With an atmospheric exhibition at the Chatzikyriakou Ghikas Gallery, the Benaki Museum brings to life from today the historic announcement and the atmosphere of the days that followed until the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Giorgos Seferis, on December 10, 1963.

The exhibition will be opened by the ambassador of Sweden in Greece, Johan Borgstam.

The small and particularly popular exhibition, as shown by its dynamics, has at its core the gold medal and the Nobel Prize diploma, which belong to the collection of the Ghika Art Gallery and were donated by Maro Seferi in 1971, to the Administrative Committee of Benaki Museum.

Simultaneously with the Athenian exhibition ea corresponding dedicated exhibition is being opened at the Greek embassy in London for the sixty years since the awarding of the Nobel Prize, in the place where the office of Giorgos Seferis was located.

“Right now I feel like I’m a contradiction myself. Indeed, the Swedish Academy judged that my effort in a language spoken for centuries, but in its present form limited, deserved this high distinction. The typescripts of Giorgos Seferis’ speech at the Swedish Academy dinner delivered after the prize was awarded in Stockholm, as well as his speech at Stockholm City Hall, are exhibits in the exhibition, many of which come from the Seferis archive.

Also, for the first time, the correspondence of Maros Seferis with the Benaki Museum is presented, regarding the poet’s Nobel Prize donation. But also for the first time appears the leather-bound edition of the poetry collection “Strofi” (1931) that Giorgos Seferis had offered as a gift to Maro in 1936, with a handwritten dedication, in pencil, without mentioning her name and rewritten in ink on the last page so it stays forever. “It was given to me in Aegina. He didn’t put a name because I was still married to A.L. He had tied it in England” Maro writes in her note.

Much of the evidence in the exhibition comes from the Seferis archive which is deposited in the Archives of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.

And some, such as the congratulatory letters and telegrams to Giorgos Seferis, bear the stigma that pervades the collections of the Ghika Gallery and the era it systematically highlights, the Generation of the ’30s. The letter of Nikos Hatzikyriakos Ghikas to Seferis with red ink and an envelope painted with the Greek flag stands out, the letter of Henry Miller who learns of the award earlier than its announcement, of Andreas Empirikos, Nikos Gavriil Pendzikis, Sofia Vembo, by Alekos Alexandrakis.

The photographs accompanying the exhibition come from the Kostas Megalokonomou archive, which is deposited in the Benaki Museum. The great photojournalist was the first to arrive outside the legendary house of Seferis and Maros, at 20 Agras Street, and captured the visit by members of the Swedish community in Athens for chorus of congratulations, the Swedish neo-Hellenist Sture Liner, permanent representative of the development of the UN program in Greece, Photos from the press conference that Giorgos Seferis gave to journalists inside his home.

Newspapers and magazines of the time, from Greece and abroad, excerpts from the current affairs of the time with the announcement of the award, complete the exhibition. The news of the award is published on the front pages of newspapers and there are extensive tributes in their cultural pages, but interest quickly wanes. The day after the Nobel award (December 11), the relevant news is in most newspapers either lost on their inside pages, or on the front page in a single column.

The Benaki Museum exhibition is organized with the cooperation of the Swedish Embassy in Athens and is curated by Konstantinos Papachristou.

On December 18, 2023, the trilingual (Greek, English, French) edition “Giorgos Seferis, I am myself a contradiction…” will be presented by Ikaros publications, which includes the two emblematic speeches of the poet at the reception of the Nobel Prize. The event will take place at the Ghika Art Gallery, next to the exhibition space.