Dr Anna Efstathiou will give a lecture about the Greek popular Icons during the Greek-Italian, on Thursday 28 June, at the Greek Centre, as part of the Greek History and Culture Seminars, offered by the Greek Community of Melbourne.

Popular icons or λαϊκές εικόνες were lithographs reproduced in multiple copies and sold to the general public at low prices. They originated from ‘engraved prints’ with religious themes that first appeared in the 16th century, depicting current affairs and events from political and social life, which aimed to arouse emotions and inform the masses. During the Greek-Italian War (1940-41), popular icons reached their peak. The Metaxist regime had already embraced them since 1936, as a visual medium that communicated its focus on the people and as a genuine sample of Greekness and creativity. This presentation highlights the importance of specific Second World War popular icons from the collections of the Greek National Museum in Athens, discussing how portrayals of a nation deeply rooted in history and the traditions of heroic classic antiquity and Byzantine Christianity were used by the regime as carriers of official ideas at war time and visual expressions of nationhood.

Anna Efstathiadou started her career as a historian and language teacher in Greece and later on in the UK, where she also gained a Master on Educational Studies and a Master on Cultural History with a focus on British Second World War propaganda films at the University of Warwick. Completing her PhD at the University of Queensland in Australia, she expanded her area of expertise to propaganda, war and visual image (Australian and Greek First and Second World War posters and photographs). She has numerous publications in international journals and is collaborating with the Department of Photography at the Technological Educational Institution in Athens. She is teaching modern Greek at the Institute of Modern Languages at the University of Queensland and is the official liaison officer of the Hellenic Photographic Society (Ε.Φ.Ε.) in Australia, organising and curating exhibitions that promote Greek culture and photography.

When: Thursday, 28 June 2018, 7.00pm
Where: Greek Centre, (Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne)