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From public debates to institutional establishment: Exploring the mission of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Greece
Abstract
In December 1997, the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Ethniko Mouseio Synchronis Technis – EMST) was established by law in Athens under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, compensating for the long-term absence of a state museum of contemporary art in Greece. Following the restitution of democracy in 1974, the question ‘what kind of museum do we need for contemporary art in Greece?’ was raised by artists and other professionals (critics, curators, gallerists, researchers) and explored through a series of public debates and events. However, only in the 1990s was this demand supported by politicians, eventually leading to the establishment of the EMST in 1997. This article examines the public debates developed by art professionals from 1976 to 1997 regarding the mission of the museum as an open, experimental institution in relation to the broader cultural and sociopolitical context. It also analyses the legislation related to its establishment and questions whether the above priorities and expectations were reflected in the relevant legal provisions.
How do communities (fully fledged, active or imagined) perform citizenship? How do recent policies on urban planning and economic development in the city impact public space as the very site where citizenship is claimed, performed and experienced? What is the relationship between practices of memory (from personal memory, to collective and institutional) and acts of citizenship? How does the memory and the archivization of community life (in other words, the creation of a communal past) help the emergence of new demands for inclusion, rights and agonistic togetherness? Drawing inspiration from the colloquium Being Citizens Together: Rethinking Social Citizenship in Greece that took place on 11 February 2023 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), we invited the participants of the colloquium to reflect on the notion of social citizenship in Greece. The contributions include an interview with the curators of the event Dimitris Papanikolaou and Theophilos Tramboulis with the Reviews+ co-editor Kristina Gedgaudait ė as well as critical reflections and creative writing interventions by eight of the participants: Christos Chrysanthopoulos, Sofia Dona, Brikena Gishto, Pafsanias Karathanasis, Erofili Kokkali, Iris Lykourioti, Anna Papaeti and Theo Prodromidis.
For the seventh time in its history the ICOM Definition of a Museum is under discussion, with a view to possible revision to be agreed at the General Conference in Kyoto in September 2019. As part of this process, ICOFOM initiated an academic debate on the Definition, welcoming museologists, museum professionals and policy makers to a suite of symposia held around the world in 2017. In this article, we consider the results of symposia held in France, Argentina, Brazil, and Scotland in the light of the changing social role of museums, and reveal how the museum has come to perceive itself differently in relation to museum values, participation and social inclusion in Europe and Latin America.
The collocation “Greek Art” in museum language and in the secondary market usually refers to antiquity and, less frequently, to byzantine art. But is there a market for more recent Greek art creations? On what basis is this market organized and to which public does it appeal? Historically seen, galleries in Greece specialized in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Greek production have operated since the 1930s and flourished after the 1950s, particularly in the 1980s, since Greece joined the European Community. It was at that time that a rather “stable” regional art market developed, in order to promote local artists. Modern and Contemporary Greek Art was a new, unexplored and profitable area for the world art market and, in the 1990s, well-established international auction houses began selling Greek artworks more consistently. What is the state-of-the-art in the Greek art market? Are there differences between the secondary market inside and outside Greece's national borders? How can these differences be explained? This paper aims at presenting the difficulties and peculiarities of an as yet underdeveloped and, at a high degree, idiosyncratic market.
The Ministry of Culture, created in 1971, plays the major role in formulating and implementing the Greek cultural policies. This Ministry is highly centralized and, except for the Archeology Service, don't have any deconcentrated structures. The local authorities play an important role too as they have created, since 15 years, many cultural equipements. The major orientation of the Greek cultural policies has always been the protection of Cultural Heritage, because of the presence, throughout the territory, of many ancient monuments. The cultural decentralization has been defined as an other important orientation since the Socialist Governe- ments period. During the 1990s, a particular effort has been made towards specific cultural domains, such as Book, great projects (as Unifying of Athens Archeologie sites) or the creation of cultural networks.
This paper concentrates on several of the most significant moments of Greek cultural policy since World War II, together with its key concepts. It traces the cultural policy of the country, its main changes and its relationship with politics through a socio‐cultural analysis and a look at the political and cultural events which occurred. The concepts of national identity, hegemony, civilizing mission, democratization, and cultural democracy are applicable in this framework. Despite various attempts at reforms, the country's cultural policy could be characterized as ‘path dependent’; it connected unwaveringly to its two main objectives: heritage and the arts.