BEHOLDING LIBERTY EXHIBITION, GREEK PARLIAMENT BLDG., ATHENS

For the celebration of the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution the exhibition “Beholding Liberty at the Hellenic Parliament, 2 centuries later” we were assigned to upgrade the permanent lighting of the Hall of the Trophies and the Hall of the Adjutants to host the temporary exhibition that focuses on testimonies and objects of artistic value in order to reconstruct intellectually and emotionally the supreme asset of the revolution of 1821.

Our lighting scheme upgraded the lighting, always in respect of the architectural form. Additionally, for the first time we illuminated and highlighted the very important decorative mural of the 2 Halls: The Frieze of the Revolution and the Medals of the Heroes At the first Hall, the frieze of the Revolution shows 20 representations of war and political-diplomatic events from 1821 while at the second Hall there are 14 portraits of Greek heroes, painted around 1842-1843.

Through our scheme, we paid a great care to the fragility of the mural paints as well as the preserved architecture of the interiors. Thus, for the wall-washing effect we customized a linear light with a special lens for wall washing from short distance and the overall size of the luminaire didn’t exceed the 1cm. For the lighting of the medals / portraits of the heroes, we also designed small spherical spots with a special lens to focus on the circle and resulting in the least possible aesthetic distraction.

We also designed and used similar spherical spots including a thin louver for the lighting of the paintings in the stand-alone structure in the middle of the first room and linear for the window black-out painted drops. The CRI of all custom luminaires was over 95 to depict the slight shades of color on the paintings and murals. The overall lighting scheme had to be reversable as the exhibition is temporary.

We also pursued alterations to the decorative existing chandeliers in order to improve the position of the socket and correct the direction of the light bulb. Finally, a variety of different lighting scenarios was created through the use of a dimmable control system.