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Information
Address : Melina Cultural Centre,
66 Iraklidon & Thessalonikis sts,
Thissio
Train stop : Thissio
Tel : 210
3452150, 210 3414466
Opening hours :
9:00-13:00 and 17:00-21:00, except
Mondays and Sunday afternoons
The Karagiozis shadow puppet theatre is back in
Thissio. Karagiozis and his friends now have a permanent home in the City of Athens Melina Cultural Centre.
Following a donation of materials by Sotiris Haridimos, the City of Athens
Cultural Organisation created the Haridimos Shadow Puppet
Museum - Theatre and Workshop, which hosts three generations of the Haridimos
family and a tradition dating back to 1913.
Three generations of the Haridimos family
Christos Haridimos (1895-1970) began his career in
1913 at Kyriakou Square
(the present-day Victoria Square)
and remained the "Dean" of the Piraeus
shadow puppet masters up until his retirement in 1950.
His son Yiorgos Haridimos (1924-1996) followed in his father's
artistic footsteps. He began his career in 1942 and by the time he retired in
1988, he had staged 7,000 performances.
Sotiris Haridimos (born in 1941), the
family's youngest son, grew up in the dream-like but tough environment of the
Karagiozis characters created by his father and brother. After his retirement,
he kept the family legacy alive by devoting himself entirely to the Shadow
Theatre through exhibitions and participation in cultural events, and City of Athens
Cultural Organisation Folk Art Education programmes involving
the construction of puppet figures and sets.
The Haridimos
Shadow Puppet
Museum - Theatre and
Workshop
The museum features some 900 exhibits, works by Christos,
Yiorgos and Sotiris Haridimos, as well as projects by students who have taken puppet
figure construction courses offered as part of the City of Athens Cultural Organisation Folk Art Education
programme, at the Agios Thomas Regional Cultural Centre in Ambelokipi.
The exhibition features professional puppet figure and
set designs on paper dating from 1925 through 1955, sets made with cardboard,
transparent sheets, leather or gelatine (1925 - 1980), as well as sets drawn on
cloth. It also includes engraved pre-war puppet figures created with cardboard
as well as figures made with leather or gelatine (1965 - 2000).
The museum hosts tools used by the Haridimos family
for the construction of puppet figures and items used by shadow
puppet masters (chisels, scissors, noisemakers,
bells, springs, etc). It includes 80 (eighty) books with Karagiozis Shadow Puppet Theatre performances
illustrated by Sotiris Haridimos as well as 20 framed images from the "Mythology
and Karagiozis" (1993) series.
Eighty-nine book titles, brochures, magazines, numerous
news clippings, postcards, 133 photographs and a wealth of audiovisual material
are included in the collection.
The permanent Shadow Theatre, where performances are
staged under the artistic direction of Sotiris Haridimos and Christos S.
Haritos, completes the museum. Also, in spring and autumn two weeks of Shadow Theatre
festivities are staged, with the participation of shadow puppet masters and other
artists.
Christos S. Haritos (Haridimos) serves as the curator
of the Shadow Puppet Museum - Theatre and is responsible
for maintaining the works.
Folk Art Education -
educational programmes
Lectures and seminars on Greek and international Shadow Theatre are held
on the museum's premises. Also, Sotiris Haridimos and his colleagues run a
puppet figure and tool workshop for people of all ages within the framework of
the City
of Athens Cultural Organisation's
Folk Art Education programme.
