To commemorate today’s official permanent opening of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, here are two different reports written today – one from The National Herald, an English-language weekly newspaper, based in New York City, focusing on the Greek-American community, and the other is an Instagram post by Marina Fokidis, curator and founder of the magazine South as a State of Mind.
I leave it to you to compare and contrast these two perspectives as we celebrate this momentous occasion.
1. Article from The National Herald “Greece’s National Museum of Contemporary Art Opens to the Public“
The moment we’ve all been waiting for is finally here: The National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens is now open!
Today was a day of celebration for the museum’s supporters, for the artists whose work is on display, for art lovers, and for the public as a whole, both from Greece and abroad. It was also a day of celebration for the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), which supported EMST with a grant that enabled the completion of the museum and ensured that it would serve the public to its fullest potential.
Specifically, SNF supported renovations to outfit exhibition spaces, as well as the preparation and transportation of the Museum’s permanent collection. The Foundation also supported the purchase of essential equipment and contributed to the establishment and upgrade of various Museum spaces, including the Media Lounge, the Conservation Laboratory, the Library, the Artistic Archive, and the Screening Room.
The opening will over visitors the chance to enjoy more than 172 artworks of 78 Greek and international artists, such as Vlassis Kaniaris, Giannis Kounellis and Shirin Neshat.
The remarks by Mr. Giorgos Agouridis, Member of the SNF Board of Directors addressed at the Press Conference on Monday, February 2020, are available here
2. Marina Fokidis Instagram post
It is a wonderful day for the contemporary art in Greece. The sun is shining strong and finally the EMST, the national museum of contemporary art in Athens is permanently open! Even if it does not have a permanent director (properly elected by a jury of professionals), but for the moment a two-year’s director (appointed directly by the government), the minister of culture announced publicly and committed to organize and complete the international competition for the position of the director within the next two years! Amen!
Great works, absence of todayness in the so called “museological” study and installation of the collection! But another commitment announced by the minister was the undertake of the appropriate moves to change the legislation towards this finite ‘museological’ restriction which seems like a local follie. As early as the end of 90s I remember when studying to become a “curator” – in London – the comprehension of museology as a redundant and if not an exclusively technical science. Thus a museologist could not design and decide the destiny of a contemporary art museum. (Maybe of an archaeological? But I doubt this too).
These and many other news, kudos and congratulation to all that took the trouble, the pain, the decisions that prompted to a contemporary art museum which finally works in its entirety!!! And which within five years might be an transnational point of reference! Specially to the general secretary of Contemporary Culture! Photo : work by Nikos Alexiou #emst#nicholasyatromanolakis#εμστ#athens#greece#nikosalexiou#greekministryofculture#νικόλαςγιατρομανωλάκης
