EMILY KARAPOSTOLI

01/06/2014

architect-museologist

Ph.D. candidate school of Architecture AUTh.

diploma flutist – sound artist

free lancer, researcher

Thesis

History Museum of Kalamaria-Architectural programming and design

(permanent exhibition: Kalamaria, Topography of Memory)

This ΜΑ thesis has been developed in relation to archaeologist Nikolaos Vasilikoudis’ MA Thesis. Basic principle of this cooperation was the experience of the two MA students, developed through the course of the graduate program, based on a series of projects completed by the two professionals, an archaeologist and an architect. The research for the creation of the proposed museum has begun many years before, mainly because of the identity of two scholars, both residents of the municipality of Kalamaria and third generation refugees from Asia Minor. The creation of a museum that outlines the identity of these scholars was something that was smoldering in several discussions and projects.

How can someone combine the present with the past, in a place where she came without wanting it to, how can she manage to make it hers? And which does she consider her own place? The “lost homelands”, Izmir, Cesme, Aivali, Thessaloniki, Kalamaria, Nea Krini? How the tangled memories of a distant place in the past connect with the present and the current homeland? How is it possible for someone to connect with her current location, homeland of other people long ago? This MA thesis attempts to answer to all of these questions by creating a museum, the history museum of Kalamaria with the permanent exhibition entitled “Kalamaria, Topography of Memory”. The title derived from the corresponding documentary “Sinasos, topography of memory” which became an invaluable source for the interpretation of homeland, memory and identity in the collective memory of both, Greeks and Turkish people.

The aim of the project is the creation of a museum and a permanent exhibition that outlines the identity of the contemporary citizen of Kalamaria with elements that consisted from the antiquity until today. The History Museum of Kalamaria has as a goal to transmit ideas and messages and provide a needed space for experimentation and discussion. A museum that plays an active social role, democratize, and with the help of modern technology responds to the multiculturalism of today’s society and the learning needs of different cultural, age and intellectual groups. The museological concept is anthropocentric and the center of the exhibition is not in the objects and information that accompany them, but the recipient of all these, i.e. the visitor.