A few kilometers outside Ioannina, an unforgettable foray into modern Greek history awaits us through the wax figures of Pavlos Vrellis, a life's work for him and an experience of memory for the visitor.
Vrellis, a graduate of the Sculpture Department of the school of Fine Arts, bought a barren area of 17 hectares in Bizani, Ioannina, in his 60s to make his lifelong dream true.
He spent the next 13 years tirelessly designing both the exterior and interior of his museum, designing and building it from the ground. He was not only a sculptor, as he also had to work as an architect, painter, costume designer and folklorist, as he did everything himself.
"I thank those who have preserved my religion, my language and my nationality to be a Christian and to be called a Greek. The love and admiration I had as a child for the heroes of the pre-revolution and the revolution of 1821 became love and admiration for the later heroes. They were slaughtered, hanged, scratched, humiliated, so that today we can live free in this place, without slavery." he wrote in his museum's memorandum in the winter of 1994.
"The people of this land have shown their bravery in all ages. Replacing the spear with the modern weapon, they cried out to all the peoples of the earth, 'Greece never dies'. As a tribute of honor, love and faith to our anonymous and eponymous heroes, I have built this museum of Greek History with wax figures, in the village of Bizani, Ioannina".
Among his wax figures are the "Hidden School", which he built "as a tribute to those who preserved our language and our national identity, in the dark early years of the Ottoman rule", having worked on the faces in his workshop in Athens and in Ioannina since 1954.
The works of the pre-revolutionary period also include the "Filiki Etaireia", "the "benefactors of Epirus", the "teachers of the Nation", the "Hellenism in prison", the "Blowing in Kougki ", the" Kleftes and Armatoli ", the" Slaughter of Ali-pasha" etc.
Under the general category of "Exhibits of the Revolution" we find wax creations such as the "Warriors of 1821", but also the effigies of Makrygiannis, Kolokotronis, Kanaris, Nikitaras and others. A special place both in his life and in his work is occupied by the turbulent period of German Occupation, which he develops in works such as "Bitter Memories 1940-1941", the "Letter from the Albanian Front", the "Women of Pindos", the "Headquarters of 1940 in the Cave of Kalpaki", the "Rupel", the "Battle of Crete", and so on.
For its outstanding artistic, historical and folkloric value, his work has been honored by cultural associations and intellectual institutions. Other works of the sculptor and painter Pavlos Vrellis adorn private collections in Greece and abroad, at the same time his collections are exhibited in the Gallery of Ioannina, while some works in stone and marble adorn the mainland.
A work of inestimable, of course, national and artistic value, which has left a legacy to the entire Greek nation. A great creator, but also an equally great educator, Pavlos Vrellis left the world on 23 July 2010 and will probably meet all those heroes, saints, but also everyday people whom he so much admired and praised with his wax works.
Source: newsbeast
