The exhibition «Architectural Counterpoints, from the tradition of the 19th to the transformations of the 21st century» presented photographs by renowned Greek architect Aristotelis Zachos (1871–1939) together with current images, documenting the urban landscape's continual transformation. The counterpoints of the exhibition's images clearly prove the irrevocable alteration of the main characteristics of both architecture and the more general shaping of the environment and allow a comparison in the evolution of the urban and suburban sites in contemporary Turkey with the corresponding transformations brought about in Greece, both of these countries having experienced a common architectural culture for many centuries, with salient common features in the image of the town and the structure of dwellings.

The contemporary art exhibition «A space between» was a site-specific installation, a «space-defining» construction using objects, sketches and paintings elaborated through the dialogue of Greek and Turkish artists (Eleni Kotsoni, Raziye Kybat, Cagr? Saray).

The two exhibitions were organized by the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation in the context of Greece's participation in the institution of the European Capital of Culture for the year 2010 and were inaugurated on July 30, 2010, in the presence of His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and numerous dignitaries of Istanbul. Over the course of their presentation to the public, the exhibitions drew over 6,000 visitors and numerous mentions in the Turkish press, both printed and digital, as well as in Turkish mass media.

Both exhibitions had been presented in the past in PIOP's Museum Network in the Greek provinces. The Foundation elected to present them in Istanbul as being particularly adapted to spreading the message of cooperation and common approaches to questions of cultural heritage and artistic expression between the two countries. A subject which is also of great interest to the international public that visited them.

The proposal, which was approved in early spring by the Committee of the Organization of the European Capital of Culture Istanbul 2010 and was fulfilled in a climate of fruitful collaboration between the representatives of PIOP and their Turkish counterparts, offered a conciliatory approach on thorny issues that are also reflected through the various cultural manifestations of everyday life, but also through artistic creation, rendering in images the doctrine whereby culture unites people.

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