Main Protagonists

YANNIS XENAKIS (1922-2001, architect, composer)

Yannis Xenakis is a special case in relation to “Mataroa”. Born in Romania, He studied at the National Technical University of Athens. He left Greece in 1947 and arrived in Paris to work as an architect in the studio Le Corbusier, following Giorgos Kandilis’ recommendation. Soon, Xenakis came to confrontation with the famous, yet arrogant Swiss, given his own, strong character. As a result, Xenakis left the studio in 1959 and turned into contemporary music, whose structure he was about to change radically, as he combined architecture with physics and mathematics in his avant-garde composition methods. At the same time, his philosophical ideas about music contributed to the wider questioning and the crisis of contemporary European music. His experience of the December 1944 events in Greece, as well as his near-death wounding due to a chip of a British bombshell which caused him to lose his left eye, are reflected and reproduced in his work. Xenakis is one of the cases of artists who lived Paris yet kept on “breathing” in Greece, in spite of the fact that, like so many left-wing militants of his generation, he was not allowed to return to his motherland until after the transition to democracy.

Kostas Axelos (1924-2010 – philosopher)

Kostas Axelos was repeatedly arrested and sentenced in absentia to death due to his active participation in the student organisations of EAM during the occupation and the beginning of the Civil War. Thanks to Merlier’s support, Axelos departed for Paris in 1945, where he continued his studies in philosophy at the Sorbonne. In 1959 he is hired at the CNRS and at the Sorbonne, while he also defends two doctoral dissertations: one on Heraclitus and one on “Marx, the man who thinks through technique”. His political activism becomes increasingly theoretical, particularly through the review “Arguments”, which he created in 1958. Thirty years passed until his return to Greece, following the fall of the dictatorship.

Cornelius Castoriadis (1922-1977 – philosopher)

Born in Istanbul, Castoriadis and his family moved to Athens in 1922. He studied law and, during the occupation and the civil war, he was actively engaged in a trotskyist organisation. Having been subjugated to violence multiple times and having literally escaped the very last minute from a settling of accounts, Castoriadis embarked the ship “Mataroa” in December 1945. While in Paris, his militancy acquires a more theoretical character, though the creation of the team and of the review “Socialisme ou Barbarie”, which he created in 1949 with Claude Lefort. Castoriadis was a pioneer in the field of “political autonomy” and revolutionary action. From 1947 until 1970, he worked as an economist at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Three years later, he was hired at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes (EHESS) as professor of Social Sciences. He was a leading figure and one of the legendary personalities of the journey.

Kostas Papaioannou (1925-1982, philosopher)

Papaioannou was born in Volos in 1925 and died in Paris in 1981. He was a member of EAM and of KKE and in 1944 he got arrested by the Police authorities. In 1945 he fled to France, with the support of the French Institute. He studied philosophy in the Sorbonne (1945-48), where he also taught from 1959 until 1963. Between 1962 and 1968, he further taught philosophy at Cencier, in Paris, and sociology in the Grande Ecole de Commerce. From 1963 he worked for the CNRS, Between 1970-72 he taught philosophy at Nanterre and from 1971 he taught at the Ecole Pratique de Hautes Etudes until his death, in 1981. He wrote a large number of works in philosophy, sociology, politics and aesthetics in both french and greek, while his works have also been published in dozens of languages.

Manos Zacharias (director, 1924)

Manos Zacharias was born in Athens, he studies Chemistry and Theatre, while he also participated in the artistic activities of the French Institute of Athens. During the December events of 1944, he actively supported the Left, standing in charge of the student organisation “Lord Byron”. Zacharias was threatened with imprisonment and his departure with “Mataroa” thus proved lifesaving. Upon his arrival in Paris he registered at the Sorbonne and at the IDHEC, where he was trained in historical documentary. His career stands out as particularly interesting, as he was one of the few who departed from Paris in 1949 and crossed the Bulgarian borders, following an invitation by the Communist Party to join EAM. When the civil war ended, Zacharias was sent to exile in Tashkent and in Moscow. He returned to Greece in 1976.

Makris Memos (1913-1993, sculptor)

Memos was actively engaged in EAM, fighting in National Resistance. In 1945 he embarked “Mataroa” and began his postgraduate studies at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He did not, however, remain in Paris for too long, as his communist militancy soon turned him into a target and french authorities soon deported him. He found political asylum in Hungary, where he created magnificent, large scale sculptures. He established himself as one of the sculptors who expressed the official aesthetics of the state, within the spirit of socialist realism. He was deprived of his Greek citizenship in 1964, which he nonetheless regained with the restoration of democracy in 1975. Amongst some of his sculptors with the greatest influence in Greece, we find the monument for the uprising of the Polytechnic at the entrance of the institution, which was inspired by the case of Nikos Svoronos, who had also boarded “Mataroa”. Memos and Svoronos together, thus mark the transition to a new, post-dictatorship Greece.

Giorgos Kandilis (1913-1995, Architect and urbanist)

Kandilis was a bit older than the rest when he arrived in Paris in 1945. Between 1931 and 1936, he completed his studies in architecture at the Polytechnic School of Athens. When he arrived in Paris he worked at the studio of Le Corbusier, who had already, since 1943, created ASCORAL (Assemblée de Cοnstructeurs pour une Rénovation Architecturale). He became one of the leading advisors of the great Swiss architect and he undertook to a great extent the designing of the construction of the residential unity of Marseille up to 1952. After such an achievement, his career took an impressive turn as he cooperated in the French networks in Africa and the Middle East. He return to Greece after the fall of the Colonels’ dictatorship in 1974 in order to direct the designing of a large number of developmental constructions.

SECOND GENERATION

Ben Coulendianos (1960, musician)

Couledanios was born and raised in Athens and he now lives in Paris. In 2012 he edited a retrospective exhibition on the work of his father, with the support of the Benaki Museum. in 1976, while he had just arrived in Paris to begin his studies, he was reunited with his father and was then able to respect the work of the “greatest Greek sculptor of the 20th century”, according to Denis Zacharopoulos, research associate in the exhibition. Ben worked very closely with his father until the end of the 1970s when he left for the USA to study music. He returned to France in 1990 and worked again with his father until the latter’s death in 1995.

Makhi Xenakis (sculptor)

Makho was born in Paris, where she now lives and works. She divides her time between sculpturing, painting and writing. She studies architecture with Paul Virilio and designed settings and costumes for the theatre. In 1987 she moved in New York to continue her painting where, in 1989, she had a decisive encounter with Louise Bourgeois. She has been regularly exhibiting her work and art since 1989.

Giorgos Choraface

Giorgos Choraface was born in Paris in 1952, where he was also raised. He has a significant trajectory in french theatre, including his participation and membership of the prestigious Peter Brook Company, while he also has an international career in cinema and television. He is widely known through his work in France, Greece and Spain. He has played in a number of films, of television productions, as well as in theatrical plays in France, in Spain, in England and in Greece. He has participated in national productions, while he has also collaborated with Comédie Française. Between 2005-2010 he was the president of the International Film Festival of Thessaloniki.

Kleio Makri (sculptor)

Kleio, daughter of Memos and Zizi, was born in Budapest in 1954 where she lived until the age of 15. In 1969 she settled in Paris, where she started learning Greek and where, as she, herself, explains, felt liberated by the burden of her parents being artists. She studied at the Ecole Nationale de Superieure des Beaux Arts (painting, sculptoring, frescos, lithography, mosaic and tapestry). She currently lives and works in Athens as an art therapist in the Rehabilitation Unit (over 18) and is interested in the social role of art.

 

THIRD GENERATION

Elita Kounadi (1972, actress)

Elita was born in Paris and raised in Athens. She graduated, with distinction and having received a scholarship, from the Drama School of Northern Greece in 1998. At the same time, she takes courses in classical and modern dancing, in piano and singing, as well as accordion classes. As an actress and singer she has had remarkable collaborations, as with the National Threatre, the State Threatre of Northern Greece, with the Municipal Regional Theatres of Patras, Larisa and Volos, with the Megaron Mousikis of Athens and Thessaloniki and with the Hellenic Festival. Over the last two years, she has been living between Athens and Paris and collaborating with the Τhéâtre du Soleil for the play “Mataroa, the pierced memory”.

Servanne Jollivet (1977 – researcher of philosophy)

Servanne is Doctor of Philosophy (University of Paris IV, Humboldt University of Berlin) and former member of the French School of Athens. Today she is a researcher of philosophy (CNRS, CURAPP). She specialises in Greek thought and is the author of many monographs: “Fates of exiles. Three Greek Philosophers in Paris” (Paris, Ed manuscript 2011), “Kostas Axelos: Exile is the motherland of thinking” (Presses de la rue D’Ulm, 2014), “Mataroa. Portrait of a Generation in Exile” (PEstia, 2014). She has contributed to the wider research on this journey through the organisation of a conference (October 2013, French Institute of Athens) and through a collective volume.

Sophia Alexandridou (1976, visual artist)

Sophia is a visual artist and an illustrator for children’s books. She studies engineering in England and then moved to Brussels, where she studied in the School of Fine Art.s For her dissertation, she chose to illustrate the story of “Mataroa”. The story, itself, and the conditions of the journey motivated her to study contemporary Greek history more in depth. She works with ink and watercolour, expanding her technique through the use of collage.