(May 16th - September 19th)


The renowned Benaki Museum of Athens, in partnership with the Athens International Airport and the Costa Navarino resort in southwest Greece, present a special photographic exhibition at the airport, commemorating the 120th anniversary of the revival of the Olympic Games, under the title “Olympic Games 1896: The Photograph Album of Albert Mayer - From the Benaki Collections, As Viewed by Eva Nathena”.

In the “Art and Environment” airport area, visitors enter and walk “inside an aircraft”: 25 photographs, on display through the “aircraft windows” and “in the cockpit”, take “passengers” on a journey to the first Olympic Games, and their chronicle, as well as to the city of Athens as it was in 1896:  visitors will see the International Committee and the Greek donor and national benefactor, Georgios Averof, who, at his own expense, took care of the restoration of the ancient Stadium of the city, as well as the Greek runner, the water-carrier, Spyros Louis, posing for Mayer, in his pure-white cotton-kilt (the Greek “foustanela”), after having won the Marathon Race.

The exhibition takes visitors back to the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens, the first Olympic Games of the modern era, "giving life”, through digital technology, to the historic photos from the album of photographer Albert Mayer, kept at the Benaki Museum’s Historical Archives. The curator, Eva Nathena, and her associates, was based on this exceptional photographic material in order to recapture the historical moments in a unique way.

The exhibition is on display at the "Art & Environment” area, Departures Level of Athens International Airport (Entrance 3/accessible on a 24hour basis) from May 16th to September 16th, while the parallel exhibition “Olympic Games 1986” at the Costa Navarino in Messinia will be on display from April 27th to November 30th, 2016.



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