Politics of Art

From the EMST collection
13 October 2010 – 30 January 2011
National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
Curated by: Anna Kafetsi, Director of EMST

George Osodi, « Oil Rich Niger Delta, » 2003-2007.
Photographic installation, projection of 120 digital photographs, duration: 10′ loop.

To celebrate the 10 years of operation of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens a large scale exhibition titled Politics of Art, From the EMST collection, is being organized from October 13, 2010 until January 30, 2011.

The exhibition will present approximately 100 works (installations, drawings, photographs, video installations, net art works, etc., many of which are exhibited for the first time), by 39 artists coming from international centres and emerging regions, including: Dimitris Alithinos, Andreas Angelidakis, Sadie Benning, Andrea Bowers, Richard Brouillette, Costantin (Dikos) Byzantios, Vlassis Caniaris, Paul Chan, Köken Ergun, Makis Faros, Kendell Geers, Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville, Ivan Grubanov, George Hadjimichalis, Yiorgos Harvalias, Mona Hatoum, Emily Jacir, Yael Kanarek, Carlos Motta, Antonio Muntadas, Shirin Neshat, George Osodi, Jannis Psychopedis, Walid Ra’ad & The Atlas Group, [+RAM TV], Oliver Ressler, Martha Rosler, Jayce Salloum & Walid Ra’ad, Allan Sekula, Danae Stratou, Theodoros, Iris Touliatou, Stefanos Tsivopoulos, Kostis Velonis, Bill Viola, Vangelis Vlahos, xurban_collective, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries (YHCHI).

The exhibition begins by a dominant nowadays museum principle under which we are asked to manage the collection as a constantly changing field of new relationships among works, revealing new narratives and meanings but also a wider understanding of the contemporary, international and intercultural. In this framework, past and present are being restructured one within the other, and the contemporary art practice is understood in dialectical relation to the totality of global culture that transcends national, geographic or racial limitations.

The exhibition aims to explore through different perspectives on the works which directly or suggestively indicate political, economic and social phenomena and events, the political dynamics of contemporary art, its possibility to act as a lever of criticism and alternative political thought and action. Political uses of the public space, situations and experiences of oppression, discrimination and violent political and social conflicts, economic globalization and the politics of space in their ecological and social dimensions, reconstituation of collective memory and the restoration of a collective social space, are some of the issues that works in the exhibition will explore, looking for alternative political collective action and artistic activism, as well as a new interactive relationship between the artist and the community, local and global.

THE ARTISTS MEET THE AUDIENCE

In the framework of the series The artists meet the audience, the following talks will be realized:
Carlos Motta: Thursday, 4 November 2010, at 19.00
George Osodi:Thursday, 18 November 2010, at 19.00
Oliver Ressler : Thursday, 2 December 2010, at 19.00
Yael Kanarek: Thursday, 9 December 2010, at 19.00
Ivan Grubanov: Thursday, 13 January 2011, at 19.00

Α conversation with the audience will follow. Entry to the talks is free.

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
Building of the Athens Conservatory, Vas. Georgiou B’17-19 &
Rigillis street (entrance from Rigillis Street)
Athens, Greece

Museum Opening Hours
Tuesday – Sunday: 11.00 – 19.00
Thursday: 11.00 – 22.00
Monday: closed

Communication
Telephone: 0030 210 92.42.111 – 3, Fax: 0030 210 92.45.200
protocol@emst.gr, pressoffice@emst.gr
www.emst.gr