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KOSMIMA and Art Thessaloniki bring culture to the heart of the city
The Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre is hosting six events in just four days, proving its multidimensional character, which will combine everything from culture and jewellery, to recreation and education. KOSMIMA, Art Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki Boat & Fishing Show 2022, Pharma Point, ‘Crete. The great meeting’, and the thematic exhibition titled ‘Is there a solution for everything? A Journey into the World of Ancient Greek Mathematics’ will all be running concurrently.
More specifically, from 3 to 6 November TIF-Helexpo is co-organising with Mr Pantelis Tsatsis the 6th Art Thessaloniki International Contemporary Fair, the established Greek and international art gallery exhibition. The Honoured Artist at this year’s Art Thessaloniki will be George Zongolopoulos, while in the context of the side events it will also be hosting the exhibition, Multimedia project of the OSTEN Museum of Drawing, ‘Dreams & Reality – four stories of Escapism’, by internationally renowned artists Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, who are sending their own loud message against the war in Ukraine through their work. Furthermore, for the third consecutive year the Cultural Association of Entrepreneurs of Northern Greece, in partnership with Art Thessaloniki, is organising the MATAROA awards, selecting 10 young artists up to the age of 33, who will have the opportunity to exhibit their work in individual pavilions. This year’s event will also be attended by the ‘Konstantinos Xenakis Art Gallery’ Museum of Contemporary Art.
The 36th KOSMIMA International Exhibition for Jewellery, Clocks and Watches, Precious Stones, Machinery and Equipment will commence two days after the opening of Art Thessaloniki. KOSMIMA will operate from 5 to 7 November, highlighting Greek jewellery. This year’s event has attracted an increased number of participations, while, besides the significant domestic interest from the sector’s largest enterprises, there are also international participations from Turkey, the USA, Bulgaria, Estonia, and Italy.
The pieces of the 33rd Panhellenic Jewellery Design Competition will also be presented in the framework of KOSMIMA. The subject of the Competition is ‘1922-2022: Asia Minor and Greek Jewellery 100 years later’ and it is being organised by the Panhellenic Federation of Silver- and Goldsmiths, Jewellers and Watchmakers (POVAKO) in partnership with TIF-Helexpo.
At the same time, two third-party organiser exhibitions will also be hosted at the Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre: Thessaloniki Boat & Fishing Show 2022, to be held from 4 to 6 November with 120 exhibitors, as well as Pharma Point on 5 and 6 November.
Meanwhile, for the first time in three years TIF-Helexpo is welcoming a unique theme park to the Exhibition Centre: ‘Is there a solution for everything? A Journey into the World of Ancient Greek Mathematics’ will open on 5 November and will continue until 30 March 2023. Placebo Events is presenting for the first time in Thessaloniki the emblematic exhibition of the Foundation of the Hellenic World, which will review the history of mathematics and — in an educational, interactive, and entertaining way — highlight how mathematics can be interesting, pleasant, and comprehensible.
Also underway at the YMCA Gate will be the exhibition of Cretan products and Greek tastes titled ‘Crete. The great meeting’, which will end on November 6.
The Press conference
The existence of the Fair is a blessing for a city like Thessaloniki, stressed the President of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Tasos Tzikas, at the press conference today, underlining its benefits for the local economy and its contribution to organising and hosting side events on a variety of subjects, and of various forms and sizes.
In turn, president of POVAKO, Mr Petros Kalpakidis, noted that KOSMIMA is back, stronger than ever, while he had very encouraging messages about its traffic. In fact, he called upon people to purchase Greek jewellery this holiday season, while he also announced that the tourist season went very well for the sector, as there was a lot of interest in making purchases, as well as actual purchases made.
The Thessaloniki International Exhibition Centre will be a park of culture and recreation over the weekend, according to the CEO of TIF-Helexpo CEO, Mr Kyriakos Pozrikidis, who noted that KOSMIMA will be held in pavilion 6, Art Thessaloniki in pavilions 10 and 9, the thematic exhibition on mathematics in pavilion 1, Fish and Boat in pavilion 13, Pharma Point in the ‘I. Vellidis’ Congress Centre, and the Cretan product expo at the YMCA Gate, all at the same time. He also stressed that the exhibition agency will continue dynamically until the end of the year.
The 6th Art Thessaloniki event is back with a very strong programme, as noted by the event’s artistic director, Mr Pantelis Tsatsis, who underlined how balance was achieved between Greek and international participations at this year’s event.
The press conference was also attended by Ms Kornelija Koneska, director of Osten museum in Skopje, through which the museum multimedia exhibition of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov will come to Art Thessaloniki. In fact, a video message from Emilia Kabakov was played during the press conference.
With respect to the thematic exhibition ‘Is there a solution to everything? A Journey into the World of Ancient Greek Mathematics’, Mr Vasilis Zarkadoulias of Placebo Events thanked TIF-Helexpo for the hospitality and the opportunity of reviving a project that was operating and packed for 8 years in Athens. He also announced that the exhibition has been adapted to 2022 and enriched with digital projections and 3D depictions, while it also includes 8 stops, at each of which four to five experiments will be held.
The General Director of TIF-Helexpo, Mr Alexis Tsaxirlis, referred to the important role of the Exhibition Centre to the heart of the city, while he stressed that it can also host smaller, but equally important exhibition events, which could not be held outside the city centre.