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The Museum of Islamic Art in Athens has recently unveiled some magnificent pottery pieces from western Turkey, offering visitors a colorful look at the two countries’ past and common ground.
The western Turkish city of Kutaia, known in ancient times as the Cotyaeum, located along the Porsuk River, is famous for its pottery and pottery, the production of which dates back to the 15th century, writes the Turkish state network Anadolu.
The exhibition of the Benaki Museum in Athens, which closed earlier this month, featured many pieces of pottery with decorative blue, yellow, red and green motifs to give a colorful panorama of the city’s handicrafts.
There are some historical events that have influenced or hindered the production of pottery in Kutaia, such as the Balkan Wars, the First World War and the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), but here it does not extinguish the country’s reputation as a prominent center of pottery. .
Dinos Kogias is a lawyer in Athens with a passion for Kutaia pottery, and the history behind it.
Kogias is the curator of the exhibition “Souvenirs of Kutaia” at the Benaki Museum and together with other researchers has created the Diktio center dedicated to the collection, research and study of modern Greek, Ottoman or Balkan pottery.
He told the Anadolu agency that he knew of the existence of such objects: “But when I first held them in my hands I realized that it was a special category, an important historical and collective proof that we have forgotten.”
Inspired by the 129 objects displayed in the exhibition, he shows that Kutaia’s pottery is influenced by Iznik pottery, in northwestern Turkey.
“After the degradation of the Iznik tradition in the 18th century, Kutaia workshops began to flourish, with a wide range of pots and pans, often influenced by older artisans such as Chinese, Iranian and European.”
He adds: “When the Greek army invaded Kutaia in 1921, the Greeks were very impressed by the local art of pottery, many of which Greek soldiers brought to the country with inscriptions like ‘Souvenirs from Kutaia’ and with the initials of the owner’s name.”
When the Greek occupation of Kutaia ended, most of the city’s inhabitants of Armenian or Greek origin began their exodus to the town of Mudanya in the Turkish province of Bursa, in the European part of Istanbul, or to the Greek city of Thessaloniki.
Many of them also settled in Athens, and since 1923 traditional pottery shops and workshops have been opened there by Armenian or Greek refugees from Kutaia.
In 2016, the art of pottery of Kutaia was registered in the list of UNESCO heritage, while in 2017, the city was included in the list of “creative cities” of UNESCO, from where it exports ceramics even today. / Anadolu /
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