On 25 April 1915 the Gallipolis campaign began; a joint British and French operation to capture of Constantinople (Istanbul) and ensure maritime passage to Russia. The landing on the peninsula of Gallipolis, in the European part of the Ottoman Empire, marked one of the most savage fighting of the World War I. After eight months of fierce fighting and thousands of deaths, the Allies were defeated and retreated. Lemnos became the reception and relief for thousands of wounded and dead. The exhibition “In Red. 100 years from the Gallipolis Battle”, honors the 100-year anniversary and is being presented initially in the Municipal Gallery of Thessaloniki (April 2 – May 15, 2015 / opening Thursday April 2, a 20:00) and then in Lemnos (June 12 – July 19, 2015), as an initiative of the Artspace Ochre Blue with the support of the Municipalities of Thessaloniki and Lemnos.
31 artists from Greece, Turkey, Australia and New Zealand participate in the exhibition. Red color is the common element in most projects as a symbol of all those who perished in the battle fields; the preservation of the memory becomes the ultimate challenge and a reminder of the obligation to an individual and collective level. The red poppy that was adopted as a symbol of remembrance of the dead soldiers of World War I, is present in many projects and maintains the tension of the message-the dignity and life-in the modern era of conflict and intolerance.
Paintings and engravings, photographs and installations, create a rich and meaningful content, connotations and multiple readings; they initiate feelings and transcribe with a completely subjective look the historical reality; they transmit with sensitivity and expressive power the emotional dimension of the theme itself; they refer to war and violence; they focus on the indescribable small stories, and they finally project the messages of Gallipoli in the modern era. The exhibition is accompanied by e bilingual catalogue (greek, english).
Curated by Yannis Bolis, Art Historian / State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki Nikolas Bliatkas, Visual Artist
Scientific Partner Vlasis Vlasidis, Assistant Professor / Department of Balkan, Slavic & Oriental Studies / University of Macedonia
You can see the catalog of the exhibition in the following file:
