Greece sculptures
The last post of 2023. The debate surrounding the Parthenon Sculptures is a complex and intriguing one, highlighting the intersection of 19th and 21st-century identity and emotional connection. The sculptures, which are not directly related to the Parthenon as a global heritage monument or art, have a profound connection with the composition of modern Greek national identity. Symbolism held the power of cohesive substance and a unifying spirit during the 19th century when European nation-states were shaped. The British Museum, a product of the Enlightenment and encyclopedism of the 18th century, encapsulated the aspirations of educated and emerging urban classes for access to knowledge, phantasmagoria, science, and the exotic. It served as a demonstration of geopolitical hegemony and a testament to technological superiority. The discourse about the sculptures also leads to a parallel narrative about the transformation of museums and the role of nations after the collapse of empires and the demise of the old world. This dense discussion prompts a reconsideration of Greece’s trajectory as a supranational European structure, relying on prosperity and security. The issue of the sculptures may also represent a process of reconstructing the geography of ideas within the continually evolving framework of ideological geopolitics.
~The resurgence of the debate surrounding the Parthenon Sculptures carries with it intricate symbolism.
~The intersection of the 19th and 21st centuries on matters of identity and emotional connection is perhaps the most intriguing, if not the most widely publicized.
~While the call for the return of the sculptures is an ideological and political product of the 20th century, it is the 21st century that holds the potential to bring it to fruition.
~For Greeks, the sculptures touch upon numerous aspects not directly related to the Parthenon as a monument of global heritage or to art.
~The discourse about the sculptures also leads to a parallel narrative about the transformation of the nature and mission of museums in general, as well as the reshaping of the role of nations after the collapse of empires and the demise of the old world, first in 1918 and then in 1945.
https://www.ekathimerini.com/opinion/1226188/beyond-the-sculptures/