BEYOND DISASTER:
PROPOSAL FOR A GREEK-TURKISH DESIGN RESEARCH PROJECT

The “Catastrophe of Smyrni”, or in other words the Izmir disaster of 1922 which brought a terrible end to the Greek-Turkish interwar conflict, constitutes a major event in the collective consciousness of the Greek people. Τhe event signalled a crucial turning point for both countries: Turkey moved with more confidence towards its nationalist and secular future, while in Greece the arrival of one and a half million refugees fuelled industrialisation and accelerated the pace of capitalist expansion. The “’22” is for some historians the real starting point of modern Greek history and has been seminal for the formation of a consumer society in the country.

Among other things, the Izmir disaster changed the conditions of cultural diffusion between the two countries. Before 1922, Izmir was a multicultural city and a major centre of the Greek diaspora within the Ottoman empire. The co-existence of the Greek and Turkish communities facilitated the cross-fertilization of cultures, which continued in different form after the disaster and the exchange of populations. For example, the emergence of the rebetiko music typology in Greece is closely linked to the influence by the musical tradition of refugees from Izmir, a tradition which had assimilated both folk and cosmopolitan elements, and this has been well documented. However, research in the visual domain has been much more limited.