Benaki Museum has plenty in store for fall

Three major exhibitions are set to open in September

It may be only mid-August, but the Benaki Museum announced its September program for the Pireos Street Annex and it is too tempting not to mention. Three major exhibitions, theater, painting and photography, areas in which the museum specializes, are coming up soon.

As this year marks the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of celebrated theater director Karolos Koun, the museum will dedicate its large, central exhibition to the late innovator. A joint production between the Benaki Museum, the Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus and the Technis Theater, the exhibition will open on September 25. Its aim is to explore the artistic and esthetic choices of Koun, the founder of the Technis Theater, as well as his relationship with older and contemporary Greek artists. Particular emphasis will be laid on how different art forms came together in Koun’s work.

The exhibition will further feature a series of parallel events, including a one-day conference, concerts with music written for Koun’s theater performances with the participation of the Orchestra of Colors, as well as screenings of his productions. An impressive catalogue detailing all of Koun’s productions will also be available.

On September 19, a retrospective of Greek 20th century artist Yiannis Migadis will go on display. Migadis is one of Greek painting’s special cases.

A student of Constantinos Parthenis, who hab a background in “Greek” painting as well as influences from Yiannis Tsarouchis’s work, Migadis carved his own style through four main thematic cycles: portraits, landscapes, natures mortes and objects. The exhibition will mostly consist of early works, drawings and models of sets and costumes he designed for the theater that will go on display for the first time.

Just one day earlier, on September 18, a large display on Josef Koudelka, one of the most important representatives of post-WWII European photography, is scheduled to open. Curated by the artist himself, the exhibition will start with photographs from the late 1950s and early 60s and continue with a selection of his best work. It will end with “Chaos,” a recent panoramic work.