On occasion of the bicentenary celebration of the Greek Revolution started from 1821, the museum exhibition “The Greek Revolution” is presented during the 5th Art Thessaloniki in November this year. The exhibition show paint and pen of Philhellene painters and travelers. Among these are about 50 collectible lithographs by the Greek painters Karl Krazeisen, Adam Friedel, Peter Von Hess.
Additionally the exhibition presents European newspapers during the period 1821-1828 to show the important contribution of Greek Revolution for the political and cultural development of Europe and the modern freedom movements.
The Greek uprising of 1821 fundamentally changed the prevailing political structure, the state structure, collective identities, social and political values and economic relationships. Hence, one can undoubtedly speak of a revolution.
The Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ) wrote appropriately:
The forgotten revolution – why modern Europe is difficult to imagine without the successful liberation struggle of the Greeks:
The effects of the Greek revolution of 1821, which culminated in the successful liberation struggle against Ottoman rule, are underestimated. There is a lack of awareness that modern Europe was also born in the Peloponnese.
Of particular importance for the Greek identity and the constant development of Greek culture is the language and the inheritance of a traditional imagery :
Because Greek is the only language in Europe that has been spoken and written continuously for two and a half millennia. There is no such thing as «modern Greek». Even the thesis of a “genetic” break between today’s and “ancient” Greeks is nonsense. It was set up by the orientalist Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer in 1830 – and it became a fake mythos.
But the revolution of 1821 was also part of the geopolitics of international powers. The East-West conflict of the Cold War (now classified as modern) dates back to the 18th century. The fact that Greece was liberated in the naval battle of Navarino in 1827 through an unplanned concerted action by the actually warring states – here England and France, there the Tsar – is therefore one of the ironic punch lines of history.
The Greek Revolution
Art Thessaloniki
International exhibition
2021, November, 25 – 28