Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-08

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Tsipras announces extra benefit for low-income pensioners, suspension of VAT rise for NA islands

[02] Life in 3000 BC - Cycladic Art Museum opens 'window' into the day-to-day of the distant past

[01] Tsipras announces extra benefit for low-income pensioners, suspension of VAT rise for NA islands

Speaking in a televised address on public broadcaster ERT, he said the government will redistribute 617 million euros to 1,600,000 Greeks who receive a pension lower than 850 euros per month. Concerning the VAT whose increase forms part of an already agreed batch of measures with the creditors, he said the government intends to respect a deal with the institutions to increase the tax.

"With the sacrifices of the Greek people, Greece is shouldering the weight of the refugee and economic crisis for Europe. And the time has come for Europe to recognize that," he said.

"It has been the government's pledge to redistribute every euro of surplus from available sources to our weaker citizens. Today, staying true to this pledge, we decide the immediate redistribution of the outperformance of 2016 revenues to low-income pensioners," he added.

[02] Life in 3000 BC - Cycladic Art Museum opens 'window' into the day-to-day of the distant past

A mother and child, a woman with her belly rounded by pregnancy, a woman with exaggerated buttocks, fragments of sculptures depicting embraced forms - all expressing a small community's emphasis on fertility and family.

Without any written documents, the exhibition "Cycladic Society 5,000 Years Ago" attempts to recreate the social structure, activities, environment and, where possible, the convictions and beliefs of Cycladic island communities spanning a period of about 1,000 years, from 3,200-2,000 BC, through the art and other objects they left behind.

�he exhibition is organized by the Museum of Cycladic Art in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades and it houses 191 ancient artefacts:from its own collections, the Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades (98 artefacts come from the Museums of Naxos, Apeiranthos, Syros and Paros) as well as the National Archaeological Museum and the Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum.

The exhibition is organized with the financial contribution of the Associated Paul and Alexandra Canellopoulos Foundation.

Cycladic figurines, in their present form, with their simple shape and clean outline, became popular through their association with abstract art by 20th-century artists like Modigliani, Brancusi, Matisse, and Picasso. Viewed primarily as works of art, they were often presented in a strictly typological manner, without reference to their creators' cultural sphere.

According to museum curator Nikos Stampolidis, the exhibition "Cycladic Society 5,000 Years Ago" aims to fill that void and put the art into context, exploring the daily life and undertakings of the Cycladic islanders that made it. Stampolidis said the exhibition works as a "snapshot" of a lost reality, a society of small settlements and intrepid seafarers.

The exhibition is organised in five sections, respectively dealing with the early Cycladic social nuclei, activities, social life, social hierarchy and the beliefs and cults surrounding life and death.

It examines the evidence for activities such as farming and livestock breeding, as reflected in art about animals and hunting scenes, the stone tools and crafts that the islanders had at their disposal, evidence that of activities such basket weaving and fabric-making. Particularly impressive is the section on social life, with marble figurines of musicians, such as the "Harpist" or "Flute player", or the figures of seated women.

The exhibition, which runs until March 2017, will take place in parallel with the exhibition of 1950s photographs "Robert McCabe. Memories and Monuments of the Aegean."

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