Stories of people, places and objects at the Vorres Museum: from tradition to contemporary creation

Within the framework of the program “Materials, Techniques and Memory in Contemporary Creation: The Garden and the Pyrgi of the Vorres Museum,” the roundtable discussion entitled “Stories of People, Places and Objects at the Vorres Museum: From Tradition to Contemporary Creation” explores the relationship between tradition and contemporary artistic practice through narratives that connect individuals, places, and materiality.

The event forms part of the Museum’s series of educational workshops and marks the completion of the program, which was implemented with the support and under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Directorate of Modern Cultural Heritage, within the framework of the initiative “Modern Cultural Heritage – Museums of Modern Culture.”

Within this context, the Vorres Museum, as a living cultural institution, organized a series of educational workshops and activities aimed at exploring the timeless value of traditional materials and techniques, as well as the natural elements that shape our cultural heritage. The program’s main pillars included the folklore collection, the Pyrgi building, and the Museum’s Garden, which, functioning as living testimonies of cultural memory, sought to highlight the connection between traditional art and contemporary creation.

This roundtable aspires to serve as a starting point for similar initiatives and programs in the future.

Angeliki Giannakidou
Founder & President of the Ethnological Museum of Thrace (EMTh)

Collecting Testimonies

According to architect Juhani Pallasmaa, human beings define their identity within the society to which they belong through their constructions.

This is what subconsciously guided me when, in 1967, I was struck by the simple forms of the stone and wooden objects I encountered in the houses and courtyards of rural homes in Thrace.

The objects belonging to the collection of the Ethnological Museum of Thrace take us on a journey through the broader historical landscape of Thrace. They lead us into networks of communication with neighboring populations of different ethnic and cultural origins across centuries.

Networks that were severed by ethnic cleansing and waves of refugees, as from the late 19th century onwards all of Thrace had become a theater of military operations.

Within the objects of our collection are condensed memories of coexistence but also of hatred, individual and collective stories, experiences, relationships, values, and ways of life. For this reason, they function as anchors of historical and cultural consciousness.

The question, however, is not what we “have” in museums, but what we dare to say with these objects.

Whether their existence activates our critical thinking through what they reveal to us—for example, self-sufficiency and reuse, relationships with nature, and alternative systems of values.

Whether we ultimately use them as a language of dialogue for the pressing issues that concern us today: the climate crisis (materials, durability, local production), gender roles, labor and craftsmanship, migration and displacement, identity and otherness.

We must recognize that objects are not passive. They are culturally and politically active.

They contain our heart and soul, our culture, our memory—part of our DNA.

Giannis Gkikas
Designer

From Folk Art to Contemporary Design – Inspiration from Craft Practices in Contemporary Object Production

Giannis Gkikas’ presentation will examine how traditional craft practices, local materials, and knowledge of folk art can function as living sources of inspiration for contemporary design creation. Through his work, which balances functionality and the emotional dimension of the object, he will highlight how the memory of materials, craftsmanship, and the relationship to place are transformed into a contemporary design language, maintaining an active dialogue between tradition and modern production.

Stavros Mamaloukos
Architect Engineer – Restoration Specialist
Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Patras

The Historic Buildings of Ionas Vorres’ Residence and the Interventions for Their Integration into the Vorres Museum Complex

Given that the Museum’s cultural complex is centered around a group of historic buildings—old Liopesi houses that constitute characteristic examples of “traditional” Attican domestic architecture—the presentation will address issues concerning residential architecture in the villages of Attica from the 18th century to the present day. It will examine the study of the historic houses of the Vorres complex based on available evidence, the adaptive reuse interventions carried out during the transformation of the site first into a private residence and later into the Vorres Museum, and will attempt an evaluation of these interventions within the historic buildings of the complex.

Nikos Papadimitriou
Archaeologist – Researcher
Director, Paul and Alexandra Kanellopoulos Museum

The Complex Ecosystem of a Contemporary Museum

In the past, museums primarily functioned as protective shells for their collections. The emphasis was almost exclusively on the content, with little reference to the container. However, as museums acquired historicity both as buildings and as spaces of social activity, the public began to show interest in the container as well.

In recent years, two new trends have emerged: one that seeks to integrate museums into their surrounding landscape (both natural and social), and another that emphasizes human interactions within the museum. In this way, museums are transforming from static spaces of exhibition and education into dynamic ecosystems, where past and present, materiality and intangible knowledge, people and objects coexist on equal terms.

This presentation will examine these developments and the perspectives they open up.