Maria Spassova

At 8 PM sharp tonight is the beginning of the official opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum wich is available to see online here. Over 300 high-standing people, among which two kings, presidents, prime-ministers, ministers, people of art and representatives of the world academic circles gathered in Athens to celebrate the new home of the priceless exhibits, constructed by architect Bernard Tschumi. The Bulgarian and Cyprus presidents- Dimitris Hristofias and Gorgi Parvanov, as well as the prime-ministers of Finland (Matti Vanhanen) and of Vietnam (Nguyen Tan Dung), the kings of Spain and Sweden, ministers of foreign affairs and ministers of culture, are also going to be among the guests.

At the last moment the Turkish premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan cancelled his visit to Athens due to health problems. Francois Fillon, the French prime-minister, also cancelled his visit. On the other hand, guests of the Greek capital are the European Commission chairman José Manuel Barroso and UNESCO’s director general Koïchiro Matsuura. The Greek tabloids write about a possible visit of the American first lady, Michelle Obama, which however has not been confirmed.

Regardless of the celebrities who are going or not to be there, the opening ceremony will be an event long remembered. Its director is Athina Cangari, well known for her collaboration with Dimitris Papaioanou on the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. This time, Cangari’s theme are the video-installations, located on the walls of the museum and on the hill to the Acropolis. When the sunlight is gone, the screens will reveal the antique statues of people, animals and birds in a unique video-symphony, which made us hold our breath while within it at the rehearsals the days before. Tonight, of course, there are going to be surprises as well.

Strict safety measures are observed in the area around the museum building; the metro station Acropolis is temporarily closed. Tomorrow the museum will open for visitors and the first three days the tickets can only be bought online. After that, their price for the rest of 2009 will be … 1 euro. So hurry up!

Picture: Athina Cangari