FROM DECEMBER 2023 to November 2024, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) is presenting – in four parts – a cycle of exhibitions exclusively dedicated to the artistic work of women or artists who identify themselves as femininities, under the broader umbrella title What If Women Ruled the World? inspired by Yael Bartana’s neon work of the same name (2017), which is being presented on the North and South facades of the EMST building, and which can be viewed also from Syngrou Ave.

On Friday, May 17, 2024, as part of International Museum Day, two new exhibitions will be inaugurated within the context of the third part of this cycle of exhibitions. What if Women Ruled the World? is an initiative of EMST’s artistic director Katerina Gregos, and is based on an oft-repeated hypothetical question: What would happen if governance of the world had feminine characteristics? Would there be less violence? Would we observe more justice in governance? Would it mean the end of wars and of armed conflicts and deadlocks? Would human rights have a better fate? Would economic policy be fairer and more caring etc?

Or would there be the same obsession with profit, regardless of human and environmental costs, and the selfish anthropocentrism that has led us to our current impasses?

In an era characterized by politics polarization and heightened geopolitical tensions, it seems like the right time to raise this question but also to restore inequalities within the history of art, which for years marginalized or made invisible so many female creators, especially in a  country like Greece where, up till now, there hasn’t been an organized feminist movement in the visual arts.

The two new exhibitions that will be inaugurated on May 17, are the retrospective For Dear Life, with works by Penny Siopis, and the short film The Rape of Europa by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. At the opening of these two new exhibitions, from 9.30pm onwards, DJ Mo Laudi, pioneer of London’s Afro-electro music, will fill the ground floor space with music.

The fourth and final part of the cycle of exhibitions What If Women Ruled the World? opens on June 13, 2024, by which time the entire museum will be filled with works by female artists.

Penny Siopis

With the title For Dear Life, Penny Siopis’ retrospective will run till November 10 at EMST, and is curated by Katerina Gregos. EMST is the first museum to present a major retrospective exhibition in Europe with the works of this important South African artist, who was born in 1953 in the city ​​of Vryburg from Greek parents. Siopis became known in the decades of the ‘80s and ‘90s thanks to her historically and culturally charged painting, via which she criticized colonialism, apartheid, racism and sexism. She has experimented with a multitude of mediums throughout her career, creating a multidimensional oeuvre that has made her one of the most important artistic voices of her generation both inside and outside the African continent, with particular influence on the younger generation of artists.

Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley

Till November 10, on the first floor of EMST,  viewers may watch The Rape of Europa, the film created by Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. These two artists are known for their highly recognizable, graphically stylized, short films in which painting, theater and performance meets poetry, parody and satire. The artistic duo handles every aspect of the production of their films using a plethora of media: from their most iconic features to sets and costumes painted by themselves, creating altogether a unique and poetic audiovisual art form.

OTHER EXHIBITIONS AT EMST

The following exhibitions continue at EMST: Danai Anesiadou’s D Possessions; Yael Bartana’s works What if Women Ruled the World on the North and South Facades of EMST, plus  Bartana’s video Two Minutes to Midnight; Claudia Comte’s The Origin of the Shockwave Ripple Effect (yellow and turquoise); Hadassah Emmerich’s Epicurean Eden; Lola Flash’s SALT; Malvina Panagiotidi’s Αll Dreams Are Vexing; Chryssa Romanos’s The search for happiness for as many as possible. Also running is the exhibition WOMEN, together, curated by Katerina Gregos and Eleni Koukou. The exhibition presents works from the EMST collection, including seven new acquisitions as well as the first presentation of a series of works that come from the D. Daskalopoulos Collection at EMST (the most important and most generous donation made to the museum).

For more details on exhibitions etc, visit the emst site

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