TOKENS OF WORSHIP
Exhibition on the subject of offering
22nd of July until 3rd of September 2006
Every day, 10:00-17:00

Ritual is sometimes the only and best way to achieve meaning and effect.

The Benaki Museum’s main orientation, is not only to gather and make known the elements which compose neo-Hellenic civilization, but also the familiarization of the public with such elements, through contemporary ways of approach. In this framework, and continuing a successful on-going co-operation with the Cultural Organization “AEON”, for this year, the Museum is organizing an exhibition at the Bazeos Tower entitled “Tokens of worship”. The exhibition’s purpose is to approach and interpret the meaning of a type of religious objects, votive offerings called tamata, which acquire exhibitional qualities once detached from their initial context (the church). Through a spherical and substantiated presentation of the objects, the exhibition aims to depict the socio-religious aspect of the practice of offerings and its dynamic presence in modern Greek reality.
Despite the ethnographic and artistic richness which is revealed by the research concerning their ambiguous position within Greek society, tamata have hardly been studied and have rarely been presented in an exhibition. Anonymous creations, often seen as objects of inferior quality and of small artistic worth, tamata are on the fringe of aesthetic recognition. Equally marginal is their position within their ritual environment, due to the nature of the practice, which relates to a personal relationship between the devotee and the saint that goes beyond the church dogma.
The monastic physiognomy of the tower in combination with its function as a museum, create an ideal environment for such an exhibition. In a place loaded with its own dynamic, the visitor is called upon to explore offering in all its aspects, through objects, photographs and their historical documentation. The objects are present, maintaining their aesthetic and sensory quality through their permanence in place and their photographic impression on time, the power of the image. Tamata stand out due to their material nature, but also because they represent something: they stand in for an individual, they introduce and portray him/her at the same time.
The material originates from the Benaki Museum’s collections and photographer Maria Choulaki’s archive. Reference to the conjectural influence of the subject on art is attempted through the presentation of Dimitris Talagani’s artworks, who adapts the technique of tamata-making in contemporary creations. Extracts from the documentary in progress "The Biography of a Tama" by Panos Karkanevatos will be shown in the exhibition.
The exhibition, curated by Sophia Handaka of the department of neo- Hellenic Culture of the Benaki Museum, will take place in the auspices of the Naxos Festival 2006, with the prospect of travelling to other destinations in Greece and abroad.
General supervision-coordination, Marios Vazeos.

21:30
ODYSSEUS by Dimitris Dimitriadis
A theatrical performance; direction and visual artwork by Stelios Krassanakis; starring Argyris Xaphis, an outstanding young performer from the new generation of actors. An inverted Odysseus; an ill-equipped hero, an unfeasible return, an insipid homecoming. A monologue that is theatre, pure and simple, extending the actor’s speech, gaze and body to their very limits, within a complete theatrical universe. A Naxos Festival Production

21:30
ODYSSEUS by Dimitris Dimitriadis
A theatrical performance; direction and visual artwork by Stelios Krassanakis; starring Argyris Xaphis, an outstanding young performer from the new generation of actors. An inverted Odysseus; an ill-equipped hero, an unfeasible return, an insipid homecoming. A monologue that is theatre, pure and simple, extending the actor’s speech, gaze and body to their very limits, within a complete theatrical universe. A Naxos Festival Production

24:00
ITHACA by Dimitris Dimitriadis
A musical version presented by Chryssa Kapsouli and the musicians Tilemachos Moussas and David Oikonomou. What does the mystical sound of the Didjeridu—a traditional musical instrument of Australia’s Aboriginal natives—have in common with electronic samplings off a computer? And how did theatrical speech turn into a gig, otherwise known as a “live” event in musical slang? These and other questions will be answered in Ithaca, a thought-provoking performance.

21:30
ITHACA by Dimitris Dimitriadis
A theatrical performance directed by Sophia Karakantza, with Chryssa Kapsouli in the title role. Visual environment by Maria Konomi, music by Tilemachos Moussas. Ithaca is personified and, acquiring the power of speech, irrepressibly traverses the conventions and prejudices of myths. This personification tears into History joining the experience of thousands of people, pain, with its own “mythical” experience. This will be followed by the first public reading—by Dimitris Dimitriadis himself—of the work Homer, the third part of the writer’s trilogy.

24:00
MODE PLAGAL Concert
A groundbreaking group that, using jazz techniques, created a unique musical idiom combining references not only to Greek traditional music, but also echoes of Byzantium, and Balkan, African, funky, groovy, rock and blues rhythms, as well as many other elements whose influence the group communicates. The group’s third album, Mode Plagal III, appeared in 2001 and was voted No. 13 in the Top 20 of the World Music Charts Europe in 2002, and No. 33 in the Top 100 during that same year. The members of Mode Plagal are: Thodoris Rellos, Kleon Antoniou, Takis Kanellos, Antonis Maratos, and Florian Micuta.

21:30
GRANDMOTHER’S SMILE
Script - Lyrics: Mania Papadimitriou
Piano: Dionyssis Mallouchos
The performance, starring Mania Papadimitriou is both song and theatre, with a touch of vaudeville, and a great deal of cabaret. But above all, it is soul. An entertainment made up of satiric rhyming texts, reminiscent of the verse of Georgios Souris, and wonderful songs. Extracts from songs of the following artists will be heard during the performance: Attik, Giannidis, Souyioul, Myrogiannis, Hadjidakis, Theodorakis, Xarchakos, Spartakos, Bianco, Plessas, Glanzberg, and Kander.

21.30
«Philosophos» (=The Philosopher) performed by Roula Pateraki
From the book by Giannis Panos, «The History of Metamorphoses». Inspired and created by Maria Illia, Manos Lambrakis, Angelos Mentis, Dimitris Papaioannou, and Tasia Sofianidou. Roula Pateraki, a stage actress with experience of the «one woman show», performs The Philosopher and transports us into the «tortured conscience» of that «greatest of philosophers» Michael Psellos.

21:30
MELINA TANAGRI CONCERT
An encounter with the multifaceted, international and boundless musical world of our beloved performer and songwriter. With the participation of: Vassilis Hadjinikolaou, keyboards, vocals, Dimitris Papalambrou, guitar, Giorgos Panagiotopoulos, violin.

24:00
CONCERT: Vamos fugir
Musical getaways from Avadista – Leonidas Maridakis (guitar, vocals), Anastasia Eden (vocals), Petros Varthakouris (base) and Dimitris Giannopoulos (saxophone). Brazilian and Latin jazz variations of familiar pieces, including Vamos fugir by Gilberto Gil and the Wailers, Three Cool Cats by Ry Gooder and others, and Manos Hadjidakis’ Reflections through the eyes of Raining Pleasure, as well as songs-magic images from Allen Ginsberg, Jalaluddin Rumi, Yunus Emre, Napoleon Lapathiotis, Miltos Sachtouris, and others.

21:30
ODYSSEUS by Dimitris Dimitriadis
A theatrical performance; direction and visual artwork by Stelios Krassanakis; starring Argyris Xaphis, an outstanding young performer from the new generation of actors. An inverted Odysseus; an ill-equipped hero, an unfeasible return, an insipid homecoming. A monologue that is theatre, pure and simple, extending the actor’s speech, gaze and body to their very limits, within a complete theatrical universe. A Naxos Festival Production

20:30
A round table discussion on the subject: “Environment of Life and Culture”
The discussion will be coordinated by. Brigitta Papastavrou, President of Agrotouristiki SA. The event will take place thanks to the collaboration of AGROTOURISTIKI S.A. and ARIADNE S.A., Naxos Development Company.

20:30
The Symbolic Nature of the Representation of the Virgin and the Tama in Her Honour
Lecture by Anthi Valsamaki, Icon Painter, Head of the Icon Conservation Workshop of the Benaki Museum The image of the Birth, with the swaddled baby lying in the manger, and the sign of the cross at the head and arms of the Virgin constitute some of the iconographic elements, the symbols, recorded on the metal tamata, offerings from the faithful to the Virgin.