2009 James White Memorial Lecture: Dimitris Pandermalis

Professor Dimitris Pandermalis, President-Director of the New Acropolis Museum, delivered the Irish Museums Association Annual James White Lecture: Collections present and absent at the new Acropolis Museum?, on Wednesday 18 November, 6.30pm, in the Ceramics Room of the National Museum of Ireland. 

Earlier this year in June 2009, the new Museum of the Acropolis opened to national and international acclaim, after years of planning and construction (2002-09), having been designed by Bernard Tschumi, the renowned Swiss architect, who lives and works in New York and Paris.

Dimitrios Pandermalis has been Professor of Classical Archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 1979.  He was President of the History and Archaeology Department, and Dean of the Philosophical School, of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki where, since 1973 he directed the University's Archaeological Excavations at Dion, converting excavated areas into an expansive archaeological and environmental park.  His is known internationally for his lectures on classical archaeology. From 1996-2000 he was a national member of the Greek Parliament. Since 2000 he has been President of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum.

The new Acropolis Museum is located 300 yards to the south of the Acropolis hill, where the 134-year-old small original museum still stands. The new (mostly glass) structure faces the Acropolis, providing an excellent view of the Parthenon Temple and other structures on the hill. Intended to open for the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece, this was not possible due a number of to legal and development obstacles. Over the years, the site of the museum has experienced earthquakes and to counteract their impact, the architect Bernard Tschumi designed it to be mounted on roller bearings so the structure and contents would be protected. The project was a multicultural enterprise drawing on glass crews from Germany and the UK and concrete workers from Albania, India, Russia and Greece. While the project entailed a decade of planning, it took three years to build and a year of preparation before the 4,500 antiquities were moved and installed. The new museum echoes the ascent to the Acropolis with the top floor displaying the east and west friezes of the Parthenon. Copies of the parts of the friezes currently at the British Museum are displayed to fill in the gaps, where the original artworks were located, before they were taken to London in 1801, by Thomas Bruce, seventh Earl of Elgin.

Professor Pandermalis hopes that visitors to the Museum will gain “a realistic idea” of what classicism is all about. “Many have a confused idea of classical art and classical culture,” he feels that a close look at the artworks on display will reveal the original classical view of humanity.