From Mount Athos …

Michael Cacoyannis Foundation accommodates a unique exhibition of balsa wood scale models by Michalis Vassilopoulos.
For the first time, all the monasteries that are built on the sheer peninsula of Athos are going to be exposed in one thematic event, from Great Wednesday 1st of May to Tuesday 14th of May 2013. The exhibition is organised by International Relations for Culture and its Artistic Manager is Kostas Manioudakis.

In parallel and during the days of From Mount Athos exhibition, the documentary by Giorgos Zervoulakos and Vangelis Serdaris Athos: The Yard of Virgin Mary (1973), (duration: 50′) will be screened at MCFs Video-Room, from 18:00 till 22:00.

In addition, on Thursday 9th of May at 19:00, a special event will be organized. The Ambassador of Serbia Mr. Dragan Zupanjevac and the poet Thanassis Th. Niarchos are going to talk about the Monasteries of Athos as monuments of the International Cultural Heritage. Mania Papadimitriou is going to read a text by Alexandros Papadiamantis and a hymn will be sung by Irinaios Nakos and Giorgos Dimelis in the old Athonian way, always accompanied by cantors and cymbals.

The Monasteries of Mount Athos are the sleepless guards of the religious spirit and the jewels of the world cultural heritage. They stand magisterially on the remote peninsula from 963 A.D. till nowadays. The miniatures of these monasteries are about to be presented in Michalis Vassilopoulos exhibition. Their architectural details are going to reveal the adventure of the human mind, during its attempt to understand the world and touch its consciousness.

The exhibition that later on will travel abroad- gives the opportunity to the female visitors of the exhibition to suspend the AVATON rule and feel the different experience of walking at Athos.

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Michalis Vassilopoulos, was born in Nea Smyrni. As a child, he was student of the Evangelical School and he used to play at its vacant land. He went to the High School of Plaka and Doxiadis College. Great people of Arts, such as Dimitris Mytaras, Petros Zouboulakis, Marina Labraki-Plaka, George Georgiadis and others taught him the art of designing.

The last twelve years, he spends his time creating various artworks by using tiny pieces of balsa wood. Churches, Greek and world monuments, industrial spaces, ships of different eras, simple and ordinary objects are Michalis inspiration in making miniatures. His aim is the study of the architectural history of these monuments and the highlighting of their destiny. A first collection of his creations was accommodated at the Gallery of Kallithea.

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Balsa Wood (ochroma pyramidale) is the lightest wood in the world. It comes from a deciduous tree of the Southern American tropical forests, near South Mexico. It is flexible and hard and it symbolizes the balance of the natural characteristics that are used to fulfill the human needs.

The natives of South America used to construct their rafts with this type of wood. During the Second World War, the British Army constructed the rapid type of airplane named de Havilland Mosquito by using balsa wood. Nowadays, architects create their scale models from balsa wood.