The exhibition will mark the 100th anniversary since Melina’s birth.
From January 18 to March 11, 2022, Technopolis City of Athens, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Melina Mercouri Foundation, present the exhibition “Remember me and love me” dedicated to Melina Mercouri, curated by Nikolaos Kaltsas.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth, Melina Mercouri, Melina – as we all call her – with her inexhaustible vitality and rare charm, her intense dynamism and international radiance, the actress, the politician, the woman who was much loved and who loved with passion, defended her ideas and beliefs to the end, the woman-symbol, the “last Greek goddess”, is honoured the way she deserves it at Technopolis.
The exhibits include, among others, original scripts with her handwritten notes, six unpublished letters, personal effects, her dressing room and objects she had with her on her last trip to New York.
From Tuesday, January 18th, her and Dassin’s lucky day – since it was on 18th when they met, on 18th when they got married, on 18th when they scheduled her premieres – we will have the opportunity to discover and remember different aspects of her life and career. In 3 separate sections, three different aspects of her life are outlined: her film career, her theatre performances and her militant and parliamentary activities.
The exhibits – some of them presented for the first time – include rich photographic and audiovisual material, 13 costumes from theatre performances and films, 25 posters of her movie hits, 37 photographs of her with prominent international personalities such as Salvador Dali, Pope John Paul II, Queen Elizabeth, Indira Gandhi, Catherine Deneuve, Felipe Gonzalez, original scripts with her handwritten notes, six unpublished letters, personal effects, her dressing room and objects she had with her on her last trip to New York.
Through them, we will get to know Melina a little better, the Melina of “Stella” and “Never on Sunday”, of “Phaedra” and “Topkapi”, the actress who charmed Cannes, the singer of “The Children of Piraeus”, Melina as Clytemnestra at the Epidaurus directed by Karolos Koun, Melina with her strong voice and the anti-dictatorial action, the longest-serving Minister of Culture to date, who was more closely associated than anyone else with the claim for the return of the Parthenon sculptures back to Greece, who inspired and launched the institution of the European Capital of Culture.
Melina used to say that you only die when you are forgotten. But Melina will never be forgotten…
General supervision:
Manuela Pavlidou, Secretary General of the Melina Mercouri Foundation
Curation, museological & museographic study:
Nikolaos Kaltsas, Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art
**The exhibits come from the collections of the Melina Mercouri Foundation and the private collection of Giorgos Pilichos.
Dates: January 18 to March 11, 2022
Opening Days & Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 11.00 – 20.00
Technopolis City of Athens
Venue: New Retorts
*Free entrance
Reservation of entrance tickets: viva. gr