National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens

The Museum of Contemporary Art has long been operating in temporary premises and after a long time on the move, the new premises in an old brewery are an excellent improvement. The building has plenty of space and room to manoeuvre. In places, the space could probably have been used more efficiently. There's a lot of space to be kept cool in the 40-degree heat of Athenian summer..

The museum as seen from the metro station, 22 March 2022. Photo OI


I took a metro to the museum. There was an entrance from the metro station side, but the door was locked.On the other side of the building, however, there was an open entrance.

The museum's exhibition spaces are spread over several floors, with a café on the ground floor and a restaurant and rooftop terrace on the top floor. However, the restaurant was closed in March. The permanent collections are on the top three floors. The robust-looking escalators are the easiest way to move between the floors. Evidently the escalators are deliberately designed to look so sturdy. However, they are not a particularly graceful solution. The interiors are entirely modern, in the classic “art museum white”. In fact, there is nothing to suggest the building's previous use.

 

Reading the section texts, one gets the impression that the museum is still searching for its identity. In the text introducing the permanent collections, credits for the curators take up a large portion of space. In any case, as the text says, the permanent collection is the heart of the museum, and the works on display are impressive. The first works in the EMST collection were acquired in 2000 and the first work was presented on 11 October 2000. There are 172 works shown by 78 Greek and international artists.

Mona Hatoum: Fix It, 2004. Factory equipment and furniture, programmable lighting, electric cable, light bulbs, sound. According to the object label, Mona Hatoum visited Athens and collected old and rusty industrial furniture from the old FIX brewery before its restoration as a permanent base for EMST. She erected a metal net to form a fenced area where electric lamps are switched on and off, creating a buzzing sound. Photo OI


Kendell Geers: Acropolis Redux (The Director's Cut), 2004. Security fences, steel shelves. According to the object label, South African artist Kendell Geers has used dangerous materials to create a latter-day Parthenon, alluding to apartheid and all forms of division. Does the fencing he creates make you feel stronger and safer, or does it threaten you? Photo OI



Vlassis Caniaris: Hopscotch, 1974. 6 human figures, 9 suitcases, 1 cage, tar paper base, chalk drawing. The work is about Greek emigration. After the Second World War, and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, a large number of Greeks migrated abroad. The work has even been shown at Documenta in Kassel, and its message has not faded. When I visited the EMST Museum in late March 2022, it was four weeks after the start of the war in Ukraine. More than 10 million Ukrainians had been internally or externally displaced, no doubt that figure including some of Ukraine's Greek minority. Photo OI


Many contemporary art museums now focus their exhibitions on environmental change. In this museum, much of the work deals with borders and their crossing, refugees, politics and oppression. Topical and important themes too.

The jewel in the collection is undoubtedly Ilya Kabakov's installation The Boat of My Life from 1993.


Ilya Kabakov. The Boat of My Life, 1993. Acquired for the collection in 2001. In the object label, Kabakov says of his work: “I did this when I was sixty years old. The installation is a large and long (17 metres) wooden boat with stairs at each end, with which the viewer climbs up to the deck and descends from there. On the deck are twenty-five large cardboard boxes in total disarray, as if they had been put there temporarily. Each one is filled with all kinds of household rubbish, the kind a person in a hurry to leave throws things together unsorted: jackets, shirts, shoes, children's toys. Each box has a piece of cardboard on top of everything, with photos, small objects and texts glued to it. The texts are scattered memories of episodes in my life  As the viewer wanders between the boxes, gradually moving to the opposite end of the boat, the viewer realises that here are all the belongings of a person's life, and that the movement inside the boat between the boxes and towards the exit is movement along the course of a person's life. Each box represents its own period of that life, with its own name.The last box is empty. A strong association is made with the journey through the boat - Charon's boat, which transported human souls across the River Styx. At least this is the image I had in front of me when I thought of this piece”. Photos OI






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

National Archaeological Museum

Image
If someone interested in ancient Greek civilization were to visit only one museum in Athens besides the Acropolis, the destination could be the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. NAM is the largest museum in Greece and one of the most significant museums in the world dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Mediterranean and antiquity.   Archaeological Museum, March 2022. Photo OI  The museum was founded in 1886, and the building was inaugurated in 1889. Designed by the German architect Ernst Ziller, the structure follows the tradition of Berlin’s Altes Museum and the grand neoclassical museums built thereafter, as well as the neoclassical architecture of Athens created by the Hansen brothers. Ziller (1837–1923) was a major figure in late 19th-century Greek architecture, with over 500 buildings to his name. He also designed an elegant private residence for Heinrich Schliemann, which now houses the Numismatic Museum. Photo from the museum brochure The Archaeological Mus...
Read more

Roman Agora and The Tower of the Winds

Image
During the Roman era, a new commercial center emerged in Athens, known as the Roman Agora. It was built between 19 and 11 BCE, as the older Greek and Hellenistic era Agora had become filled with various activities. The Roman Agora was designated for commercial activities. The western entrance of the Roman Agora, the Athena Archegetis Gate, photographed in March 2022. The picture was taken from inside the Agora. Photo: OI An image on an information board showing the buildings in the area. The old Agora is in the foreground, and the Roman Agora is depicted in color. In the lower part of the information board is the Athena Archegetis Gate. To the right is the Church of Sotira near Pazaroporta, and in the background are the churches of Taxiarchs and Prophitis Ilias. (Chr. Hansen, 1833) The Roman Agora and other key ancient archaeological sites placed on the current map of Athens. The image is from an information board. A combined ticket provides access to these sites. The map also indicate...
Read more

The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art

Image
The Benaki Museum of Islamic Art presents the extensive collections of Antonis Benakis, who was born in Egypt and later moved to Greece. The museum is located relatively close to the Acropolis, and the Kerameikos neighborhood has other archaeological sites and a museum as well. Museum of Islamic Art. March 2022. Photo by OI   I visited the Museum of Islamic Art on Sunday. While transferring from Monastiraki metro station to the museum, one could walk through a vast and interesting antique market area. The museum building is an old neoclassical urban mansion, and the exhibition is spread across several floors. The historical layers of the area are illustrated by the preserved and exhibited part of Athens' old defense wall in the basement, built in preparation for the Macedonian invasion. Preserved defensive structures in the basement. Photo by OI The exhibition is aesthetically well-crafted. The collection appears to be somewhat fragmentary, as collector's collections often are....
Read more