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Nurminen Prima brings the Athos Exhibition to the Tennis Palace Art Museum
The exhibition Athos Monastic Life on the Holy Mountain contains treasures of Byzantine Art from a period covering more then one thousand years. Nurminen Prima Oy transported the exhibits to Finland
Athos is a republic of Orthodox monks located in northern Greece.
One third of the art objects now on show in the Tennis Palace Art Museum are on loan from the monasteries of Athos. The Athos exhibition is unique because these particular objects from the monasteries are being displayed outside Greece for the first time.
In addition to the objects from the monasteries on Athos, Nurminen Prima Oy also transported artworks for the exhibition from 15 different European museums. The transport of an ecclesiastical reproduction from Moscow to Helsinki added a particularly challenging dimension to the logistics operation. The replica, which is several metres high and is of frescoes in the altar section of a monastery church, was transported in small sections. Museum staff, in cooperation with experts from Russia, recomposed the work of art. As visitors admire the replica of the fresco, they are lifted and swept away to an imaginary Orthodox church by devotional music played in the exhibition area.
The Tennis Palace Art Museum exhibition includes over 600 different exhibits. Visitors to the Athos exhibition can see icons, rare manuscripts, holy crosses and jewellery. The programme of events running alongside the exhibition includes icon painting as well as lectures from the display entitled “Angelic Life on Earth”.
The Mother of God of Iviron (Portaitissa), Second half of the 17th century, Cretan master (?), Tempera on wood © State Historical Museum, Moscow
Further information:
Curator Mikko Oranen, Helsinki City Art Museum (Tennis Palace), tel. 358 9 3108 7011
Managing Director Isto Kiviniemi, Nurminen Prima Oy, tel. +358 10 545 3201
