A SELECTION OF POSTERS FROM THE HELLAFFI COLLECTION
HELLAFFI, the well-known collection of giant cinema posters was acquired in 2002, by the Organization for the Promotion of Greek Culture (O.P.E.P. A.E.) and handed over as a concession to the Cinema Museum of Thessaloniki (under the direction of the Thessaloniki Film Festival) for instructive, historical, artistic and educational purposes. In 2016 the collection was categorized as a monument by the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, due to its historical merit and documentary value for the Greek history of cinema as well as the widespread audience appeal of the art. According to the ruling: The collection constitutes a unified and indivisible whole, bearing vital testimony to the influence of the art of Film in Greece in the 1950-1975 period, i.e. during the height of cinema as a medium of wide popular entertainment, as well as illuminating the social, political and economical aspects of this diverse historical period (Official Government Gazette 2927/B/14-9-2016). In 2006 the ownership of the collection be relegated to the Ministry of Culture and Sports The HELLAFFI collection is considered unique worldwide since apart from the gigantic handpainted posters, it also consists of pen pre-drawings, lithographs, and watercolour paintings from acclaimed artists like Giorgos Vakirtzis, Gerasimos Touliatos, Kostas and George Kouzounis, Stephanos Almaliotis, Manolis Panagiotopoulos, Nikos Andreakos, Kostas Grigoriadis, Vaggelis Fainos, Nikos Nikolaidis, Charalampos Serasis, Andreas Vazopoulos, Spiros Vasiliou etc. The artists usually requested from the movie-theater managers some indicative frames for each film of the week and then they hand-painted the frame that, in their opinion, would attract the most viewers. This is why it was known as the “Seven-day Art”. In a grey Athens with imposing buildings and large black-and-white newspapers, the HELLAFFI works used to decorate the facades of the Athenian movie theatres – Rex, Titania, Ideal, Pantheon -, breathing colour unto them. Every Monday, the audience of Athens was in for a new surprise: Enormous painted re-enactments of scenes from the movies. Whole- bodied figures of heroes, three or more times larger than their real-life dimensions, were decoupaged in order to cover the pilaster and lintel above the entrances. Made to impress, they depicted the protagonists’ portraits in an alluring manner. The message on the content of the movie was always clearly stated. In action movies the font was aggressive, in romance and social dramas it was red and curved. The title letters were huge, aggressive, repousse, Gothic, inviting the audience to guess the plot. Concerning the artistic value of the Hellaffi collection, Giorgos Katsaggelos, professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, mentions: “It was not only the image and the title of a movie that was imprinted on the illustration paper but also the history of visual communication, aesthetics, and taste of recent Greek history. It is not a coincidence that very important painters worked in this department, creating paintings, sometimes with dimensions larger than nine times three meters. (...) The seven-day artwork’s atmosphere needed to be displayed in a way that would allow the passer-by to see the billboard, whether it was day or night, and be mesmerized by the cinematic magic of fiction that would follow. One undoubtedly important achievement is the complexity of the narrative and the illusion of movement that were managed to be depicted in only one image.” The Hellaffi collection has been presented in many Greek and European cities (Paris, Venice, London, Munich, Frankfurt etc) kindly contributed by the Thessaloniki Cinema Museum. Additionally, there is a display of posters and photographs of the screened films from ’60 to ‘80s Greek auteur cinema, a kind contribution of the Greek Film Center and copyright owners. Consulate General of Greece in Istanbul, Sismanoglio Megaro Istiklal Caddesi No.60, 34433 Beyoğlu, Istanbul June 7 - 30, 2022 | Visiting Hours: Monday - Friday 14:00 - 19:30 Please wear your face masks. Pera Museum, Asmalı Mescit, Meşrutiyet Cad. No:65, 34430 Beyoğlu/İstanbul 7-12 June, 2022
Yunanistan İstanbul Başkonsolosluğu Sismanoglio Megaro
İstiklal caddesi No.60, 34433 Beyoğlu, İstanbul
7 – 30 Haziran, 2022 | Ziyaret Saatleri: Pazartesi – Cuma 14:00 – 19:30
Lütfen maskelerinizi takınız.
Pera Museum
Asmalı Mescit, Meşrutiyet Cad. No:65, 34430 Beyoğlu/İstanbul
7 – 12 Haziran, 2022
Selanik Sinema Müzesi, Selanik Film Festivali, Yunan Film Merkezi ve telif hakkı sahiplerine teşekkürlerimizle.
