Periodical exhibition entitled: "The Ascent: The known-unknown work of Nikos Kazantzakis"
At the Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, Myrtia, Heraklion
07 November 2022 – 31 March 2023
The Nikos Kazantzakis Museum, on the occasion of the publication of Aniforos, the manuscript of which is preserved in the Museum, proceeded to plan an exhibition dedicated to highlighting the history of the unknown work. The manuscript of Aniforos, an almost unknown novel today, has been preserved in the Museum since 2005, when the founder of the Museum, Giorgos Anemoyiannis, bequeathed all the valuable material he had saved when the appropriate space and conditions had been established they ensured his protection. The identification of the manuscript with the anecdotal work Aniforos was done in 2016 by Ms. Paraskevi Vasiliadis, in charge of the Museum Archives.
The aim of the exhibition is to present the history of a hitherto unknown work of the author, which was finally published 76 years after it was written, but also to highlight both the evidence itself and the wealth of the Museum's Collections. In the large central showcase, the manuscript is exhibited, divided into its three parts, "Crete-England-Monaxia" and each of them is framed by other items from the Museum Collections related to it. Thus, for example, the first chapter, "Crete", talks to the first edition of Captain Michalis, a work in which this chapter was used to a great extent, while the second part entitled "England" is placed together with the original version of his speech Kazantzakis on BBC radio, which was incorporated into the novel. Accompanying texts are explanatory and highlight where Kazantzakis drew material from or where he later utilized material from each of his three parts. In the same showcase is also the manuscript of Asceticism, which the author intended to place in its entirety in the "Solitude" chapter, i.e. in the third part of the work.
The "installation" in which postcards and letters of the author are exhibited was also utilized and in it copies of letters addressed to Nikos Kazantzakis in which he writes about this new novel were exhibited. In fact, in most of them he is in Cambridge, where he wrote the work, and they are a rich documentation of the history of this "known-unknown" work. At the same time, in the wall showcases in which books are displayed, first editions of the author's novels that were first released in another language were placed and among them the French translation of Aniforos, since the work was first released in French in 2021. Finally, in different showcases the first translation of the work into English by Elli Lampridis, but also the translation of Asceticism that she probably did earlier. The accompanying text attempts to highlight the context of this collaboration and the author's intention to release first or exclusively abroad.
The exhibition was inaugurated on Monday, November 7, 2022 by the President of the Museum, Professor Michalis Taroudakis and Konstantinos Papadopoulos, publisher of Dioptra publications, where in a symbolic and emotional move he placed the edition of the work in a showcase set up for this purpose. The same day had preceded the first public presentation of the book and the first that took place in Crete.
The Exhibition will last from November 7, 2022 to March 31, 2023.
Free entrance
EXPOSURE FACTORS
Scientific editing-design-texts: Paraskevi Vasiliadis
General coordination: Marilena Milathianaki
Organizational support: Kostis Kanakis
Editing of texts: Sotiria Dounis
Graphic design: Mosquito A&D (Chrysostomos Spetsidis, Yiannis Mavrantonakis)
The exhibition was held with the financial support of the Region of Crete.
INFORMATION
Nikos Kazantzakis Museum
T 2810 741689, info@kazantzaki.gr
