The Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP) is celebrating the European Artistic Craft Days (1-7 April) by hosting a series of events at the Open-Air Water Power Museum, in Dimitsána (Peloponnese).

The events’ detailed programme is:

Monday 1st April

• Woodcarving exhibition “The woodcarving art of Ioánnis Bakópoulos” in collaboration with the Syndesmos Daraion and the Museum of Folk Culture of Dáras in Arcadia

The exhibition hosts selected woodcarving works, utilitarian or decorative, from the self-created collection of Arcadian Ioánnis Bakópoulos (1902-1995), which feature unusual artistic elements with engraved and raised details, and other artefacts from the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Folk Culture of the village of Dáras in Arcadia. Visitors to the exhibition will come into contact with art of the Daran artist’s woodcarving, which is neither imitative nor static but, rather, alive, original and interactive, and representative of the temperament, the economy and the evolution of the everyday life of the inhabitants of Dáras, with intense historical, folkloric, social and anthropological aspects.

The exhibition runs from: 1^st April - 5 May 2019 (daily except Tuesdays and Greek Orthodox Easter Sunday, 10am-6pm).

Saturday 6 April

• Lecture “The woodcarving art of Ioánnis Bakópoulos” (from 11:30am-12:30pm)

Official presentation of the exhibition on “The woodcarving art of Ioánnis Bakópoulos” by Ms Antonía Kordopáti, chairwoman of the Syndesmos Daraion and scientific advisor of the Museum of Folk Culture of Dáras in Arcadia.

• Pyrography workshop for children and adults (from 12:30-2pm)

Woodcarver Triantáfyllos Markópoulos and artist Níke Damopoúlou will initiate the exhibition’s visitors to the art of pyrography on wood, showing them how to create their own miniature artwork which they will then take home with them.

Sunday 7 April

• Demonstration of woodcarving for children and adults (from 11:30am-1:30pm)

Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to live the full experience from the birth of the idea to the realisation of a wood-carving object by watching woodcarver Chrístos Simópoulos in the process of creating in full view of the public.

Lastly, from Monday 1 through to Sunday 7 April:

• An exhibition of contemporary woodwork by Mr Triantáfyllos Markópoulos will be held at «Diachronikó», in the village of Vytína.
• The restored cooperative wood-processing workshop “Dimiourgíes Xýlou” (Creations made of Wood), in the village of Eláti, will be open to welcome the public. Here, Mr Simópoulos creates unique objects and furniture out of valuable and high-quality wood, which he himself gathers throughout the year in the dense forests of Mount Mainalon and which he transports with the help of his patient donkey. Those interested in visiting need to make prior arrangements to do so by calling +30 27950-29017 or +30 6977-022-173.

Entrance to the exhibition, participation in the activities, as well as the necessary materials for the workshop, are free of charge.

For further information and in order to sign up, please contact the Museum on (+30) 27950 31630, daily except Tuesdays, 10am-6pm.

Open-Air Water Power Museum
Kefalári Aï-Yiánni, GR-220 07 Dimitsána
T: (+30) 27950 31630 | www.piop.gr
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