PERA, by AKYLAS MILLAS
Cultural Centre “Melina”, Athens, Greece, 2023
The exhibition “Pera, by Akylas Millas”, hosted at the City of Athens Cultural Centre “Melina”, recreated the Grand Avenue of Pera (Grande Rue de Pera) in Istanbul, as it was until the middle of the last century. This was the first time that Akylas Millas’s hand-painted drawings were presented on a large scale and staged in a way that allows the viewer to get acquainted with the most cosmopolitan and multicultural district of the city, in its most prosperous period.
The “beyond the city” district, of Western standards and a European flair, in the crossroads of Propontis, flourishing from the end of the 19th century and until the ‘50s in the previous century, was an example of a harmonious coexistence of citizens of different religions and origins, but with a highly developed sense of citizenship, a trait that the residents of Polis still bear as a title today, wherever they live.
The Grand Avenue of the district of Pera starts from Taksim Square, in the center of Istanbul, and reaches up to Tunnel Square. Along the street there are a number of historic buildings of the 19th century, mainly in neoclassical, eclectic and neo-gothic style, such as the Church of the Holy Trinity, the Sismanoglio Megaron, the Lyceum of Galata (one of the oldest educational institutions of Istanbul), and the Catholic Church of St. Anthony of Padua, among others.
The exhibition, through the sketches of the eminent doctor, historian and craftsman, documented the buildings of both facades of the street, about 500 meters in length, to scale. It also featured additional audio-visual material from the wider region of Pera, with rich historical, architectural, social and cultural interest. Graphic and historical documentation of buildings, architectural details, shop signs, as well as advertising signs, seals, vouchers, invoices and photographs of the life of a multi-ethnic and multicultural area, were transformed into memory “capacitors” and triggers. In addition, small scale reproductions of buildings of the famous historic street, also printed to scale on a 3D printer, were on display, supplemented with other original material. Drawing on experience and memory and with the assistance of personal documents, mainly collected by himself, Akilas Millas sketches buildings from both sides of the Grand Avenue, which even today bear the indelible mark oftheir glorious past, and surrounds them with reproductions of the elements that he lovingly preserved as heirlooms, confirming that we do not only inhabit the homeland, it inhabits us.
Exhibition Design: Konstantinos Pittas (KP Office)
Curation: Katerina Koskina
Project Location: Athens, Greece
Status: Complete
Completion Year: 2023
Gross Area: 400 m2
Commissioned by: The City of Athens
Sketches: Akylas Millas
Archival Material and Accompanying Texts Selection: Yannis Evdokimidis
Production – Printing: Militos Publications
Graphic Design: Diana Evangelou
Digitization and Image Processing: Dimitris Potamitis
3D Printing: Aris Mavromatis (University of Western Macedonia)
Lighting Design: Maria Maneta
Technical Support: Konstantinos Plassaras
Texts translation from Greek: Thodoris Panagiotou