(Taken from Facebook Oriol Marrero, counselor of the Embassy of Cuba in Greece)
XV part. Olimpia Federation, and House of Culture of the Balkans in the Peloponnese: invitation to, "José Martí: with Greece in the heart" to join Greek group exhibitions. March 2020, and summer 2019.
In the summer of 2019 the exhibition "José Martí: with Greece in the heart" had the honor of being invited by the House of Culture of the Balkans, in the Peloponnese, to participate with an image in an important collective photographic exhibition of Greek authors –photographers–, entitled Familiar faces.
It was a profound gesture of solidarity and friendship - one more - towards Cuba, its people, and the figure of its National Hero José Martí, who so many times spoke about numerous Greek sites located in the important Helladic region of the Peloponnese (as has been commented in previous publications, Martí spoke or translated about various regions of the Peloponnese, such as Arcadia, Achaia, Mycenae, Corinth, Patras, Olympia, Argos, Nemea, the Alpheus River, the Cilene mountain, Pylos, Laconia, Sparta, Megalopolis, Epidaurus, and others, not to mention here the royal personalities or Greek mythologies quoted).
For the collective exhibition of Greek photographers organized by professor and doctor of science Dimitrios Petropoulos, the photo entitled "La Pastora" (The Shepherdess) was proposed, an image that symbolizes José Martí's repeated mentions of the shepherds and herds of the Arcadia region, as well as the natural and exuberant beauty of its anthological valleys, a theme present in the novels, poetry and journalism of Marti. This exhibition took place in the city of Kalamata on the appointed date.
And in March 2020 the Olympia Federation, which at that time organized in the ancient city of Olympia an exhibition of paintings, sculptures and engravings by Greek artists as part of the celebration of The Olympic Truce Route (The route of Olympic truce 2020), with a view to the XXXII Olympic Games scheduled for the city of Tokyo in 2020, had the courtesy of inviting two images from the Cuban photographic exhibition “José Martí: with Cuba in the heart”, to participate in said collective exhibition, produced by Greek plastic artists, supported by the aforementioned Olympia Federation, under the motto of "Happy Competition".
As it is known, the first Olympic Games in history took place precisely in the year 667 (BC) in the stadium of the sanctuary of Olympia, emblematic and original site of universal sports Olympism.
Just a few steps from said Olympic stadium, in Olympia itself, the aforementioned exhibition of Greek artists took place, which was exhibited between March 5 and 12, 2020, and which, thanks to the invitation of its organizers, had the presence of some images from the Cuban expo.
Thus, on the very cold but simultaneously warm night of March 5, 2020, two images that are part of the expo "José Martí: with Greece in the heart" joined the tribute of love, peace and friendship between all peoples of the world, from Olympia itself, the place where wars stopped, where soldiers buried their spears and shields in a city near Olympia, where it was not possible to access armed, where the language of fraternal competition united, where the The field of sporting competition was awarded with a simple but honorable crown created with the branches of an olive tree freshly cut from the nearest tree, where olive trees are as abundant as the mountains, the sea and the air. It was the winner's prize. And the biggest prize: the Olympic Truce, stopping the fratricidal wars.
Martí spoke about Olympia, he translated about Olympia. He compared the games in Greece with the games that took place in other regions, which he was able to see and report as a journalist, and which, Martí lamented, were already intoxicated by mercantile interests, away from the nobleman who was determined to achieve only a crown of olive trees that would reward sporting merit.
But the Route of the Olympic Truce of March 2020 could not be carried out as planned and it was a tradition from the depth of time - a walk or run of 50 kilometers, from Ilida to Olympia, after passing through 15 Greek cities - (the soldiers who participated in the Olympia Games, in ancient times, left their weapons in Armátova, a historical site near Ilida, and from there they marched towards Olympia, to the games). And it is just around those hours that the first case of Covid-19 was reported in the Olimpia area.
Relatively little time has passed since that night of March 5, 2020 in Olympia - only 14 months - but it has been a tense, and intense time: some 400 thousand people have fallen ill with Covid in the country. Unfortunately about 12 thousand of them have died. In the world, almost 170 million have fallen ill, about 4 million people have died just for the same reason, according to official public data as of today.
The pandemic unfortunately stopped the Olympic Truce March, and the transfer of fire as it was usually done, but only momentarily, and never stopped dreams. It did not stop the values of Olympism, of peace, friendship, love and solidarity among all the peoples of the world.
While the fine arts exhibition was being prepared, very close to there were the young people on the ground of the historic Olympic stadium of the Olimpia polis preparing the traditional and beautiful ceremony of the transfer of the Olympic Fire to Tokío, a fire of peace and hope. The moment in which the young people were preparing the postponed ceremony will appear in the images, as it became known hours later.
For this reason, in the midst of adversity, the Olimpia Federation is even more thanked for the courtesy of having invited two images from the Cuban photographic expo “José Martí: with Greece in the heart” to this important event in the town of Olimpia, as part of the Olympic Truce Route. Thank you for having thought of Cuba, for having created this opportunity, because the plastic exhibition could be held, in the same way that the Olympia Federation invited the expo again to be present at the collective event of Greek artists along the Olympic Truce Route. , held in Athens, in June 2020, as those who follow these modest publications will be able to appreciate in the next few days in the XVII edition, who are deeply grateful for the great encouragement of their reading.
The issue of Marti mentions of these regions cannot be covered in a publication of these characteristics. It is approached in the modest work Martí and “the Greek”, about to be published in the Greek language.
It should only be emphasized here that the participation of the photographic exhibition in Greek group shows in Kalamata and Olympia, or in individual samples (and the respective publications, which already total XV deliveries, of XX), as well as the other publications on the subject, and other similar actions are focused on socializing in the country –and not only– the knowledge about the deep love of the Cuban National Hero towards Greece.
Therefore, it is not surprising that when the Greek brothers know these Marti feelings towards their country, they invite Marti's presence, invoke it, and feel honored that a person of the universal stature of José Martí has loved their people, their history. , their culture and their struggles. And this explains why in two stations of the Athens Metro - Acropolis and Syntagma, perhaps the two most important - this exhibition has been on display since March 13, 2020, as a tribute to Marti - par excellence, Cuban tribute, and why no, Latin American, “Nuestro Americano” (paraphrasing the name of an essay by Marti titled Our America) - to the 200th anniversary of the independence of Greece.
José Martí translated about Olympia in 1883 by translating from English to Spanish JH Mahaffy's work, Greek Antiquities, for the Appleton House in New York, in which he refers to the Olympic Games that began on this site, to the veneration there to the god Zeus, to the excellent statues and sculptures housed in its invaluable museum, among other references, such as its roads, or the rivers that flow into the Ionian Sea near this renowned region of Ancient Greece.
Not a few images that were in Olimpia during Martí's life appear in the attached graphic material. They are there. These are priceless originals, many of them works of art that are over 2,500 years old. In addition to the impressive building structure of antiquity.
In that spatial context, and in that ancient site, the exhibition that tries to reveal Martí's love for Greece and the Greek was presented, as part of the group show already mentioned.
So it would not be by chance that the two images of the expo "José Martí: with Greece in the heart" presented in the collective expo by the "Route of the Olympic Truce" were: "The stadium", photo almost at grass level from the athletics track of the Ancient Stadium of Olympia, the exact place where the olympics of antiquity started; and, “Zeus and Ganymede”, an image taken from the original of the homonymous sculpture, a set made in terracotta by a Corinthian workshop in the 5th century BC, which is preserved in excellent condition in the important Archaeological Museum of Olympia (se will expand on this sculptural work in the seventeenth publication, when commenting on the exhibition mounted at the War Museum of Athens, in June 2020).
Finally, I would like to underline in their essence the same words from that night in Olympia, 14 months ago:
“While the show that has started tonight takes place at the Olympia Conference and Exhibition Center, on the very close track of the ancient Olympic stadium, young people brave the low temperatures and prepare the traditional ceremony of passing the Olympic torch, which will soon depart from this site for the 32nd Olympiad in Tokyo 2020. What is happening on a night like today in the first quarter of the 21st century, in the same town of Olympia, next to the same and most important sanctuary to the god Zeus, in the same valley of the Alfeo river, that of 776 BC - incidentally, cited in his Works by Martí - responds to the same essence of those days of the remote 8th century BC. C .: peace! "
Repeated thanks to the Olympia Federation, Σοφία Χίντζιου Κοντογιάννη, Annita Patsouraki, Annita Patsouraki II and the organizers of ΔΡΟΜΟΣ ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗΣ.
In pictures: photographic exhibition at the House of Culture of the Balkans, in the Peloponnese (summer 2019); art shows at the Olympia Conference and Exhibition Center; Museum; Olympic Stadium track during preparation for the ceremony of handover of the Olympic Fire to Tokyo / 2020 (3/5 and 6/2020).
Σοφία Χίντζιου Κοντογιάννη Annita Patsouraki Dimitrios Petropoulos
