Monument to Labour (Kostas Klouvatos)
Category: Visual Arts > Public space
| Artist: | Kostas Klouvatos |
|---|---|
| Year: | 1956 |
| Genre: | Sculpture | Monument |
| Place: | Athens |
Censorship incidents
| 1970 | Removal of the “Monument to Labour” by Kostas Klouvatos
|
Description
On May 18, 1956, the Monument to Labour, a work of art by Kostas Klouvatos, was inaugurated in Analipseos Square in the Athenian suburb of Vyronas. The monument celebrated the hard work of the Greeks uprooted from Asia Minor who successfully made a new life for themselves in Greece. It is known in the literature by various names, including the ‘Labour Memorial’, the ‘Monument to Lost Homelands’ and the ‘Asia Minor Monument’. In 1970 the dictatorship-appointed municipal council had the work removed in its entirety from the site. Some of its elements were kept in municipal warehouses, though in conditions that led to their being damaged. In 1974, after the fall of the dictatorship, the statues were retrieved from municipal storage and temporarily installed in the park of Agia Triada, in a new composition which was not reminiscent of anything and did not convey the messages of the original. Over the years, they were subjected to extensive vandalism.
Eleni Kouki
Sources – Bibliography
- To Vima, 19/5/1956.
- Kathimerini, 19/5/1956.
- Tachydromos (1081) 26/12/1974.
- Rizospastis, 24/6/2007.
