F******* Puzzle 2

Photo 1: Elli Souyoultzoglou-Seraidari or Nelly, Mona Palva at the Parthenon from the series Acropolis Nudes, 1927
Photo 2: Georgia Sagri, still image from Athens Polytechnic performance, 1995
 

 

The Acropolis in Female Perspective

In 1927, photos stirred up a storm of controversy on the part of historians and archaeologists in Athens. The Greek photographer Elli Souyoultzoglou-Seraidari or Nelly (1899-1998) photographed the dancer Mona Palva in the nude on the Acropolis. Although the Acropolis had been the subject of (civil) war, plunder, neglect and other blasphemy for many centuries, this was one bridge too far. The Acropolis had been a fortified site from around 1250 B.C. The dominant temple was the Parthenon, dedicated to the Goddess Athena, honoured by an enormous statue. A woman on the Acropolis was thus not unusual, but Athena as statue was well dressed.  It was the first time the Acropolis, the Greek symbol of independence and a glorious past, was shown in the company of a naked woman, even a dancer. The European Spectator, Benaki Museum

Artist in trouble over unclothed box stunt

An award-winning artist who made a splash four years ago by posing without clothes in a glass box outside the Athens Polytechnic, on the anniversary of the 1973 student revolt, will stand trial today for “scandalous behaviour.”

”Wearing a bikini outfit of white bandages, Georgia Sagri stood for over three hours in the open-roofed box among crowds taking part in the annual Polytechnic celebration, in an act she described as “performance art.”

But a prosecutor, acting on police complaints, charged the art student with “creating scandal through lewd acts.”

Sagri, 24 — who won the 1999 DESTE Prize for a video installation showing her spending five days in a Kolonaki shop window — said she had not meant to offend. “Lots of truly obscene things happen around us, with official permission,” she told yesterday’s Eleftherotypia daily. “I would call it a normal act,” her lawyer added. Ekathimerini Press