Concert hall’s new program‘Megaron Plus’ promises a series of art and science lectures, conferences and exhibitions
At the recent press conference held for the presentation of «Megaron Plus,» a new program of events scheduled to take place at the Athens Concert Hall’s new venues, Christos Lambrakis stressed the program’s great national importance. Deputy Minister of Culture Petros Tatoulis said it indicated culture’s step into the future and journalist Thanassis Lalas also expressed his pleasure. The interesting new program – which will unfold at the hugely expensive and technologically equipped Trianti and Skalkottas halls, in the luxurious foyers and elsewhere – consists mostly of lectures, but also day conferences and exhibitions, with the participation of personalities of international standing, mostly scientists or artists. «Megaron Plus is an additional program of the Athens Concert Hall, which abroad is known as the Megaron,» said the concert hall’s director Christos Lambrakis, apologizing for the venue’s un-Greek name and added that the program was initiated and realized by the Friends of Music Society, in particular by Yiannis Manos and Thanassis Lalas. They were the ones who made the suggestion to Lambrakis, and then the Ministry of Culture, private sponsors, the French ambassador and others endorsed the program, which is aimed at the presentation of the new tendencies in various areas of the arts and sciences and attracting a young audience. Lambrakis described Megaron Plus as «the Athens Concert Hall’s and Greece’s answer» to the modern era and Tatoulis said that its aim was to carry all Greeks away to the wonderful world of culture. He added that the program was part of the government’s decision to make culture accessible to all Greeks. Events This year’s experimental cycle, which has already started with the recent successful lectures by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Israeli writer Amos Oz, also features lectures by famous architects Zaha Hadid (20 April), Peter Eisenmann (12 May), Mario Botta (7 December), Christian de Portzamparc (15 November) and Nikos Valssamakis (10 October), writers Paulo Coelho (2 February) and Nadine Gordimer (7 October), Valery Giscard d’Estaing (in March) and director of the Pasteur Institute Professor Philippe Kourilsky (2 June). Megaron Plus also includes a round-table discussion on European and Mediterranean culture with writers Adonis, Jorge Semprun and Philippe Daverio (27 January), exhibitions on mathematics, AIDS, Italian design, Matisse and Picasso for children in collaboration with the Pompidou Center, photography, fashion and more.
