In October 1923, just three years after the death of Halim Bey, the ship Baris, in accordance with the Treaty of Lausanne, takes away his children and grandchildren from Mytilene. Almost a century later, all that remain from the Koulaxizes of Lesvos are some worn-out photos and a handful of petty things. Along with fragments of narratives intermingled with fairy tales. And, above all, people who want to remember. But memory is fragile. Like the ivy cups that Asli has tenderly preserved. Memory takes the shape we give it to fit into our dreams. To fit into some cracked photographic plates. It is threatened mercilessly by the moth of everyday life. Like the cotton bathrobe that was hastily tacked in a bundle, during the days of an incomprehensible flight. And, every now and then, we browse it like a carefully safeguarded family album.

This exhibition is about memories. Scattered, fragmented, embedded in the worn things and, mostly, in the hearts of people. The meticulous and systematic study of the history of Koulaksiz family is a historian’s work, and, for the time being, remains incomplete. Nevertheless, the evidence we have in our hands, indicates their significant contribution to the course that Mytilene has followed being transformed from the "dirty struggling village", that C. T. Newton saw in the mid-19th century, into the flourishing cosmopolitan city that welcomed with optimism the 20th century. The history of the family is inherent in the urbanization process of the city and the rise of its bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the sudden uprooting that abruptly changed the course of the family’s life, reflects the new circumstances that have emerged in the Balkans during the first troubled decades of 20th century. We don’t know how we would be today if things had followed a different course. What we know for sure is that this Mytilini that had been laying, between its two harbors, a creative blend of West and East, can be still found in its mansions, in the sound of the sea, in the taste of fresh oil, in the memories of our grandparents who, at some point, took the road of migration, in Can’s insistent returnings. A magical mixture, albeit not at all an easy one. But, as in the two wooden figures that Kenan has sculpted, a crack can always be the trace of the junction. This exhibition is an initiative of the family of Sevda and Can Elgiz, great-grandson of Halim Bey. It is based on the things and the photographs that Asli Gork, great-granddaughter of Halim Bey, has preserved and gave to the exhibition. The narratives are based on interviews that members of the family, and especially, Muzdan, Halim Bey’s daughter, gave to Stratis Balaskas, sometime before her death. The audiovisual material was given by the cultural association “Archipelagos”.

The exhibition was designed and implemented by the Laboratory of Museology, of the Department of Cultural Technology and Communication, of the University of the Aegean, under the supervision of Nassia Chourmouziadi.

Project's team:
Eleni Galani, Theo Kapetanakis, Vasiliki Katsamaka, Maritina Bakoula, Elpida Nikolaidou, Costas Rossos, Erasmia Tzanaki.

Camera // Editing : Theo Kapetanakis
Credits: Eddie vedder " Guaranteed " (Instrumental)