With the Support of: 

The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
Katharine Hassapoyannes and David Blandford
The McCabe Family
Nicholas Pisaris
 

Exhibition duration:
February 20 – June 29, 2025
 

Opening hours:
Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 12:00 – 18:00,
Thursday: 12:00 – 20:00
 

Educational programs for schools:
Available upon request. For reservations: steinmetz-athens@ascsa.edu.gr

Organized group tours:
Available upon request. For reservations: imantzavinou.admin@ascsa.edu.gr  

Free admission

American School of Classical Studies at Athens at the
Ioannis Makriyannis Wing
Soudias 61, 106 76 Kolonaki

 

Exhibition opening:

February 20, 7pm Cotsen Hall, Anapiron Polemou 9

Presentations by Athanasios Vitsas, Mayor of Samothrace, and curators Bonna D. Wescoat, Ellen M. Archie, and Rebecca A. Salem

8-10pm, Makriyannis Wing viewing
 

 

About the exhibition:

The Mystique of an Island . . .

Opening February 20th in the Makriyannis Wing of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the exhibition, Imag(in)ing Samothrace: From Homer to the HoloLens, explores poetic and visual evocations of Samothrace and its cult of the Great Gods over two and a half millennia, finding the changing perceptions that mark each era and the common threads that remain powerful today. From Homer’s evocative description to the mixed reality of the HoloLens, Samothrace has tapped the imagination of poets, mapmakers, artists, archaeologists, and digital modelers.

This multimedia exhibition, curated by Bonna D. Wescoat, Ellen M. Archie, Rebecca A. Salem and designed by the team of Mikri Arktos (Andreas Georgiadis and Vivi Gerolymatou), brings together objects from the 15th to the 21st century to chronicle how artists expressed their physical, emotional, and intellectual encounters with the island. Highlights include rare Renaissance drawings of Samothracian antiquities by the antiquarian Cyriacus of Ancona, shown in Greece for the first time. The 15th century map of the island by Cristoforo Buondelmonti, archaeological photographs by Wilhelm Burger, architectural reconstruction drawings by John Kurtich, postwar photographs by Spiros Meletzis, paintings by the mid-20th century Greek artists Paris Prekas and Polykleitos Rengos, and a transcendent 21st century painting of the Fonias waterfall by Maria Filopoulou take the viewer on a journey across time and the island. The exhibition also premieres new investigations of American Excavations Samothrace and its partners. Visitors can follow the path of the initiate through digital animations of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods, see the 3D digital reconstruction of the ram of the famous Winged Victory monument. They will also have their own interactive opportunity to reconstruct the sculptured pediment of the Hieron using 3D digital prints of the original fragments.

Lenders to the exhibition include the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford, the Benaki Museum, the National Gallery-Alexander Soutsos Museum, the Sotiris Felios Collection, the Gennadius and Blegen libraries, and the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, American Excavations Samothrace and its partners, and private contributors. The exhibition will be accompanied by a bilingual catalogue.

The accompanying symposium, Three-Dimensional Experiences of Ancient Environments, will be held on February 27th-28thin Cotsen Hall. It will feature presentations of several cutting-edge projects using virtual technologies to bring past worlds to life.