Modular exhibition “Public Domain”
Part B / Purchases: April 15 – September 25, 2022 -EXTENDED UNTIL 13 NOVEMBER 2022
MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art-Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections (TIF-HELEXPO, Thessaloniki)
MOMus undertook to examine the development of a program aimed at supporting the art community due to the effects of the health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
The project focused on the purchase of works by Greek artists in order to enrich the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Photography Museum of MOMus, as it is the duty and obligation of a cultural organization, which monitors developments and is close to contemporary creation, and on the other hand the strengthening of visual artists, who, like most professionals in Culture, suffered the effects of the pandemic.
A collective management approach was launched in order to redesign, co-formulate and re-develop the criteria for the development of the institution’s collections, such as open call, curatorial research, locality, social imprint and aesthetic value. The opening of the exhibition marks the completion of the first part of this program, with a horizon of three years.
The exhibition “Public Domain. Part B – Purchases” gathers together the 69 works of art acquired by 45 Greek visual artists. The majority of artworks were created in the last 3 years.
The exhibition is the re-approach of works of art in the physical space of the museum as part of the works were exhibited in the digital environment created by the organization on the platform res.momus.gr (MOMus Resilience Project), a digital interactive activity of the organization developed during quarantine that activated dialogue with the public and artists. From this digital repository, two exhibitions have already been designed and presented: “Anthropause” at the MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography and “Together, So Far So Close” at the MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts, which exhibitions were the beginning of the whole project of purchasing works of art.
At the same time, this exhibition looks forward to the interaction of the Museum’s new acquisitions with the public, conveying the unprecedented conditions and experiences of inclusion and resilience.
The opening of the exhibition finds us in the period of transition but also on the threshold of a new reality, which is called to consolidate the initiative that has matured and is expected to be implemented for the next two years with the funding of the Ministry and become an institution of solidarity to manage a difficult situation, understanding, reinforcement and finally an act of trust between the artistic community.
The themes that artists deal with in their works can be elements from reality, stories, narratives, orientations, as well as from the realm of imagination, desire, and utopia. These are gestures, faces, eyes, thoughts, ideas. A reflective exhibition emerges that approaches collective experiences, timeless concepts, and visualizes collective correlations and fundamental values.
Curators: Katerina Syroglou & Theodore Markoglou, MOMus curators and art historians
Artists: Loukia Alavanou, Vasilis Alexandrou, Giannis Avgeris, Ioannis Belibasakis, Vasilis, Botoulas, Alkis Boutlis, Marina Gioti, Olga Deikou, Thomas Diafas, Petros Efstathiadis, Konstantinos Fazos, Aikaterini Gegisian, Pantelis Georgitsis, Katerina Hadjidimitriou, Marianna Ignataki, Spyridon Kaprinis, Kyriakos Katsareas, Evangelia Kranioti, Maria Kriara, Anna Laskari, Yiannis Liakos, Thanos Makris, Konstantinos Markogiannis, Dimitris Michalakis, George Moutafis, Lia Nalbantidou, Vassilis Nebegleriotis, Stratos Ntontsis, Gioula Papadopoulou, Eva Papamargariti, Eleni Pavlopoulou, Alexandros Plomaritis, Georges Salameh, Vassilis Salpistis, Alexandros Simopoulos, Sofia Tolika, Nikos Triantafillou, Marinos Tsagarakis, Panos Tsagaris, Aleka Tsironi, Christos Venetis, Babis Venetopoulos, Kalliopi Voutzali, Stavros Xiros, Mary Zygouri