With some advance planning, you can enjoy a very interesting day at the Benaki Pireos this July. A multimedia exhibition comprising film, still imagery, artworks, and ephemera captures a fascinating era. A sculpture exhibition brings us into the imagination and creative process of one of Greece’s finest modern sculptors, and characters from the world of one of the most interesting contemporary printmakers step into our consciousness in intriguingly disquietng ways. Finally, enrolling in the silent collective reality of “Parliament,” you’ll free yourself of inhibition and identity to create the world anew. Here, staring at the top floor and working out way down, is what’s on:

Yannis Pappas – “Borrowed Time”

Yannis Pappas is one of the nation’s foremost figurative sculptors, a creator of relatable, beautiful, easily-grasped works, known for capturing the likeness of many benefactors, politicians, clergy, heroes, and other important figures of Greece. This beautifully curated and installed exhibition offers intimate insight into his creative process as much as into the works themselves. The space is filled with three-dimensional studies, superb paintings of the models at the Athens School of Fine Arts, studies of proportion and anatomy, and sketches. In the artist’s own words:  “Sensitivity and talent aren’t enough. Sculpture demands order, method, discipline… inspiration is an empty word when you don’t know how to invoke it through daily work.”

Until July 27

Lakis Papastathis – “In Search of a Lost Picture”

This marvelous exhibition serves as an intimate introduction to the history of modern Greek culture. The film and documentary maker Lakis Papastathis was deeply embedded in the creative circles of post-war Greece. As a filmmaker, he was deeply connected to all the directors of the new Greek cinema, such as Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonia Marketaki, Stavros Tornes, Frida Liappa, and others: “When one of us would make a short film, we would all rush to work in it as extras. We felt we were family and that the new Greek cinema wasn’t just cinematic, it was a movement that defined a moral stand against the Greek reality.” 

Papastathis together with Takis Chatzopoulos created “Paraskinio” (“backstage”), a groundbreaking documentary series that presented the lives and works of key personalities of Greek culture for decades. Segments of documentaries are on view, as well as part of his award-winning film “Letters from America,” a profoundly evocative and moving portrayal of the immigrant experience. Also on view are portions of his documentary of the folk artist Theofilos Hatzimihail, with whom he felt a connection across time through their shared twin homelands of Volos and Mytilene. Papastathis was also an avid collector; artworks, rare publications, memorabilia, photographs, and more are on display in this multimedia presentation of a fascinating life and seminal era.   

Until July 20

In the Workshop of Christophoros Katsadiotis

Through an immersive multi-dimension display, we have a glimpse of the mind and the works of printmaker Christophoros Katsadiotis. Invented, zoomorphic characters inhabit a dream-like yet oddly familiar alternative reality. Curator Giorgos Mylonas compares him to Max Ernst, and the connection is apt. Katsadiotis’ animations bring us closer to the characters’ odd little universe, while scraps of trash, clippings, and photos tie that world to the surrealism of our everyday urban reality.

Split between Paris and Athens, his practice involves preparing plates in one city and printing them by hand in the other, among old radios and stacks of paper. The figures have an element of the grotesque that can provoke a sense of uneasiness. This uneasiness reached a violent apex in March. Some of Katsadiotis’ works which incorporated religious imagery were ripped from the walls of the National Gallery by an ultra-conservative Member of Parliament, who smashed them on the floor, calling them blasphemous. Even in the less violent and perhaps less conservative among us, Katsadiotis’ works can elicit an emotional response that’s not always readily defined. 

Until July 27

Parliament

What if we suspended the usual medium of communication and replaced it with something else? What if we could experience the pure dynamics of human interaction without the artificial constructs of social status, hierarchy, or any other divisive markers of identity? Michael Kliën explores “choreography as an aesthetics of change,” and invites us to experience it. Inspired by Kliën’s time living in Greece during the financial crisis, the work seeks to create “living environments where presence, attention, and interrelation are explored as civic acts.”

This a work in a constant state of flux. Parliament is seen as “a space for collective presence…. an experiment in Democracy beyond language.” Will people move collectively? Will we all exist in parallel peaceful worlds? Is it possible to connect and engage deeply with someone unknown, without words? The project is supported by the Kenan Institute for Ethics through the Laboratory for Social Choreography at Duke University (US) and the Austrian Embassy, and trained students from the laboratory are on hand for orientation and interesting discussions. Additionally, participants have a briefing before entering the space, and then make of the experience what they will, some staying for hours, and many finding it illuminating; give yourself time to connect with the experience. Participants will need to register in advance via this page on the Benaki Museum’s website. 

Until July 27