ETHNOGRAPHIC CENTER
GIORGIS MELIKIS
MASKS RESEARCH CENTER
masks ritual melikis museum
MASKS
"Mask" or "Face" are archetypal form and expression in Greek popular events. The core of the Mask Research Center is the collection of 120 so far functional "face" masks from all over Greece.
Based and starting from the 120 masks that we have as a personal collection, scientific knowledge, documentation and popular know-how (photos, videos, narratives, descriptions, testimonies, publications, etc.) we set up the Mask Research Center (KEM).
Balkan Masks
In the full-national collection of Greek masks and considering a common place of performative magico-religious actions in the area of the Balkans and the Black Sea, in recent years we have put together a collection with corresponding to the Greek masks from events and ceremonies of the inhabitants of the Balkans. The common near-temporal performance of the folk events of the Twelve Days in the Christian world of the Balkans lends a pandemic celebratory atmosphere which may seemingly differ in its particularities, but the core remains the same. Research, record, interact and present.
