WOMEN, together
Curators: Katerina Gregos and Eleni Koukou
COLLECTION EXHIBITION
EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens
Participating artists:
Etel Adnan (1925, Beirut, Lebanon), Diana Al-Hadid (1981, Aleppo, Syria), Ghada Amer (1963, Cairo, Egypt), Helene Appel (1976, Karlsruhe, Germany), Bertille Bak (1983, Arras, France), Karla Black (1972, Alexandria, UK), Hera Büyüktaşciyan (1984, Istanbul, Turkey), Christina Dimitriadis (1967, Thessaloniki, Greece), Marina Gioti (1972, Athens, Greece), Eleni Kamma (1973, Athens, Greece), Maria Loizidou (1958, Limassol, Cyprus), Tala Madani (1981, Tehran, Iran), Despina Meimaroglou (1944, Alexandria, Egypt), Annette Messager (1943, Berck-Sur-Mer, France), Tracey Moffatt (1960, Brisbane, Australia), Eleni Mylonas (1944, Athens, Greece), Rivane Neuenschwander (1967, Belo Horizonte, Brazil), Cornelia Parker (1956, Cheshire, UK), Agnieszka Polska (1985, Lublin, Poland), Christiana Soulou (1961, Athens, Greece), Aspa Stassinopoulou (1935–2017, Athens, Greece), Maria Tsagkari (1981, Piraeus, Greece), Paky Vlassopoulou (1985, Athens, Greece), Aleksandra Waliszewska (1976, Warsaw, Poland), and Gillian Wearing (1963, Birmingham, UK).
The exhibition WOMEN, together is the first rehang of the museum’s collection in its permanent home, the former FIX brewery, since the initial presentation in 2019.
To address a major issue confronting all museums today: the under-representation of women and the urgency regarding gender equality – one of the main shared concerns underlying all ‘waves’ of feminism over the years, no matter how different – EMΣΤ has decided to make a bold statement with this exhibition and highlight exclusively the work of women artists in its collection.
Curated by Katerina Gregos and Eleni Koukou, WOMEN, together features works from EMΣΤ’s collection, including the first presentation of a number of works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift to EMΣΤ, the most important and generous donation in the museum’s history.
There are a total of 49 works by 25 artists of different generations, ten of which are Greek. Twelve artists and 24 works are from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift, while twelve artists and 25 works are from the existing collection of ΕΜΣΤ. The exhibition also includes seven new acquisitions, as well as a new long-term loan of a major work by Etel Adnan (Lebanon), courtesy of the Saradar Collection (Paris/Beirut).
Although there is no single thematic narrative, as that would be restrictive within the framework of a collection exhibition, there are many common points of reference and dialogue as well as conceptual and aesthetic affinities between the works on view. The artists are preoccupied with a variety of issues, both related to gender and identity, as well as to social and political issues, and the entanglements between them. They also predominantly share an interest in materiality and the handcrafted, and the ephemeral nature of all things.
There are several works that incorporate and re-signify objects and materials extracted from the domestic/everyday environment which are transformed through meticulous manual sculptural processes, and fragile gestures. A preoccupation with the complexity of human existence is evident in several works, as is an interest in entropy, breakdown, decay, and fragility, reflecting the current state of uncertainty widely prevalent today. There are enquiries into the body as a site of contestation and the multiple renderings of its meaning in relation to domesticity, work, sexuality, and self-representation. While the majority of works are not focused on the female condition per se, there is an underlying preoccupation with questions of equity or oppression and difference.
Finally, there are artists who probe issues regarding history, memory and collective/cultural identities centering around the critical geopolitical position of Greece and its immediate geographic surrounds in South East Europe, the Middle East and the former Levant. These are the territories of the former Ottoman Empire, and with them come a multitude of suppressed or marginalised histories that lay dormant in the wake of new nation building. The legacy of this history and the current history of this wider region with its rich historical, cultural, and socio-political narratives lie at the heart of EMΣΤ’s renewed collection policy.
In the context of the exhibition WOMEN, together the group This is not a feminist project (invited by ΕΜΣΤ) created and presents a timeline of the course of the feminist movement in Greece from 1979 until today. It is based on the existing digital timeline of the online platform of This is not a feminist project and includes archival material from the following institutions, initiatives, individuals and groups: Women’s Archive “Delfys”, the General Secretariat for Family Policy and Gender Equality, the Center for Gender Studies of Panteion University, Kiouri@, Beaver, Gender Panic, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou, Emantes, Queer Ink, Ntizeza, Sex Harass Map, Orlando LGBT+ mental health beyond the stigma, Assembly for the 8th of March, Strap-On Unicorns, G – All, Historians on Research in the History of Women and Gender, Center of New Media and Feminist Public Practices.
This is not a feminist project (Vasia Ntoulia & Mare Spanoudaki) is a collaborative artistic/curatorial scheme between 2 women based in Athens, with a focus on feminist issues. Through the combination of different practices, it highlights neglected histories and memories, while amplifying voices of contemporary femininities in order to subvert deep-rooted stereotypes and dominant narratives associated with patriarchy.
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