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100 objects brought to Greece by refugees from Asia Minor, Pontus and Eastern Thrace. 100 objects belonging to refugees infused with memories, thoughts and emotions. The research project Objects in Motion attempts to reconstruct the objects’ ‘cultural biography’ and trace their owners’ life trajectories. The objects the refugees brought with them are more than precious family heirlooms or essential practical tools. They have stories to tell: about their owners, the homes they left behind, and the new places where they resettled. Transcending space and time, these objects encapsulate the history of forceful displacement and the refugee experience.

Objects in motion is a research project implemented by the Institute for Historical Research of the National Hellenic Research Foundation. The graphic design concept was developed by Erifyli Arapoglou (ενARTE) and realised by the Sociality Digital Cooperative.

The project was funded by the Ministry of Culture and Sports as part of a wider research initiative focusing on the issue of expatriation to commemorate the centenary since the arrival and integration of Greek populations in Greece after the Asia Minor catastrophe.

We wish to express our warmest thanks to all individuals, associations and museums who shared their stories with us.

Project Team:

Scientific coordinator: Eleni Kyramargiou, Associate Researcher Researcher IHR/NHRF

Research associates: Katerina Anagnostaki, Giorgos Koumaridis, Christos Chrysanthopoulos / Translator: Eleni Vosinaki Photographer-Cinematographer: Christos Panagos

Objects in Motion

What objects did the refugees who came to Greece after August 1922 bring with them?

Refugee women from Asia Minor arriving in Piraeus on a boat / Petros Poulidis Collection, ERT Photographic Archive

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001

An oud from Prokopi, Cappadocia

Vasilis Kaptanoglou was born in Prokopi, Cappadocia, in 1907. At the beginning of 1922, he arrived in Piraeus with his mother and stayed in a makeshift shack in Tampouria with his brother’s family, who had arrived a few months earlier. Throughout his life, he never stopped playing the oud, the same one he had brought with him from Prokopi.

002

The icon of the Annunciation

Amid the makeshift shacks of Tampouria, Vasilis met Eleni Dimou from Chili on the Euxine Sea, another refugee who had arrived in Greece with her father and her two sisters. This icon of the Annunciation, originating either from Prokopi or Chili, holds immense sentimental value for their descendants.