The eternal bright light of Attica!
It is almost a century ago that 24-year-old Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, the future Le Corbusier, visited Athens for the first time. Three weeks in Athens under the unmatchable Attica sun left a lasting impression on the father of modernism. For Le Corbusier, the essentials were space, order and light: the three things that men need just as much as they need bread or a place to sleep. For him, the light in Attica differs from the light in any other place in the entire world. The daylight in Athens really differs from light in London, Berlin, Paris or New York…
Here, more than any in other place in the world, the light emphasizes the beauty and pureness of everything! Lines become more graceful, colors are clean and mellow, the Attica light brings out the harmonious diversity of shapes and figures.
It is no wonder that every year, many tourists visiting the Acropolis, or sitting at the temple of Poseidon in Cape Sounion, respectfully observe the alterations of the colors and the shades during daytime and even more during sundown.
An ordinary and indifferent neighborhood in Athens with all the TV antennas, the impersonal and boring apartment buildings, all the concrete around, becomes fascinating thanks to the unique Attica light.
I guess that all this led Bernanrd Tschumi to decide to expose the findings of the Acropolis under the natural Attica light streaming through the museum’s walls of glass.
