Lighting design of the permanent exhibition of the New Maria Callas Museum expanding throughout the museum’s exhibition space.

LIT Lighting Design Award 2024 Winner (Visitor Experience & Museum Exhibition)

Designer: Erato Koutsoudaki

Photography: Yiorgis Yerolymbos

The Maria Callas Museum is located in the center of Athens, honoring the life and achievements of the renowned opera singer.

On the first floor, the main area is daylit on one side. Sculptures and busts are combined side by side with musical scores, letters and clothing, each with different conservation requirements. Zoom tracklights, with barndoors, offered flexibility on focusing and control of the light distribution. The glass showcases and display shelves have integrated lighting. A recessed ceiling lightbox is programmed through an astronomical clock compensates the natural lighting, during the day and provides balance throughout the museum floor.

Sustainability Approach

All luminaires were fitted with an on-board dimming capability, in order to set all lighting at the desired level and avoid any excess use of power. Given the conservation or aesthetic requirements of a large portion of the exhibits, most luminaires were used at less than 50% of their output, providing a substantial energy saving.

All LED track spotlights and linear LED profiles used in the project were sourced by a local manufacturer that fabricates the body-parts and assembles the luminaires in Athens, thus minimizing transport and associated carbon footprint.

Furthermore, the luminaires are designed in such way that allows replacing components in existing luminaire bodies, also performed locally.

Lighting design for the temporary exhibition at the Museum of Cycladic Art that highlights one of the most significant historical events of Greek antiquity – the Battle of Chaeronea, which marked Alexander the Great's rise to power and set the stage for the creation of the modern world.

LIT Lighting Design Award 2024 Winner (Visitor Experience & Museum Exhibition)

Architect: AKA architects

Curators/Concept: Panagiotis Iossif, Ioannis Fappas

Exhibition Design/Museography: Despina Tsafou

Photography: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

The exhibition explores one of the most important historical events of Greek antiquity – the battle of Chaeronea that brought Alexander the Great onto the political stage and laid the foundations for the creation of the modern world.

The theme is the battle that opposed the Macedonian army of Philip II against that of the allied Greek cities, the Sacred Band of Thebes and the army of Athens.

In addition to introducing the two worlds that collided, the exhibition presents the burial practices of the two armies: the Polyandrion (mass grave) of the 254 Theban members of the Sacred Band with their guardian monument of the Lion of Chaeronea, and the Tumulus of the Macedonians.

The contrast between the battle elements and the burial findings is intensely brought out through the exhibition. For the battle, dark walls and exhibits in the perimeter, allow visitors to immerse themselves in the history. Focused lighting, with framing projectors and harsh shadows enhance the dramatic effect the curators and designers intended. On the other hand, the burial bathed in white, makes the visitors spectators in a serene space, with ample diffused light. Wall-washing and allowing light to fill the white canvas, provided a shadowless sense of purity.

The two worlds collide in the red round room, where red perimeter LED lights graze the walls and a subtle pulse accompanies the unnerving soundscape.

Sustainability Approach

This temporary exhibition used the existing equipment of the museum and adaptations were made to fit the needs of the lighting design.

The LED profiles used in the red round room, where specified RGBW rather than just red, so that they would also have a use in future exhibitions and form part of the museum's lighting kit.

Lighting design of the temporary exhibition whose narrative unfolds through the myths and history of the city and its Mysteries - within the framework of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture.

LIT Lighting Design Awards 2024 Honorable Mention

Architect: Trail Practice

Curated by: Panos Giannikopoulos

Photos: Pinelopi Gerasimou, Yiannis Kouskoutis

Mystery 151 A Rave Down Below explores the political dynamics of the body in motion from a simultaneously geological and cultural underground point of departure. Alchemical wanderings from the historical past towards mythology and a post-industrial present culminate in a delirious dance.

The exhibition’s narrative unfolds through the myths and history of the city of Elefsina and its Mysteries, with dance serving as a means of climax, a sacred ritual, and a method for exploring concepts of death and loss.

Through installations, painting, sculpture, sound, and performance, the exhibition seeks to redefine the boundaries of dance, reflecting on the (collective) body and its absence, memory, and the necessity of movement.

Set in a high-ceiling warehouse, the exhibits & installations allow ample room for the visitors to occupy the space. In the same spirit, the lighting design aimed to accommodate the narrative, leaving room for darkness and mystic in the vast warehouse space, isolating the objects, using oblique angles to create long shadows and textures. The synthesis is completed with the selective use of colour, to evoke the ‘rave’ feeling.

During the opening night, the dark parts of the exhibition were filled with pools of light, marking the route of a performance, thus creating a momentary stage, with the audience still in the darkness of their wondering.

Lighting design for the permanent exhibition space of Zoumboulakis Galleries and Οffices in Athens to house temporary collections and periodic exhibitions.

Architect: Zoumboulakis Architects

Photography: Ioanna Roufopoulou