Awesome Autumn-Time Exhibitions in Athens

 Let’s face it, the weather has become unpredictable worldwide, and Attica recently experienced its first lashings of a cyclone, so no longer do Athenians enjoy summery sunshine til late October and the wake up to winter weather almost overnight. Regardless of the (somewhat schizophrenic) outdoor temperature though, Athenians always find clever ways to enjoy the outdoors, and stay away from the house for a good part of the week. Following a summer of absence, citizens are back to enjoy some engaging and enlightening exhibitions great enough to cheer them up despite the weather.

Joan Leigh Fermor’s Photography

Since May 2018 the Benaki Museum has been hosting a deeply surprising and immersive exhibition of photographs captured by Joan Leigh Fermor, the wife of the world-acclaimed war hero and writer Patrick Leigh Fermor. Based in Mani and deeply in love with Greece, the couple explored the country and its people and brought other explorers to discover and love it from around the world, for a great part of their life. The fervour with which they lived is palpable in the photographer’s images of an era that is as long-gone as it is real. The exhibition ends on October 21st.

Countless Aspects of Beauty

Another impressive and unique exhibition that opened in Athens in May is being shown at the National Archaeological Museum - a fantastic destination in itself. The Countless Aspects of Beauty exhibition, which will be open to the public in an exquisitely curated space until the spring of 2019, showcases beauty in all its aspects from Neolithic to Roman times. From elaborately painted glass vases (found intact!) and mirrors to statues, reliefs, jaw-dropping jewellery and beauty accessories such as makeup or jewellery boxes, perfume bottles, and mirrors, one can enjoy seeing how the importance and interpretation of beauty was shaped during the millennia. The exhibition also has its own signature scent - created by the pharmaceutical and cosmetics company Korres based on a recipe found written in Linear B symbols on a stone tablet. Placed in two large glass vials, the perfume, which smells like intense rose and spoon sweet or marmalade, can be inhaled by visitors.

Athens Pinball Museum

Yet another feature to make Koukaki a hip neighbourhood, the Athens Pinball Museum welcomes visitors to enjoy playing or simply admire over 100 flippers collected, rescued or bought by the museum’s pinball-machine-loving owner in a short space of time. A personal passion that became a large-scale project, the museum showcases pinball machines from the ‘50s- ‘90s with unique illustrations and art details that travel you back to different cultural trends, movies, and fashions.

Yannis Moralis’ Art

A retrospective exhibition that opened on September 20th and will run only until January 5th presents the familiar as well as often unknown paintings, sculptures, illustrations and even record covers created by acclaimed and innovative cubist artist Yannis Moralis. See it at the Benaki Museum’s Pireos St Annexe. 

100 Years of Chinese History

For the first time, the Acropolis Museum is presenting an exhibition that brings 18th century China to Greece. ‘From the Forbidden City: Imperial Apartments of Quianlong‘ brings the public to the magnificent interiors of China's Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799), who held the throne for 60 years and created enormous reforms in the social and cultural life of China. One can admire over 154 artifacts including furnishings, statues, clothing and decor items from the emperor’s personal abode in the Palace of Many Splendors that lay within the Forbidden City. The exhibition will last until February 2019.