Exhibition of Michael Manousakis entitled "The place of once - heroes in the trash" from March 11 at the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania

1930 – 1960: Άγρια Δύση της γερμανικής εταιρείας ELASTOLINE. Ήμουν κι εγώ ένας από τους καουμπόηδες στη γειτονιά της Σπλάντζιας. Φανταζόμουν ότι φόραγα μπότες, πλατύ καπέλο με άστρο χρυσό και πιστόλια με καψούλια στη μέση, αν και το παντελόνι μου ήταν κοντό και τα παπούτσια μου συχνά είχαν τρύπιες σόλες. Από τον πετροπόλεμο με τους Ινδιάνους της διπλανής γειτονιάς, το Καστέλι, το σημάδι από την πέτρα στο κουρεμένο με την ψιλή μηχανή κεφάλι ξεχώριζε. Σήμερα μου κλείνει το μάτι, σαν τίποτα να μη συνέβη, μόνο η ισοπεδωτική αραίωση του τότε δασώδους τοπίου να υποκλίνεται στις μνήμες του.

Lead soldiers and porcelain dolls, old Reading and pre-war editions of Jules Verne’s novels, photographs and vinyls. Imprints of childhood of other times, away from screens and digital reality are the raw material of the new exhibition of Michael Manousakis: “The place of once – Heroes in the trash“, which takes place in the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania.

More than 150 toys from the personal collection of the professor emeritus of the Athens School of Fine Arts covering a time span from 1821 to 1960 have replaced the painting act in this new exhibition. These are particularly rare games, which Michalis Manousakis has been collecting for the last 25 years, originating from different corners of the globe and in a very large percentage presented for the first time to the public.

The peculiarity of this exhibition is that the Haniotis painter does not present the toys in a simple array, but uses them as raw material and creates small or larger installations each of which tells a different story. And finally it takes us to a distant yesterday – like the years of the Greek Revolution – but also to a more recent one: the one that our parents and grandparents have described to us, that we found by chance in dusty trunks, that we saw in old photographs and in the frames of black and white Greek cinema.

Through three sections, as many as the levels of the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, the exhibition promises to unfold the story of children through the material that their dreams are made of. The first chapter, on the ground floor, highlights aspects of childhood through games, old Reading and extracurricular books, photographs and a representation of a boyish and a girlish children’s room.

The second, on the first floor of the building, emphasizes the photographic material and the third is a tribute to the era of the Greek Revolution and the 19th century. as among others it includes an 1821 edition with poems by Lord Byron, and also leaden Napoleon with his officers (produced 1900-1910).

The exhibition “the place of once-heroes in the trash” is the fourth in a row that includes toys from the personal collection of Michalis Manousakis. It is accompanied by a bilingual (Greek-English) richly illustrated catalogue with texts by the child psychiatrist Thanasis Hatzopoulos, the journalist and museologist Dimitris Trikas and the artist, who also signs the curation of the exhibition.

The opening of the exhibition took place on March 11, attended by the mayor of Chania, Panagiotis Simandirakis and the Deputy Mayor of Culture and President of the Municipal Gallery of Chania, Giannis Giannakakis.