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The financier of the proletariat and his rich artistic wife

28 January 2015 / 14:01:58  GRReporter
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Greece’s new Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis is one of the most famous members of the cabinet of Alexis Tsipras, not only in Greece but also in the world.

Since the beginning of the crisis in the country, he has appeared on all major television networks, his texts have been published in a number of printed and online editions and his followers on the social networks have been able to be informed of his positions on critical economic issues for Greece. In his posts, Varoufakis often referred to the woman beside him who is no inferior to him in her surroundings in terms of popularity.

She is famous artist Danae Stratou who comes from the Stratos family - the founder of the already legendary cotton textile factory "Piraiki - Patraiki".

The Greek Minister of Finance’s father-in-law, Phaedon, is the son of Stamoulis Stratos, who founded the factory together with Christoforos Catsambas. Yanis Varoufakis’ mother-in-law is famous painter and sculptor Eleni Potaga-Stratou, who is considered a living legend of contemporary Greek art.

She is one of the favourite painters of significant collectors in Greece and abroad. Her works are presented in a limited number of exhibitions. Only two of them are showcased in galleries and one in a hall of the Greek-American Association in Athens. All other exhibitions of Eleni Potaga-Stratou are organised outdoors, at archaeological sites such as Pnika in Athens, in the garden of the Cairo Opera House, the Selalat gardens in Alexandria and in the open space in front of the University of Bonn. Her work "Crucified" (1957) is in the garden of the monastery of Saint Claire in Newcastle and the statue "Muse" adorns the garden of the Megaro Mousikis Concert Hall in Athens.

The Greek audience knows Varoufakis’ wife Danae Stratou for her exhibitions in various galleries. The photos are from the opening of her exhibition "It's time to open the black boxes!" in Zoumboulakis Gallery in 2012. At that turbulent time for Greece, the purpose of her work was to provoke a discussion to incite the Greeks to a common reaction against the inaction that was "freezing" them.

By opening the "black boxes" they throw a symbolic light on the words that reflect what is threatened by extinction today and what they want to keep, or on what threatens them.

Visitors to the exhibition had the opportunity to actively participate in it and 10 percent of the revenues were given in favour of vulnerable groups among the inhabitants of Athens and for raising public awareness of climate change and the environment.

 

Tags: PoliticsYanis VaroufakisMinister of FinanceWifeDanae StratouArtist
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