The Benaki Museum presents the exhibition "Smyrna. The Destruction of a cosmopolitan city 1900-1922 "which will last from 25 January to 26 February 2012.
Director and curator Maria Iliou and historical consultant Alexandros Kitroev, who had presented the 2007 at the Benaki Museum the exhibition The Journey, the Greek Dream in America, after 4 years of research, present their work on Izmir with unknown visual material from archives of America and Europe.
The special importance of the historical documentary and the exhibition is not limited to the unknown images from Smyrna but also to the new look that the two collaborators present in the historical events.. A look that distances itself from both an overly nationalistic narrative and newer attempts to conceal the tragic events of the catastrophe, distorting the truth.
Through this work, the cosmopolitan Smyrna par’ all that was destroyed, continues to exist.
It is still an idea that has to do with cosmopolitanism, the joy of life but also destruction.
Ninety years after the disaster, the documentary and the photo exhibition honor the lost world 1922, but also at the same time, the science of history.
The documentary and the photo exhibition of the same name are documented with rare photographic and cinematographic material collected from American and European archives..
For the first time, unknown images of Izmir are published from private collections such as that of Pierre De Gigord and from the archives of the Library of Congress, of Princeton and Harvard University, του Near East Relief, of the Imperial War Museum, of Pathe and other institutions in Greece and abroad.
The documentary of the same name will be screened at the Amphitheater (Koumbari 1) during the exhibition.
