Greek Museum Hands Over Reins To Women Artists

Athens, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Dec, 2023) A Greek art museum this week handed over its halls exclusively to women artists, in a pioneering exhibition titled "What if women ruled the world?"

"For 10 months, the entire museum will be in the hands of women artists," Katerina Gregos, artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST), told AFP.

The museum's permanent exhibitions have been reorganized to highlight the work of 25 women artists, with another 15 temporary displays to follow.

Among the painters, sculptors, photographers and others are Syrian-American contemporary artist Diana Al-Hadid, French visual artist Annette Messager, Iranian-American painter Tala Madani, Greek-Belgian contemporary artist Danai Anesiadou and English visual artist Cornelia Parker.

Until now, just 37 percent of artists represented in the museum's permanent exhibition were women, Gregos said.

The selected works address themes including stereotypes of female beauty, violence against women, inequality, consumerism, and poverty disproportionately affecting women.

"Women artists are still under-represented in most aspects of the art world," said Gregos, who took over the post of artistic director in 2021.

"We wanted to reverse the trend and see what a museum would look like if, instead of a few token pieces, works by women artists made up the majority," she said.