immigrants to Britain were here contingently. Yet free contract rules out ancestral claims. If my grandfather sold his house to yours, I have no right to turf you out. There is no question that the British Museum purchased the collection legally from Lord Elgin, who had acquired it with the full permission of the authorities. Elgin had not at first intended to remove the carvings. He wanted to sketch and measure them, but changed his mind when he saw passers-by carting them off. 'The Turkish government attached no importance to them,' he told a parliamentary committee. 'Every traveller coming added to the general defacement of the statuary in his reach.' Elgin saved the stones. Free contract and private property trump the superstitious idea that being descended from someone, or at least living in the same part of the world, establishes some kind of ownership right. If the Acropolis Museum wants the collection, it should put in an offer. Frankly, the way Britain is going, we might soon need the money.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Yahoo
10 historic Greek wonders away from the islands
This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). Greece is home to some of the world's most extraordinary heritage sites. These range from ancient buildings — such as the extraordinary monasteries of Meteora, perched high on sandstone pinnacles, and the Parthenon temple in Athens — to the pretty, pastel-hued villages that line the coast. There are marvels of engineering, too, including the Corinth Canal, which connects the Ionian and Aegean Seas, and the fortified island town of Monemvasia, which seems to tumble down the cliffs straight to the sea. Nothing bellows 'Ancient Greece' like the Parthenon, the crowning glory of the hilltop Acropolis citadel and visible all over Athens. The temple was built by hand from white marble in 447 BCE to give thanks to Athena, goddess of wisdom and military victory, who locals believed saved the city during the Persian Wars. Its treasures take centre stage in the Acropolis Museum. A glass chamber displays the temple's near 200ft-long frieze, with carvings so intricate and vivid, you can almost hear the thunder of hooves. 'Suspended in the air' is the rough translation of Meteora, and it's a fitting description of its most famous assets: six still-functioning monasteries, dating from the 14th to 16th centuries, perched on soaring sandstone pinnacles. Each is unique and, if you've got the puff, accessible – but don't neglect the less obvious architectural treasures, visible (if not reachable) from the thickly wooded trails threaded between these natural pedestals. These include cave churches, ascetics' lofty hollows, and a six-storey hermitage built into the cavity of a sheer rock face, which is so intricate and implausible it could be a fairy house. Jutting out into the turquoise Aegean Sea, Northern Greece's 'Blue City' spells out its history in architecture. It was under Byzantine rule until the Ottomans rocked up in 1387, razing the acropolis and building a hulking 15th-century fortress in its place. The Turkish influence can still be felt in the cobbled alleys of the medina-like old town, Panagia, with its tangle of pastel-painted houses and hidden courtyards. Seek out the late-Ottoman Mohammed Ali's House, where the former ruler of Egypt was born in 1769, and the blush-hued Halil Bey Mosque, before tackling the climb to the castle for soul-soaring views. Pressing up against Turkey, the town of Soufli in Greece's Evros region gained fame across Europe for its silk production in the 19th and early 20th centuries, a wealthy legacy mapped out in mansions and bitziklikia, or 'cocoon houses', built specifically for it. A major stop on Greece's Silk Road, the river valley was once cloaked in mulberry trees that fed the silkworms. This heritage is woven into its one-of-a-kind industrial architecture. Narrow, cobbled streets lead to stone-and-timber buildings unravelling the history of production. For insights into the town's rich past, visit the Art of Silk Museum, lodged in a beautifully restored neoclassical house, and the chimney-topped Tzivre Silk Factory, founded by the Ceriano Fratelli company from Milan in 1910. Pushing through solid limestone and creating a short-cut between the Ionian and Aegean seas, the four-mile-long, 80ft-wide Corinth Canal is an engineering marvel. The tyrant Periander dreamt up the canal in the sixth century BCE, but was afraid building it would provoke the wrath of the gods. Roman emperor Nero had no such qualms and struck the first blow himself with a golden pickaxe in 67 BCE. The canal was finally completed by the French in the 19th century. With sheer walls towering 300ft above the water, it's an impressive sight. You can travel along it, on cruises lasting around 90 minutes. In the southern Peloponnese, Ancient Messini delivers a shot of history without the madding crowds, with ruins as vast and impressively intact as those in much busier Olympia. The city-state was founded in 371 BCE after the Thebans defeated the Spartans at the Battle of Leuctra. And if you believe local legend, Zeus was born here and raised by nymphs Neda and Ithomi. History and myth intertwine as you explore its theatre, bathhouse, Doric temple and vast agora (marketplace), once the ancient city's beating heart, framed by stoas (columned porticoes). Just as compelling are the Sanctuary of Asclepius, an ancient healing temple, and one of the largest and best-preserved stadiums in Greece, where once Roman gladiators did bloody battle. The island Monemvasia off the Peloponnese's east coast, linked to the mainland by a short causeway, was founded by the Byzantines in the sixth century, making it one of Europe's oldest continuously inhabited fortified towns. Once a strategic port on Eastern Mediterranean shipping routes, its past glory is etched out in its rock-top medieval citadel, Kastro. A wander through the cobbled lanes of the lower town brings you to the main square and church of Christos Elkomenos, filled with Byzantine icons. A steep path clambers up to the medieval castle ruins for arresting views out to sea. The Olympic flame still burns brightly in Ancient Olympia in the Peloponnese, where the modern-day games have their Greek origins. From 776 BCE to 393 CE, the Olympics were held here quadrennially. Myth has it that Zeus, king of gods, victoriously wrestled his father Kronos for the throne at the first games. As you wander the sunlit ruins, scattered among plane and olive trees, you can almost envisage the athletes and the cheering spectators. Follow the trail past the gymnasium, palaestra (wrestling school) and Workshop of Pheidias – where the now-lost ivory-and-gold Statue of Zeus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, was sculpted – to reach the sacred sanctuary of Altis, and finish at the nearby archaeological museum. In Homeric lore, the most powerful Greek ruler at Troy was Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, immortalised in the 8th-century BCE epic poems The Iliad and The Odyssey as a citadel 'rich in gold'. Indeed, this was the greatest of Mycenaean cities in the late Bronze Age, its influence extending from the Argolis region of the eastern Peloponnese to the world beyond. You can still feel the rumble of history and myth as you pass through the mighty Lion Gate and the Cyclopean Walls – lore has it the namesake one-eyed giant built them from huge, rough-hewn limestone boulders. Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the expansive, captivating ruins, encompassing royal tombs, apartments, artisans' workshops and Agamemnon's Palace reflect the dazzling scope of human genius. Greece isn't short of attractive coastal towns, but Nafplio blows most straight out of the water. And it has plenty of history to back up those good looks. A major port since the Bronze Age, when it was crowned by Akronafplia Fortress, the bijou city in the Argolis region of the eastern Peloponnese briefly served as capital of the newly independent Greek state until Athens took over in 1834. Its old town is one of Greece's loveliest, with streets lined with pastel-hued Venetian mansions and bougainvillea-draped neoclassical houses leading to cafe-rimmed Syntagma Square. And that's before you reach its biggest showstopper: Palamidi Fortress, a top-of-the-rock, early 18th-century Venetian citadel that is a masterpiece of engineering. Puff up 999 steps to the top for front-row views over city and sea. Published in the April 2025 issue of National Geographic Traveller (UK).To subscribe to National Geographic Traveller (UK) magazine click here.(Available in select countries only).
