“Women of Kefalonia “

 Εxhibition of Photography Antonella Argiro, opening October 10th, 19.30 , Ionion Center for the Arts and Culture .

Love stories in the islands of Corfu and Kefalonia in memory of the massacre of ’43

During the World War II Mussolini decided to invade Greece . It was in 1940, Germans and Italians were allies . In April 1941 an Italian excerpt 12,000 soldiers came to Kefalonia. When on September 8, 1943 date signing of the armistice , the Acqui Division consisted by 525 officers and 11,700 soldiers  was celebrating  the end of the war. Under threat of the German army, whose leaders in the island forced  Italians to deposit their  weapons, the Italian army was humiliated in the eyes of the people of the Island.  After a week of negotiations did not reach any agreement and began fighting.

Despite the without terms surrender of the Italians, the Wehrmacht committed  a horrible war crime : violently murdered  thousands of Italian prisoners , tossing them in mass graves or throwing their bodies into the sea.

The Exhibition entitled  //Women of Kefalonia// is the photographic survey, which Antonella Argiro chose to revive  the  seventy  years celebration of the  massacre .

Portraits reflecting her own way to remember and assimilate history, presenting the friendship between the Greeks and Italians. As a woman and photographer had the thought to rely on the memory and emotion of this tragedy through the eyes and stories of women who lived  in it . Stories pierced  from love.

The project embraces several generations of women : on the one side Greek women , most  ninety  years old , which did hide and protected the Italian soldiers , helping them to survive , loving them . On the other hand, the daughters born of these mixed marriages , even grandaughters,  living symbols of the friendship between Italians and Greeks , lives  erasing  the rules of the war . Women different in ages and experiences, but connected into  the leading role  that they played in a story that should not be forgotten.

Among these portraits  the memory acquires  poetic shadows  and pain offers space  for confidence , courage  and life.

Antonella Argiro

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