![Sample our Museum and Heritage Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5945/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Museum-Heritage-Studies.jpg"})
Abstract
This article will delineate the history and activities of the Museum of Political Exiles of Ai Stratis in Greece. The museum was founded in the 1980s by a group of former inmates who were banished in the North Aegean island of Ai Stratis, a site of political confinement between 1920s and 1960s. Since its inception, the museum has aspired to be a platform of communication, a place of healing that is by the people for the people. The aim here is to examine how this was achieved and what lessons have been learned from the endeavours of an organization that deals with a rather traumatic chapter of modern Greek history. Emphasis will be placed especially on what role the subjects of history have assumed in the design of the permanent exhibition and the educational and cultural activities.
Acknowledgements
I wish to thank Mike Corbishley for inviting me to participate in this volume. I am indebted to Harilaos Sismanis, Elektra Karagitsou, and Aris Tsouknidas for their valuable help. Many thanks also go to Laura McAtackney, Myrsini Pichou, Dimitris Papadopoulos, Anna Rozenberg, and Katerina Stefatou for reviewing earlier drafts of this paper. All opinions expressed here, as well as any errors are my own.
Notes
1. ‘Idionymo’ punished with exile or imprisonment whoever aimed ‘at the implementation of ideas whose manifest purpose is the overthrow of the established social order’, proselytized ‘in favour of these ideas’ or caused ‘disturbances and riots’ by participating in strikes (as cited in Voglis, Citation2002: 35).
2. According to the 1940 census, Ai Stratis had 1131 inhabitants.
3. In the Junta period (1967–74), the island hosted just a couple of exiles, as opposed to the islands of Giaros and Leros, which received thousands of inmates.
4. The sixth founding member was Aris Tsouknidas, son of the former exile Anastasios Tsouknidas, but not an exile himself.
5. It was in the intention of the committee to also found a museum of exile in the island. However, it was the MoC which proceeded with its creation in 2007 (see Pantzou, Citation2011: 199, 202).
6. The community museums of Conway Mill and Roddys in Northern Ireland are interesting examples in that respect since they address ‘issues of remembering the recent past in personal and localized ways that are largely excluded from state narratives’ (see McAtackney, Citation2014: 260).
7. This historical society created also the Museum of Makronisos, which is hosted in the first floor of the Agion Asomaton building.
8. Rizospastis, the newspaper of the communist party, published several articles and personal narratives associated with exile and imprisonment shortly after the end of the dictatorship and the transition to democracy (e.g. Kaligianni, Citation1976: 12).
9. According to Law 3028/2002 On the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General, movable monuments dating up to 1453 belong to the state. For cultural objects less than 100 years old, only if they are ‘classified as monuments due to their particular social, technical, folk, ethnological or in general historical, artistic, architectural, industrial or scientific significance’, do they come under the jurisdiction of the state.
10. In 1980 there were plans by the government to install a power plant unit on the island, according to the newspaper Rizospastis (10 October 1980, 6). Fortunately, Makronisos was designated a historic site by the Greek Ministry of Culture in 1989.
11. His daughter, Elektra Karagitsou, donated to the museum her father’s personal belongings linked to internment, as well as his handwritten exile memoirs. As Karagitsou (Citation2013: 57) notes, her father requested the publication of his manuscript, which he bestowed on her a year before his death.
12. The statute of MPEAS was revised also in 2007. However, the mission statement remained as in the 2003 document.
13. Professional consultation was sought just to a minimum. I was personally involved as a volunteer in the setting up of the permanent exhibition and assisted in the promotion and organization of the exhibition by providing practical advice regarding space arrangement and objects mounting.
14. Since 2006, some minor alterations have been made in the permanent exhibition of the collection.
15. Original objects were used for the tent’s reconstruction.
16. Who wishes to remain anonymous.
17. Visitors’ books are a valuable source of information about visitors’ attitudes (e.g. Macdonald, Citation2005; Pantzou Citation2001).
18. On memory and traumatic experiences, see also Hackett & Rolston, Citation2009; Zelizer Citation2002.
19. For further information on MPEAS’ cultural activities, see MPEAS, Citation2014.
20. Former inmates also lead the guided tours in the memorial of Hohenschönhausen in Berlin (see Schofield & Cocroft, Citation2011).
21. In the context of the Information Society Operational Programme (see ISOP, Citation2014) the museum documented and digitized part of its collections (Tsouknidas & Sismanis, Citation2006b).
22. There is no clear record of visitor figures. It is a small museum which receives a small number of visitors during opening hours, but larger numbers when events are hosted. The museum remains closed during evenings and weekends, except from when activities are taking place. There is no admission fee.
23. In May and June 2014, ICCROM’s RE-ORG programme was implemented at MPEAS in the context of a volunteer research action organized by the NGO Diadrasis and supported by MPEAS. For more information, see Diadrasis, Citation2014.