The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) began its operation in 2000. Permanent home of the Museum is the former Fix brewery on Syngrou Ave., the reconstruction of which was completed in February 2014. The building occupies 18.142 sqm. on a 3.123 sqm surface.

After 19 years in limbo, Greece’s first national museum of contemporary art has opened to the public

The museum was established as a cultural entity in 1997, but it took eleven years and €35 million to restore a former brewery in Athens to serve as the museum’s venue.

Photos: Panayotis Tzamaros / FOS PHOTOS

EMST may not fire up the art market directly, since it is not an art broker, but it will make Greek artists more visible.

Urgent Conversations: Athens — Antwerp is the first temporary exhibition in the long overdue public unfolding of EMST.

The project offers a reflective dialogue between the collections of EMST and M HKA, the Flemish Contemporary Art Museum, based in Antwerp.

The impulse of both “Urgent Conversations: Athens — Antwerp” and “EMST in the World” is the necessity of cultural dialogue on a global scale, also within multifaceted Europe.

“Urgent Conversations: Athens — Antwerp” has been developed bottom up, each time starting from work of a Greek and a Belgian artist, that resonate, searching a notion that arises from this resonance, then adding a third artist from elsewhere in one of the two collections.

Pivotal aspect of the EMST’s artistic policy is the enhancement and enrichment of its permanent collections with works from Greek and international artists. There are two main axons according to which the collections are structured: a historic one, dating from the second half of the 20th century, and a contemporary one.

The new building will dispose two and more of its floors, for the presentation of its permanent collection, while it will also have spaces for temporary exhibitions, conferences, events, educational programs for children and adults, a library, a project room, a media lounge etc.

Within the frames of the exhibition “Urgent Conversations: Athens —Antwerp” educational programs special designed for school groups of primary and secondary education are realized. Through dialogue, active participation and artistic activities the programmes aim at contributing to the discovery of and familiarization with contemporary art and to the understanding of the exhibition and its artworks.

The museum is developing its permanent collections through purchasing works of art as well as soliciting donations. EMST aims at developing, within the next few years, a core collection of works representative of the basic directions of contemporary art.

Within the framework of the exhibition policy of EMST, series of periodical exhibitions of open and explorative character are presented, on issues, investigations and quests of international contemporary art, individual works commissioned by the Museum, mid-career retrospectives of contemporary artists and historical retrospectives on the fields of painting, installations, photography, video, new media and “experimental” architecture.

Aside from the permanent collection, periodic exhibitions and educational programming, the museum directs its efforts toward establishing an important infrastructure for research and artistic creation in its premises. Within this framework, the National Museum of Contemporary Art will establish and organize a center for the production of audiovisual works of art as well as a center of digital documentation of contemporary art.

Cultural institutions in Greece have been facing severe budget cuts due to the country’s ongoing financial crisis. According to Emmanuel Samoglou of Greek Left Review, cultural funding has been reduced by about half since 2010.

While this museum’s shell sat waiting to be filled with art, Greece opened its new Acropolis Museum, which is now the country’s most popular attraction after the Acropolis itself, welcoming over 1.5 million visitors annually.

Earlier this year, the museum opened certain spaces briefly as part of its “Prologue” programme for special events, such as the performance Lagune by the Swiss artist Denis Savary, held on the roof on 19 May, International Museum Day; a concert with the Greek National Opera held on the fourth floor veranda on 21 June, World Music Day; and when it hosted the Museum of People’s Free Thinking, run by art students, from 28 June to 3 July.

The long-overdue inauguration of the full museum, including displays for its permanent collection of more than 1,000 works by Greek and foreign artists including Bill Viola, Mona Hatoum, Shirin Neshat, Gary Hill and Nan Goldin, is expected to happen in the fall of 2017.

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