Abstract
Greece has been rediscovered in different periods and various ways in the past. This chapter explores how the image of Greece has been constructed in the period of the crisis by placing it in the wider historical context of the successive rediscoveries of the country over the centuries. The first ‘discovery’ of Greece relied more on an imaginary and idealistic approach, the second on a historical one promoting the ideal of continuity, the third tended to be more pragmatic and material, praising the landscape and light of Greece and thus constructing the Zorba stereotype. These approaches are disentangled in order to understand how the crisis reactivated both the idealistic and critical attitudes to Greece and offered a mixture of idealism, stereotypes and exoticism.
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Notes
- 1.
C. M. Woodhouse described the attitudes of some Philhellenes in this way: ‘They loved the Greece of their dreams: the land, the language, the antiquities, but not the people. If only, they thought, the people could be more like the British scholars and gentlemen; or failing that, as too much to be hoped, if only they were more like their own ancestors: or better still, if only they were not there at all’ (Woodhouse 1969: 38–39).
- 2.
The Chinese activist Ai Weiwei planned to set up a studio and a refugee memorial on the island of Lesvos to highlight the plight of refugees. He received similar criticism and has been described as the Santa Claus of the refugees.
- 3.
‘DOCUMENTA14 ‘Learning from Athens’’, https://whyathens.com/events/documenta-14-athens/.
- 4.
It should be noted that documenta14 worked only with cash-strapped Greek public institutions and supported them, particularly the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST). This has been recognized as one of the contributions of the exhibition despite the lukewarm response of the Athenian public and the deficit of €7 million for the Athenian part of the operation. (Batycka 2017; Vronti 2017, Avgi 17 and 24 July 2017).
- 5.
Critically observing and engaging with aspects of documenta’s presence in Athens social anthropologist Eleana Yalouri of Panteion University and Elpida Rikou, an instructor at the Athens School of Fine Arts, developed a research project called ‘Learning from documenta’. (‘Learning from Athens – documenta14’ 2017).
- 6.
He also said about the exhibition: ‘It’s like rich Americans taking a tour in a poor African country, doing a safari, going on a humanitarian tourism crusade’. An interview with Yanis Varoufakis by Leon Kahane (2015).
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Tziovas, D. (2020). Crisis, Exoticism and the Rediscovery of Greece. In: Panagiotopoulos, P., Sotiropoulos, D. (eds) Political and Cultural Aspects of Greek Exoticism. Reform and Transition in the Mediterranean. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19864-0_9
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