PRESERVATION ISSUES

The New Acropolis Museum

Art Versus Consumption in Athens: The Battle to Save 17, Dionysiou Areopagitou Street

When a joint committee of the Ministry of Culture voted by a majority of one to de-list an important and unique example of the Art Deco style in Athens, a group of academics, professionals, journalists, residents and bloggers took up arms. This is their story so far.

The New Acropolis Museum, designed by world-renowned architect Bernard Tschumi, has been an ongoing project for a long time in Athens. After a lot of ups and downs, regarding where it would be located and its design, back in 1993 the Central Archaeological Council decided to accept the present location. Although at the time it was made clear that none of the surrounding listed buildings would be demolished or endangered, in July this year a joint commission of the two central committees of the Ministry of Culture responsible for listing buildings and scheduling monuments, the Central Archaeological Council and the Central Council for Later Buildings (which took up responsibility for listing buildings after 1830, in 2005) decided to de-list both the 1930 apartment building at 17, Dionysiou Areopagitou Str. (listed equivalent to GII*), and the adjacent one (also listed) on the grounds that it would hamper the view from the mezzanine of the museum where the bar and the restaurant would be located. The close vote was decided by the president of the Committees on unclear grounds, according to a report on a TV station.

Although the need for a museum to house the archaeological remnants found and excavated on Acropolis is essential as at present there is only a small underground building on the Acropolis hill, the way to proceed with that building has been the subject of many discussions since 1976 when the idea first took concrete form in an open architectural competition. However it was only in 1993, when world-renowned Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi won an international competition, that things begun to move on, with a design that for the first time seemed appropriate for this, the most important museum in Greece. His building can best be described as a neo-modernist design, all strict geometrical lines and slabs on each other. Although great care has been taken to create a dialogue between the Parthenon marbles located in its interior (initially copies but hopefully later the originals, currently located in a quite unsympathetic space in the British Museum) and the Parthenon itself, (visible only a short distance away), the design itself has none of the flare of other recent flagship museums, such as the Guggenheim Bilbao. He actually describes the building on his website as 'anti-Bilbao', built around the exhibition of sculptures under natural light, something of a container for the unparalleled art exhibited inside. There have been a lot of reactions against the New Museum building, mostly regarding its location but also because of its design. The new building is huge compared to the surrounding ones, with protruding terraces that are disproportionate to its surroundings. Seen from the street level it overwhelms the neighbourhood and even Dionysiou Areopagitou street, the street that encircles the Acropolis hill and is the gateway to the site.

17 Areopagitou was designed in 1930 by architect Vassilis Kouremenos (1875 -1957). He was an honours graduate of the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, member of the Athens Academy from its inception, Professor at the National Technical University, sculptor, mosaic artisan, painter, friend of Pablo Picasso and confidante of the well-known interwar Greek politician Eleftherios Venizelos. He worked in Athens, Paris, Istanbul and Dublin and received prestigious awards. This building is considered one of his best works and also the best Art Deco building in Athens. Designed in a Beaux Artsinspired classicism, its facade is decorated with grey and pink marble. Its main door is surrounded by two marble sculptures of women in traditional dress from Epirus, the part of the country where Kouremenos was from. On the fourth floor there are two mosaics representing Theseus, prince of Athens and Oedipus and the Sphinx. In front of the building are a number of sycamore trees that would also be cut down as a result. They have been standing for almost seventy years and offer the only available shade in that part of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street in the harsh Greek summer.

One of the interesting aspects of this case is the new way in which the people who support the protection of this building have come together. This has been mostly a struggle followed in blogs, pamphlets and residents'committees, fought by academics, professionals and journalists. The wide coalition has managed to create much high quality literature and to amass information about the building in a very short period. Blogs have been used to sign petitions and forward them by email to the ministers responsible for the de-listing. Journalists and academics have collaborated to create articles that are scientifica~ly correct but also easily understandable by the wider public. Videos circulate on YouTube and Flickr photo collections detail the case. Architects, artists and politicians have been giving interviews and writing articles in the newspapers, while daytime TV presenters have been featuring the case. Still, the fate of this building remains uncertain.

I agree with the idea put forward by the local architect Manolis Anastassakis that the desire and drive to demolish these buildings, even when Mr. Tschumi himself is indifferent to it, stems from a desire to isolate this new building from its surrounding urban context, to create a monumental building that stands out within the urban fabric. It is an idea steeped in old-fashioned Modernist ideals which have nothing to do with the current architectural ideals of merging a building into the surrounding fabric.

The row over de-listing these two buildings touched upon a number of issues, relevant to Greece but also the world in general. As we have seen with the recent Greenside case, it seems that we are slowly moving back to a time when owners or the State considered it acceptable to demolish a listed building. In a country like Greece where, after the Second World War, almost all the building stock in the main cities' centres was replaced by 1950s and 60s architecturally insignificant modernist apartment buildings, the few remaining inter-war buildings are rare specimens indeed. Given that many of those buildings have received unsympathetic modern extensions it becomes clear that any remaining inter-war building of some merit that is close to its original form and is in quite good condition (as the building at 17, Areopagitou is), has to be saved. It is particularly worrisome that the same Ministry and the same committee that in 1998 voted to protect that building because of its merit, have now backpedalled and voted to have it demolished all because it might block the view to the Acropolis when the visitor is having a snack or a drink, after having enjoyed unhindered views of the main exhibits with the Acropolis in the background in the exhibition space.

We have all come across cases of new buildings in archaeological sites and we know how difficult it is to situate them in a respectful manner. It is quite often the case that more care is given to the café or the restaurant or the gift shop, than the site itself. In today's package holiday world where the money left behind by tourists can guarantee the economic development of a country and where competition is cut-throat, every visitor counts. According to the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council, quoted in an article in Bloomberg by Maria Petrakis, Greece's tourism supports about 17 percent to the country's £130 billion economy and about one in every five of its jobs. Unfortunately it is sometimes the case that the recipient country seems to bow down to every perceived fancy of the visitor without laying down a clear list of do's and don'ts. As many of the sites have to prove themselves financially independent in order to be kept accessible to visitors and since money is being cut from the Ministries of Culture, more and more museums seem to become nothing more than malls where the calling card are the exhibitions. Given that in most of the flagship museums, due to the number of visitors at any time, it is almost impossible to delve into the exhibits as you are pushed around by the fl low of people, most people spend equal or even more time at the cafés or the shops that are slowly taking over every available inch of space. This is the significance of this particular case. It is the brutal exhibition of the 'deculturalization' of the museum and this might be the first instant of a number of similar cases around the world, where the supporting uses of a museum are deemed so important that they overtake culturally significant artefacts or buildings.

It is our duty as citizens and professionals who care about the built environment to make sure that the focus moves back from the supporting uses and buildings to the site itself, that no signage or landscaping or shops or lavatories or cafés take away from the significance of the exhibits or the site or the surrounding cultural resources and that we allow the public the right to enjoy the different aspects of the culturally significant built environment, despite its age, its style or its condition.

This article would not hove been made possible without the support of the Areopogitou 17 blog: www.areopagitou17.blogspot.com and in particular Ms. Marina Kouremenou. For anyone interested in the ongoing battle to save this building, this should be your primary destination. Additional information regarding the building provided by Elliniki Etairia: www.ellinikietairia.gr/index.php?action=read&id=495.[in Greek] A new blog has also been set up recently. www.yperareopagitou.blogspot.com. If you would like further information please email nondos@freemail.gr

This article reflects the personal opinions of Nondas Kitsos and is not related to his official function.

[Reprinted from C20, The Magazine of the Twentieth Century Society, Winter 2007/08. For more info, visit the society's website at www.c20society.org.uk]