Covid-19 and Greek Museums. Digitality as a Mean of Promoting Cultural Heritage During the Coronavirus Period. New Ways of Expression

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic, scientifically named Covid-19, was entirely a unique phenomenon that affected the lives of billions of people around the world. The problem persists, with a happy ending not yet fully visible, even if, in due course, medical science discovers ways to reduce or eliminate this pandemic. The negative impact of the disease on people’s lives has been enormous, with millions of dead people, while at the same time it affected the global economy as well as social cohesion, making life difficult for people. Culture was also a major victim of the pandemic, as the direct contacts of artists and experts with the works of art of the world cultural heritage were immediately cut off. Greece felt the negative consequences in this area, as its history and culture are linked to tourism and the promotion of its cultural heritage has suffered a major blow. Masterpieces from the past, of great his-torical importance and aesthetic value, were found in isolation as the difficulties of being approached by the international public seemed to be unsurpassed. However, “Necessity and the gods are convinced”, as the ancient greeks said, so the Greek museums entered-with an unprecedented dynamism- in modern technologies and in the age of digital image, in order not to stop the “contact” of the public with the rich world of art. Therefore, at an extremely fast pace, special virtual tour programs were implemented and displayed in museums and places of culture and as it turned out, the attendance showed high numbers, as the cultural project became a “product” with the aim to be perceived by the cyber public as an intangible object with dimensions outside the “established” aesthetic pleasure. Furthermore, the result is considered to be particularly encouraging as the operation of the museums has acquired a new dynamic, a necessary condition in the functioning of the modern world.