City of Athens presents, through  OPANDA the exhibition “Sunflowers in Darkness and Light,” from September 21 to November 9, 2025, at the Angeliki Hatzimichali Museum of Folk Art and Tradition Municipality of Athens, in collaboration with the volunteer group Velones in Action.

The exhibition aims to raise public awareness of deafblindness through art and is aimed at anyone who wants to get to know the people supported by the Panhellenic Association of Deafblind People “To Iliotropio.” This is the only organization in Greece that covers their educational needs and, more generally, helps them regain their place in society.

The title of the exhibition refers to the sunflower, the flower that symbolizes hope and has been chosen by the deaf community as a symbol of brightness, hope, and communication. This is because it aims to give them visibility, acceptance, and empowerment, as it is a resilient plant, a cheerful and recognizable flower.

As we all know, deafblind people live in an environment where the dominant senses, sight and hearing, are limited or absent. And yet, their world is rich, as touch becomes language, movement becomes words, and the presence of others becomes an entire vocabulary. This is the world that the exhibition “Sunflowers in Darkness and Light” seeks to highlight, which is not about loss, but about reintegration. It is not a narrative of exclusion, but of approach. It is a dialogue between art and disability, an experiential visual experience that exploits the sensory contrast between darkness and light in two distinct spaces.

The works on display throughout the museum, with the sunflower as their central motif, do not seek to explain the “sensation” of deafblindness, but rather invite the audience to “feel,” observe, and think about the world of silence and to ask themselves what it means to exist when communication requires other “languages.”

The core of the exhibition is divided into two interior spaces, a dark one, where silence and touch are highlighted as basic means of approach, and a bright, explosive space, full of sunflowers, light, and symbols of life.

The Space of Darkness represents interiority, isolation, and the limitation of sensory perception. The audience moves in dim light or darkness in the space, where reliefs, sculptures, and installations are exhibited, which are interpreted through touch.

Here, art is not just for viewing. It is also for touching. The environment aims to stimulate the senses and share emotions. Here, sight must give way to touch and contact. Here, the viewer must become a participant in the space.

And from the feeling of isolation, the visitor moves on to the approach with the gaze, to the Space of Light, which is open, lively, full of color, movement, and symbolism. Sunflowers, of course, dominate visually and artistically.

The exhibition features works by textile artists from Greece and abroad, as well as ladies with visual arts crafts in collaboration with the volunteer group Velones in Action, with a variety of exhibits dedicated to people with deafblindness, to those people who may be right next to us, without making their presence felt because we are called upon to see them, to look at them with a soul and heart that wants to hear theirs, to touch them so that they feel our presence, to listen to our thoughts and feelings.

And as everyone characteristically states: “Our participation in this exhibition aims to bring to the fore a flower that looks not only at the sun, but also at the soul, the sunflower, which turns towards the light, even when it cannot see it. A symbol of light in silence and darkness. With threads and colors, different techniques, textures, and forms, all of us, with great sensitivity, have created works inspired by this symbol and dedicate them to people with deafblindness, people who experience both sight and hearing loss, people who often remain invisible in society.

The exhibition is also accessible to people with visual impairments, as information is provided in Braille, in collaboration with the Panhellenic Association of the Blind and Deaf “To Iliotropio.”

At the end of the exhibition, the artists will donate some of their works to the Association of the Deaf and Blind “To Iliotropio” in order to hold a bazaar of works with the aim of supporting it.

The exhibition will open on Sunday, September 21, at 12:00 noon.

Exhibition curator: Stavroula Pisimisi, folklorist, director of the Angeliki Hatzimichali Museum of Folk Art and Tradition

Co-organized by: Organization for Culture, Sports, and Youth of the Municipality of Athens and the Velones in Action Volunteer Group

Information:
Exhibition duration: September 21 – November 9, 2025
Admission is free to the public.

Angeliki Hatzimichali Museum of Folk Art and Tradition of the Municipality of Athens: Angeliki Hatzimichali 6, Plaka, tel. 210 3243987
Opening hours: Tuesday – Friday 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., closed on Mondays