Opening: Friday, 16 February 2018
Exhibition duration: 16 February – 20 May 2018
Location: Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
Curators: Thouli Misirloglou, Art Historian, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art Director
Giannis Bolis, Art Historian – Collections Responsible of the State Museum of Contemporary Art
Curatorial Team – Texts:
Domna Gounari (SMCA)
Areti Leopoulou (SMCA)
Thouli Missirloglou (MMCA)
Giannis Bolis (SMCA)
Eirini Papakonstandinou (SMCA)
Katerina Syroglou (MMCA)
Syrago Tsiara (SMCA)
Peggy Kliafa participates in the show with the artwork:
Armory Square – Placebo Series, 2013/2016, 140x140cm. Aluminum pills blisters, silicone, plexi glass, led light tape
This exhibition, which takes place in the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (in ΔΕΘ) from the 16th of February until the 20th of May 2018 (there has been an extension), presents for the first time a wider number of artworks of Greek and foreign artists which come from the collections of the two museums. In view of the two museums’ functions union, this presentation has a symbolic dimension, since it suggests a first collocation of artworks and artists from the two collections, which creates new correlations and interpretations.
The new exhibition, that the two museums co organize, comprises of almost 200 artists, while it opens a prospect of new exhibitions, so that the whole collection and artists who enrich them be presented gradually. The State Museum of Contemporary Art and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art hope that the meeting of Greek and foreign artists in the future will find its perspective dimension, within the role that the united Metropolitan Organism of Visual Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus) will be called to play in the Greek society and the social, cultural and artistic reality of Thessaloniki, Greece, the European and the Balkan countries.
Through this exhibition a view of the two collections’ history comes up:
The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA) collection is the Museum’s heart and comprises of 2300 artworks. The MMCA was established end ‘70s, as the result of the common effort of a small group of people and the initiative of Alexandros Iolas. The internationally renowned gallerist and collector donated a number of artworks which reveal the relationships of the ‘60s generation with France (Tinguely, de Saint Phalle, Raysse, Raynaud ect), Italy ( Pascali, Mattiacci, Fontana). Several other donations were made after this from artists as well as collectors (Takis, Pavlos, Tsoklis, Akrithakis, Bouteas, Alithinos, Tzivelos, Lazongas ,as well as Kessanlis, Kaniaris, Daniil, Andonakos, Chryssa, Perdikidis, Philolaos, Zoggolopoulos, Koulendianos, Loukopoulos etc). Then many artists contributed with donations and the important art critic Alexandros Xidis, who also donated a big part of his personal collection played a significant role. At the same time the systematic registration of the contemporary art, encouraged a big number of new donations, as all the artworks of Achilleas Apergis, and the artworks of collectors like Charis Andoniou, Manos Pavlides, Leonidas Beltsios and many others.
The opening of the new building in 2002, gave new perspectives with artworks of the ‘80s and ‘90s as well as artworks of contemporary photography and engraving and made its collection one of the biggest collections of Greek and international art in a Greek museum.
The contemporary artworks Collection of the State Museum of Contemporary Art (SMCA).
The initial core of the State Museum of Contemporary Art collections (apart from the internationally renowned Kostakis Collection with artworks of the Russian avant gard artists) is a series of approximately 200 artworks donated to the museum from the Organism “Thessaloniki – Cultural Capital of Europe 1997”. This donation comprises of famous artworks of Stephen Andonakos, Chris Giannakos, Ioannis Avramidis, artworks of the painting workshop “Pictor”, the sculpture workshop “Traces and Prospects” and the Engraving Center “Helios”. Today the museums’ collection comprises of more than 900 works of contemporary art, which cover a big variety of means. Most of them derive from artists’ and their families’ donations. A special reference should be made to the paintings and drawings of Theoharis Mores, the prints of Stephen Antonakos, the collections of Alexandros Tzonis and his wife’s Liane Lefaivre (among them a unit of Chryssa Vardeas’ drawings).