What could connect the Dutch artist Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972) with two of the so-called Amazons of the Russian avant-garde, Liubov Popova (1869-1924) and Ksenia Ender (1895-1955) in a museum in 2020? The obvious answer is art, but mathematics comes as a tool to formalize and decode any connections. Taking as an example the mathematical ideas of mosaics and isometries, the students of the Mathematics Group of the Experimental General Lyceum of the University of Macedonia approached and studied the works of these artists, and the result of this meeting is presented in the exhibition entitled “Mathematics in the Museum”, from 16 October 2020 to 23 May 2021 on the ground floor of MOMus - Museum of Modern Art - Kostakis Collection, at the Lazariston Monastery, in Thessaloniki.
Repeated motifs by Escher coexist with motifs by Popova and Ender, elaborated by the students in different scales and renderings. This is an interdisciplinary exhibition-project, within the framework of MOMus’ educational policy, which aims to highlight the relationship between the content of the school curriculum and the museum object and to abolish the stereotypical roles of authority between the institution and the visitor, as the teacher and their students became co-creators in the museum.
Project curators
Nikos Terpsiadis, Mathematician-Leading Teacher of the Mathematics Group of the Experimental G.E.L. of the University of Macedonia
Evi Papavergou & Katerina Paraskeva, Education Curators, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection