Visitors were invited to take part in the “Settlers and Refugees” intervention, held from 2 July to 31 December 2022 at the Archaeological Museum of Abdera.
The temporary photographic exhibition “Settlement of the Refugees in Xanthi in 1922” was presented across various galleries, creating a dialogue between refugees who arrived 100 years ago from the Ionian coast, other regions of Asia Minor, and Eastern Thrace, and the ancient settlers who had come from Ionia περίπου 2,700 years earlier.
Across time, lesser-known and untold stories of people who lived in this hospitable land - one that welcomed them and became their home - intertwine. History has often overlooked the lives of ordinary individuals, leaving their stories untold. Yet we attempt to reconstruct them through the traces they left behind in their new homeland: personal artefacts uncovered through excavation, and fleeting moments of refugees captured through the photographic lens.
The contemporary visitor is not merely an observer but an active participant, engaging with both groups - those who arrived unwillingly and those who came by choice. Both have much to share, if we are willing to listen. In turn, they “listen” to the visitor’s own story, should one wish to reflect on their presence in this place, whether temporary or permanent.
Three temporal layers, three parallel narratives.
