Girls from Kirkinze and other regions of Asia Minor are learning to sew; a wedding in an Asia Minor family from Mugla; portrait of five men on the street against the background of folk painting with the word “Entimion”. These are just some of the moments captured by a photographic lens and testify to the daily life of the refugees who settled in Nea Kokkinia, today’s Nice, after the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922 and the population exchange in 1923. abundant archival materials of the time, works of art, clothes, personal relics, photographs and testimonies of those who settled in Nea Kokkinia “revive” the history of the city and its inhabitants. Important historical documents from the largest purely urban refugee settlement in Attica are particularly attractively presented in the exhibition, which will last until May 19 at the Municipal Gallery “Dinos Katsafanas”. Under the general title “From the Refugee Settlement to the City and its Photographers”, these are actually two separate exhibitions: “From the Refugee Settlement to the City” and “Old Photographers of Nice, Part 2”.

The idea of ​​the organization arose in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of the refugee settlement. “On the occasion of this anniversary, as well as in connection with the publication of my book, we decided to organize a historical exhibition with various documents, relics, natural objects and photographic materials,” historian-researcher Kyriaki Papatanasopoulou told K.

The theme of the exhibition “From Refugee Settlement to City” is the process of rehabilitation and integration of refugees, everyday life and the use of free time, their national and cultural characteristics, and collective memory. “This concerns the arrival of more than a million refugees in Piraeus, the reaction caused and the new situation created,” says Ms. Papatanasopoulou. The following are refugee associations formed “by origin or place of settlement” to deal with housing and labor issues, as well as practical issues. Basically, they took care of “the naturalization of refugees, providing the necessary documents for transactions with the state and helping to cope with bureaucratic difficulties, one of which was the Turkish-speaking refugees.”

The third section presents the creation of the largest urban refugee settlement in Attica – more than 30,000 inhabitants from different parts of Asia Minor in 1928 – and its gradual “build-up”. “The microdistricts being created carry ethno-cultural characteristics and the memory of refugees from lost lands. We also distinguish between social, economic and class characteristics,” says Ms. Papathanasopoulou.

In their free time, sports clubs were created from the very beginning, mainly football, a popular sport of the interwar period. There were also women’s clubs from the 1930s.

In the Compensation and Housing section, the focus is on the synergy of refugees in creating a new city and improving everyday life in the context of the area through the beautification associations they have created. “There is solidarity to improve their daily lives with constant appeals to either the local government or the state for community projects, education, schools,” says Ms. Papatanasopoulou. The next section deals with the integration of refugees at political and professional/economic levels. Most of them belong to the working class and to the trade union movements, which became massive in May 1936. For their free time, sports clubs were created from the beginning, mainly football, a popular sport of the interwar period. There have also been women’s clubs since the 1930s. As the historian states, “It was important for emancipation. It was a period when the personality of a woman who will be forced to work will also try to support her family.” In addition, “rebetiko song also flourishes in popular areas, which shows the experiences of the refugees, their hope and struggle for survival in this place.”

The exhibition “Old Photographers of Nice, Part 2”, curated by Maria Poulos, art critic and manager of the Municipal Gallery of Nice, features 130 photographs. It is the work of 25 photographers of Greek origin who were associated with the refugee city: studio professionals, anonymous and well-known outdoor photographers, special amateurs of the interwar period. Of course, a significant part of the exhibited material is the result of many years of research by Vassilis Vassiliadis, a Nikayota photographer and researcher of Asia Minor origin.

As a continuation of the first part, presented in 2020 and dedicated to Armenian photographers, the current exhibition is initially dedicated to the city’s Asia Minor photographers – from its founding in 1923 to 1960 – and to the photographers who came to the Nice area after the war. mostly as insiders are now immigrants from Epirus, Peloponnese and Kefalonia. The images depict the city, employment, human relationships, cultural and sports activities, school life, children and marriage.

But what was particularly interesting about the first generation of refugee photographers? “Before 1945, photographers were overwhelmingly from Asia Minor, and those born before 1900 came with photographic education from all over the country. They were also distinguished by their high technical sophistication and particular elegance,” says Ms. Poulos. For her, this reflects the broader horizon of cultural experience they had in Asia Minor as photography developed in major centers, ports or trade centers inland. From the study of Ms. Papatanasopoulou, it turned out that itinerant photographers from Nice took the initiative to create the Phidias Association, the charter of which was not found. “The name is based on the experience of trade unions and photo agencies in Asia Minor. And this shows us that Nea Kokkinia’s itinerant photographers were also aware of their artistic qualities. So they said it.”

The city may have made a lot of progress since the first refugees arrived, but Mr. Vassiliadis notes that it lacks a monument that marks and represents its origins. “In the early years there were many losses: from disease, poverty and hunger. Knowing and experiencing the whole city, the debt for those who bled to death and passed away is not yet paid,” he says. “This city had to live up to it, present a work of art, an installation dedicated to the people who built it.”