THE RELATIONSHIP between humans and animals is complex and changing, especially today. Why Look at Animals?, the major new exhibition programme at EMΣT Athens, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece, has opened to an enthusiastic response from critics and audiences alike.

This exhibition centres on animal rights and animal well-being, highlighting the urgent need to recognise and defend the lives of non-human animals in an anthropocentric world that exploits, oppresses and brutalises them. The exhibition is inspired by John Berger’s seminal essay of the same name, “Why Look at Animals?” (1980), which explores the changing relationship between humans and animals, particularly in the context of modernity. The essay reflects on how animals, once deeply integrated into human life, have become increasingly distanced, objectified and commodified.

Rather than focusing on representations of animals in art history, Why Look at Animals? shifts the frame toward animal rights, sentience and ecological entanglement, spotlighting the systemic injustices inflicted on non-human life. Extending across all seven floors of the museum, the programme draws inspiration from John Berger’s seminal 1980 essay and offers an ethical and philosophical exploration of humanity’s complex, often contradictory relationship with animals. It features work by more than 60 international artists addressing themes such as speciesism, intelligence and communication, the climate crisis, and the moral implications of modern human-animal dynamics.

While the main exhibition, Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, serves as the central axis of the programme, a series of solo exhibitions and projects by artists including Sammy Baloji, Kasper Bosmans, Janis Rafa and Emma Talbot expand and deepen the conversation around environmental and interspecies justice.

A second issue of Octopus, EMΣT’s thematic art journal, will be released in late June and is guest-edited by Filipa Ramos, offering critical and creative reflections on non-human lives from a wide range of contributors.

With tens of thousands of visitors already in its first month, Why Look at Animals? has also  attracted strong international press coverage, with features, mentions and reviews in AD Italia, Arterritory, Canvas, DeutschlandFunk, Designboom, Domus, Il Giornale dell’Arte, Salzburger Nachrichten, STIR, TAZ, and more.

Participating artists: Ang Siew Ching I Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin) I Sammy Baloji I Elisabetta Benassi I John Berger I Rossella Biscotti I Kasper Bosmans I Xavi Bou I Nabil Boutros I David Brooks I Cheng Xinhao I David Claerbout I Marcus Coates I Sue Coe I Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost I Mike Dibb & Chris Rawlence I Mark Dion I Radha D’Souza I Maarten Vanden Eynde I Jakup Ferri I Alexandros Georgiou I Igor Grubić I Gustafsson & Haapoja I Joseph Havel I Lynn Hershman Leeson I Annika Kahrs I Menelaos Karamaghiolis I Anne Marie Maes I Britta Marakatt-Labba I Nikos Markou I Angelos Merges I Wesley Meuris I Tiziana Pers I Paris Petridis I Janis Rafa I Rainio & Roberts I Marta Roberti I Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni I Lin May Saeed I Panos Sklavenitis I Sonic Space I Jonas Staal I Daniel Steegmann Mangrané I Oussama Tabti I Emma Talbot I
Nikos Tranos I Maria Tsagkari I Dimitris Tsoumplekas I Euripides Vavouris I Kostis Velonis I Driant Zeneli

Runs till Jan 7. Pets are also welcome in this museum. For more info visit the museum’s site here