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“A knowledge of photography is just as important as that of the alphabet. The illiterate of the future will be ignorant of the use of camera and pen alike.”László Moholy-Nagy The photographic experiments of the renowned Bauhaus representative László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) are the focus of the new exhibition titled “László Moholy-Nagy. Light Play,” which will be presented for the first time in Greece at the MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, from 13 June to 15 November, 2026. As one of the most important figures of the Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy made a decisive contribution to the renewal of the photographic language, treating photography not merely as a means of documentation but as a tool for research, composition, and a new visual experience. Through photomontages and experimental explorations with light and the darkroom, he played a decisive role in shaping a new conception of the image that profoundly influenced contemporary photography, as well as design, graphic arts, and cinema. The 68 photographic artworks by this pioneering artist, featured in the exhibition, focus on floating shapes and bodies, gazes, shadows, gestures, and transparencies, highlighting Moholy-Nagy’s radical contribution to the fields of photography, film, and the experimental arts of the 20th century. At the same time, this exhibition highlights the enduring influence of the Bauhaus on contemporary artistic and applied creation: “photograms” (photography without a camera), photomontages, experimental photographs from Europe and the U.S., where he lived and worked, both black-and-white and color photographs, as well as films, offer the exhibition’s visitors a comprehensive experience.  László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (Hungary, 1895–USA, 1946) was a leading figure in the explosion of modernism in the arts during the early decades of the 20th century. A multifaceted and pioneering figure, the Hungarian artist engaged in painting, photography, design, sculpture, film, typography, and theatrical set design; he designed books, exhibitions, and shop windows. An injured veteran of the Austro-Hungarian army in World War I, he became involved with the Berlin Dada movement and Constructivism. In 1923, he joined the Bauhaus school, where he taught until 1928, while also editing all of the school’s publications alongside Walter Gropius. He was an enthusiastic teacher and authored, among other works, the influential theoretical treatise Painting, Photography, Film (1925). He experimented with “photograms” (photography without a camera) as early as 1921, exploring their abstract potential, the same year that Man Ray discovered the same technique under the term “rayographs.”  In 1924, he began creating “photoplastics,” an elliptical, minimalist narrative/collage featuring fragments of drawings, images, and words.  Throughout the exhibition, educational programmes, guided tours, and workshops on photographic experimentation will take place  Co-organized by: MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Fotografiska, the Contemporary Museum of Photography, Art and Culture, The Moholy-Nagy Estate. Curated by: Jessica Jarl, Global Director of Exhibitions / Fotografiska Architectural design/production: Danai Mavridou, Spyros Tsafaras / TETRAGON S.A. Curatorial adaptation: Areti Leopoulou, Deputy Artistic Director / MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography &amp; Hercules Papaioannou, Curator  Fotografiska is a global institution with museums in Stockholm, Berlin, Shanghai, Tallinn, and soon Oslo, dedicated to inspiring new perspectives through photography and contemporary art. Through partnerships and institutional collaborations, Fotografiska brings photography and visual culture to audiences around the globe. Co-organised by <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_140.png" data-entity-uuid="0d85129c-42fa-415e-bcc5-05ec8ce9add1" data-entity-type="file" width="338" height="76" /> <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_61.jpeg" data-entity-uuid="e5a521e1-9c39-4de7-a2ba-98283498e93d" data-entity-type="file" width="111" height="165" /> <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_141.png" data-entity-uuid="a51e0da5-64c9-4d18-b69f-593322a00a7b" data-entity-type="file" width="483" class="align-left" height="79" />  <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_142.png" data-entity-uuid="3bcd820d-b3da-4a2e-9009-0b8d1b82945a" data-entity-type="file" width="573" class="align-left" height="625" />

Thessaloniki Museum of Photography

László Moholy-Nagy. Light Play

MUSEO TZORTZI (former Municipal Gallery, 10, 28th October Pedestrian Street, Agios Nikolaos, PC 72100, Crete, Greece)Opening: Saturday, 11 July 2026, 20:00 The exhibition “Three Paths: Constantine Manos, Nikos Economopoulos, Enri Canaj” presented in MUSEO TZORTZI in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, co-organised by MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, Benaki Museum, GREEN PROJECT, Region of Crete and Municipality of Agios Nikolaos, under the Auspices of the Embassy of Albania in Greece, from 11 July until 15 November 2026, is an original proposal as well as a tribute. With street photography as its backbone, a dominant artistic trend of the photographic medium in the second half of the 20th century, it bridges three generations of artists with common point of reference their relationship with Greece and their membership in the famous Magnum Photos agency, which has written since its foundation in 1947 and until today, to a large degree, modern world’s history in images. Greek-American Constantine Manos walks around the country in the sixties as a contemporary Ulysses, looking to heal the latent wound of migration. Nikos Economopoulos crosses Greece and the Balkans in the last two decades of the 20th century focusing mainly in fragile minorities and turbulent communities. Greek-Albanian Enri Canaj, respectively, visits in the second decade of the 21st century a homeland he never got to know properly, imprinted though deeply in the memories of his childhood and dwelling still in the everyday family stories. The expressiveness of the snapshot, the dedication on the everyday, underprivileged man, the Balkan place as a womb of common experiences and wounds, the occasionally melancholic austereness of the black and white tones in a contemporary world dressed now with vivid, saturated colors, act as common elements of the three artistic generations, that maintained among them a relationship of support and/or apprenticeship. Walking through the exhibition one may also spontaneously trace the historical, aesthetic and social relevance in the work of the three photographers, as they distill from the world the substance of life and photography. The works of Constantine Manos and Nikos Economopoulos belong to the collection of the Benaki Museum Photographic Archives, Athens. Curated by: Hercules Papaioannou, Curator of MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography  Artists’ Talks MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (Warehouse Α’, Pier Α’, Port of Thessaloniki)Sunday, 12 July 2026, 18:00-20:00The exhibition’s curator, Hercules Papaioannou talks with the photographers and the audience about their work and the dimensions of street photography nowadays.The discussion will be held in Greek. No translation provided. Participation is free of charge.  <a>CV’s</a>Constantine Manos (1934-2025) was born in Columbia, South Carolina, U.S.A., of Greek immigrant parents. At the age of nineteen he was hired as the official photographer of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He studied English Literature at the University of South Carolina. Moving to New York, he worked for Esquire, Life, and Look magazines. From 1961 through 1963 Manos lived in Greece, where he made the photographs for his book A Greek Portfolio - first published in 1972. The book won awards at Arles and at the Leipzig Book Fair and opened the door for Manos in becoming in 1963 a member of Magnum Photos. His photographs are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the George Eastman House in Rochester and the Benaki Museum in Athens. In 1982 Manos switched his personal work from black and white to color. Work from Manos' ongoing color project first appeared in his book American Color, published in 1995. In 2000 his book American Color 2 followed. In 2003 Manos was awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence. Nikos Economopoulos was born in the Peloponnese, Greece, in 1953. He studied law and worked as a journalist in Parma, Italy, before dedicating himself to photography. He joined Magnum Photos in 1990 after a proposal by Constantine Manos, and his photographs began appearing in newspapers and magazines around the world. In the same period, he started traveling and photographing extensively around the Balkans. This work won him the Mother Jones Award for work in progress. Upon completion of his Balkans project in 1994, Economopoulos became a full member of Magnum Photos. His book, In the Balkans, was published in 1995 in New York and Athens. In the 1990s, Economopoulos started working on borders and crossings, photographing the inhabitants of the “Green Line” in Cyprus, the irregular migrants on the Greek-Albanian borderline, and the mass migration of ethnic Albanians fleeing Kosovo. In the mid-1990s, he started photographing the Roma and other minorities. A retrospective of his work, titled Economopoulos, Photographer, was published in 2002 and later exhibited at the Benaki Museum in Athens in 2005. Economopoulos has turned to the use of color and is currently spending most of his time away from Greece, travelling, teaching, and photographing around the world. Enri Canaj was born in Tirana, Albania, in 1980. He moved with his family to Greece in 1991. He studied photography in Athens and in 2007 he took part in a British Council project on migration, attending a year-long workshop with photographer Nikos Economopoulos. Since 2008, he has been a freelance photographer for major national and international publications and is now is a member of Magnum Photos. Based in Athens, he has exhibited his work widely in Greece as well as Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, while he presented a personal show at the Rencontres d’ Arles photography festival. His work has been honored with grants and awards, and has been published in media such as Times Magazine, CNN, The Guardian, New York Times, Financial Times, Newsweek, National Geographic, Le Monde, Wall Street Journal, Arte TV. He has collaborated with institutions such as Princeton University, UNICEF, Melissa - Network of Migrant Women in Greece, MSF, Solidarity Now, European Parliament, Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Co-organisers<img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_154.png" data-entity-uuid="5f7e34bf-fbc9-4ea3-91fe-f7a166de7b62" data-entity-type="file" width="191" class="align-left" height="221" />  <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_155.png" data-entity-uuid="2edba9fd-73fb-4a95-a9a6-f12045f5be22" data-entity-type="file" width="334" class="align-left" height="82" />  <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_63.jpeg" data-entity-uuid="22c2488a-1bd2-44a2-ab09-3c67fb106257" data-entity-type="file" width="204" height="152" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_64.jpeg" data-entity-uuid="480df64e-b38a-4d8e-a595-a00a6f8c1fb8" data-entity-type="file" width="110" height="241" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_65.jpeg" data-entity-uuid="ed685120-4d0e-4e91-9e8d-d7c35d9ab183" data-entity-type="file" width="114" height="250" />Υπό την Αιγίδα<img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_153.png" data-entity-uuid="80ef3da8-08fe-4643-b9fc-3c3318c8b8b3" data-entity-type="file" width="97" height="180" />EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA                       TO THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC

Other venues

Three Paths: Constantine Manos, Nikos Economopoulos, Enri Canaj

A peculiar, extremely interesting "war of images", while humor emerges as an ideological, ultimately timeless means and a pressure valve within a rigid system, are reflected in the new, artistic proposal of MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, at the Moni Lazariston, in Thessaloniki, in the exhibition entitled "Caricaturing Modernism: Soviet Cartoons on Art from the collection of Yuri Albert", from 20 June, 2026 to 10 January, 2027. Through a rare set of 24 caricatures these caricatures, created between 1930 and 1970 and published in the magazine Crocodile and other publications, the exhibition visitor discovers -among other things- the multi-layered, everyday life in Soviet society and within it, the relationships between artists and authority, artists and the public, the intrigues of exhibition committees, the privileges and fears of creators, the ideological "battle" of socialist realism against the "decadent" art of the West. The collection was assembled by the conceptual artist Yuri Albert, who became fascinated by these images because of their peculiar relationship to reality. As Albert himself has observed, the cartoonists often mocked artworks they had never actually seen, while audiences formed their understanding of modernism through these distorted representations. In this way, satire produced a largely “imaginary” version of modern art. The exhibition enters into dialogue with works on show at MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art from the Costakis Collection by artists of the Russian and Soviet avant-garde, creating a confrontation between the original artworks and their satirical representations. The coexistence of these two bodies of work reveals not only a clash of aesthetic values but also the mechanisms through which ideology shapes the reception of art. Curated by: Maria Tsantsanoglou, Artistic Director of MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection Catalogue Essays: Sandra Frimmel, Yuri Albert

Museum of Modern Art

Caricaturing Modernism: Soviet Cartoons on Art from the collection of Yuri Albert

In Moscow during the second half of the 20th century, two collectors, George Costakis and Yakov Rubinstein working in parallel assembled two of the most significant private art collections of their time. These two men, within an environment of strict constraints, chose to follow not the official narrative of art, but their own inner compass — guided by intuition, passion, and a firm belief in the value of artistic creation. The exhibition entitled "Behind the Doors. Costakis meets Rubinstein" presented at MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art, at the Moni Lazariston, in Thessaloniki, from 20 June, 2026 to 10 January, 2027, captures this parallel path of the two men, with its very interesting implications, in terms of their activity as collectors. Of Greek origin, George Costakis would go on to become the world's foremost collector of the Russian avant-garde, rescuing and bringing to light a chapter in the history of modern art that remained on the margins of official Soviet cultural policy for decades. At the same time, the Polish-Jewish collector Yakov Rubinstein was building a somewhat different collection. His interests focused on modernism and Symbolism, theatre, stage and costume design, the illustration of fairy tales and literary narratives, and works that maintained strong ties to representation, storytelling, and imagination. The two collectors, who knew each other and maintained friendly relations, shared a commitment to artistic currents that diverged from the aesthetic doctrine of Socialist Realism, which came to dominate Soviet cultural policy. The exhibition “Behind the Doors. Costakis Meets Rubinstein” brings these two collecting trajectories into dialogue for the first time. Rather than presenting opposing narratives, it reveals two distinct perspectives on the same historical period, the same city, and the same questions surrounding art and modernity. Several thematic sections run throughout the exhibition:• Female figures appear as muses, objects of desire, protagonists, or projections of social stereotypes, inviting visitors to reflect on the mechanisms of the gaze and representation.• Fairy tales, legends, and literary narratives come to life through characters and stories such as Tsar Saltan, Doctor Miracle, the romance of Chopin and George Sand, and the haunting imagery of the Danse Macabre, revealing the enduring power of storytelling in art.• The exhibition also turns its attention to everyday life. Domestic interiors, rooms, furnishings, and scenes of habitation bear witness to private life in the early decades of the twentieth century. Alongside them unfolds the world of the street: performers, wanderers, marginal figures, and individuals who often remain outside official historical narratives.• A particularly special section is devoted to works created in the Gulags. These paintings testify not only to a specific historical reality but also to the resilience of artistic creativity under the most extreme conditions. This exhibition was made possible through the generous support and dedicated commitment of the collector's granddaughter, Tanya Rubinstein-Horowitz (Düsseldorf). Curated by: Liubov PchelkinaExhibition Design: Kiril Ass, Nadja Korbut

Behind the Doors. Costakis meets Rubinstein

Opening: Thursday, 1 October 2026, 19:00 […] In the dream where I was walking, everything looked like unanswered questions at bus stops. When I wake up, I won’t remember any of it. And yet, for many years, the truth was pounding in my heart. I just wanted to sleep, because it suited me. Perhaps that’s why the best poems don’t simply leave us with unanswered questions. They change the way we ask the questions. And that is already a form of knowledge, even if it isn’t the ultimate truth.K.BHTA, July 2026 Without Corners, Midsummer Impasse, Until You Come Back, Blue Tree: these are some of the titles of the paintings that K. BHTA is presenting to the public for the first time at MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary Art, in the Case Studio space, as part of the exhibition “Only the Coastline Remains”, from 1 October 2026 to 31 January 2027. The exhibition also serves as the opening event of the programme for the 61st Dimitria Festival organised by the Municipality of Thessaloniki. And whilst these titles may be read as titles of artworks, they also sound like lyrics. The title of the exhibition itself is a lyric. Their “melodies” are conveyed in the paintings through the colours, frames, forms and elements that make up the works. Known to the public primarily as a musician and lyricist, K. BHTA has, from time to time, also pursued a parallel career in the visual arts. His connection with the visual arts began during his education, with studies in painting and art history in Melbourne, where he was born, and continues through his personal study and systematic artistic practice. Some twenty years after his first solo exhibition in 2005 at the Center of Contemporary Art — now MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts — K. BHTA returns to the city with a series of painterly, dreamlike images. The works in the exhibition date from 2019 to the present day and reveal a different, yet deeply related, aspect of his artistic practice. Drawing on Symbolism and the naïve painters of the 20th century, K. BHTA creates a vividly coloured and personal universe. Within this, human solitude coexists with poetry and melancholy, yet also with a subtle, hidden optimism: the hope that people, even within an imaginary landscape, will one day come together. The mountains, trees, waters and sky depicted in the works do not refer to any specific geographical location. They are distorted, simplified and transformed in order to convey emotions such as isolation, anxiety, serenity, nostalgia or the fear of death. Solitary figures or groups of people — friends, lovers, siblings — are moving or standing still, observing and gazing. They are frozen in a still, timeless moment. The colours — pink, green, blue, purple, ochres, amongst others — appear in their most vivid yet most delicate forms. They do not conform to the realism of an actual landscape, but are freely chosen according to their emotional and thematic function. Thus, the place we see remains open-ended: we do not know whether it is real, imaginary, dreamlike or nightmarish. As viewers, we are called upon to make our own connections and to situate the images where they resonate with our own inner world. Perhaps this is also one of the most essential elements of contemporary visual art and, in particular, of K. BHTA’s work: the artist’s need to engage with the dreams, aspirations and disappointments of the person standing before a painting. Artistic Direction: Thouli Misirloglou, Artistic Director of MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary ArtCurated by: Theodore Markoglou, Art Historian, Curator at MOMUSProduction: Municipality of Thessaloniki and MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the 61st Dimitria Festival. Biographical noteK.BHTA was born in Melbourne, Australia, and grew up in Athens, where he lives and works. He began his musical studies at the Palladio Conservatoire in Athens and studied Painting and Art History at the Prahran Institute in Melbourne. In 1992, he founded the electronic band Stereo Nova, whilst since 1996 he has been pursuing his own career as a musician, producer and composer. He has released more than 25 music albums and has composed music for films, documentaries, dance and theatre. At the same time, he continues to paint and create visual art. He has collaborated with contemporary artists from a wide range of artistic fields and has presented musical compositions and projects at cultural institutions, including the Alternative Stage of the Greek National Opera, the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi, the Athens Festival, the Athens Concert Hall, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. He also took part in the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. In 2005, he presented his first solo art exhibition at the Center of Contemporary Art, part of the State Museum of Contemporary Art, entitled “Soundscapes”, curated by Vasilis Amanatidis and Thouli Misirloglou. In 2025, the PCAI (Polygreen Culture &amp; Art Initiative) presented its visual arts project  “Space and Memory” at the Pikionis Pavilion in Delphi, curated by Kika Kyriakakou, as part of the Ministry of Culture’s programme “All of Greece, One Culture”. 61a Dimitra / Opening Party – DJ SetsThursday, 1 October 2026MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary Art (within TIF-HELEXPO, Thessaloniki)21:00–22:00 K.BHTA22:00–23:00 Iakovos “Rudeboy” Komninos To mark the opening of the art exhibition “Only the Coastline Remains” at MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary Art and the start of the 61st Dimitria Festival, K.BHTA takes to the decks with his long-standing collaborator and concert keyboardist, Vaios Mahmoudes, for a special DJ set. DJ Iakovos “Rudeboy” Komninos keeps the night going with energy, joy, intensity and rhythm from the very first beat. Produced by: Thessaloniki City Council and MOMUS–Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the 61st Dimitria Festival. <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/DimosThessalonikis-EN-544x180-1.png" data-entity-uuid="c2cbf432-38bc-4f23-9796-3996b9383df1" data-entity-type="file" width="161" class="align-left" height="180" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_161.png" data-entity-uuid="3ec6cd38-a39e-4f1c-97b4-def7f8e14534" data-entity-type="file" width="112" height="150" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/MOMUS_CONTEMPORARY_ENG_YPPO_0.jpg" data-entity-uuid="12d7fcd3-27de-4af5-a542-9df4017130b5" data-entity-type="file" width="318" height="1041" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_163.png" data-entity-uuid="4fe69409-1ca6-4f78-88ad-41cf15427b44" data-entity-type="file" width="106" height="88" />

Museum of Contemporary Art

K.BHTA. Only the coastline remains

Hamza Bey Mosque “Alcázar” (49, Egnatia Av., Thessaloniki) The Hamza Bey Mosque—widely known as the "Alcázar"—is being returned to the city of Thessaloniki after decades, with the monument's inaugural exhibition featuring the city itself in a starring role. The exhibition under the title “Thessaloniki: The Footprint of Transition (1960-1980). Through the photographs of Pete Marifoglou” offers a visual journey through Thessaloniki during a twenty-year period of rapid transformation. Through the black-and-white lens of Thessaloniki-native Pete Marifoglou and images presented to the public for the first time, the city is revealed as a living organism in transition, where tradition coexists and clashes with the new. The exhibition is structured into three thematic sections that make up the mosaic of postwar Thessaloniki:The Commercial Character and the Market: It captures the pulse of economic life in the city center and the historic markets, where the birth of modern consumerism still maintains a human touch. People's Everyday Life: It focuses on the authentic, human rhythm of the city. From the fog of the Thermaic Gulf and the traditional coffee shops (kafenia) to the courtyards of the Upper Town (Ano Poli), it documents a daily life that still retained its bonds with tradition and the countryside. Monuments in the Modern Urban Fabric: It captures the moment when the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman heritage is "encircled" by the wave of antiparochi (the land-for-apartment exchange system) and reconstruction, while simultaneously beginning its own struggle for preservation and rescue. Many of the landmarks shown in the exhibition as neglected or choked by traffic have today been restored, exemplarily preserved, and fully integrated into the modern life of the city through pedestrianization and redevelopment projects. The exhibition is not a simple exercise in nostalgia, but a benchmark that highlights Thessaloniki's journey toward modernization, inviting us to recognize the birth of the contemporary city. Biographical note Pete (Panagiotis) Marifoglou was born in 1944 in Thessaloniki. His family emigrated to the United States and settled in New York in 1950. Marifoglou lived in Manhattan, where he also studied. As a young student—and later a graduate—of the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York, he worked at the legendary Factory sets, where Andy Warhol’s experimental films were produced. Despite the distance, Thessaloniki remained a subject of his photographic gaze; he photographed the city during sporadic trips to Greece from the 1960s through the 1980s. A few years ago, he returned to Thessaloniki following a long career in New York. Curated by: Thouli Misirloglou, Artistic Director of MOMUS-Museum of Contemporary Art, Theodore Markoglou, Curator at MOMUS-Museum of Contemporary Art Info useful to know Address: Hamza Bey Mosque “Alcázar” (49, Egnatia Av., Thessaloniki, 54631, Greece).Opening days &amp; hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday 10:00-18:00, Mondays closed. Last entrance, by 17:30. Visitors depart 15’ earlier than the closing time of the monument. Admission: the entrance to the monument is admission free, until 25 October 2026. Then, there will be a 5€ entrance ticket; reduced prices and admission free, applied to certain groups (student, 65+, etc).An audio guided tour is available for the monument and the exhibition, in Greek, English and Turkish, powered by Smartify.

Hamza Bey Mosque “Alcázar”

Thessaloniki: The Footprint of Transition (1960-1980). Through the photographs of Pete Marifoglou

MOMUS AirThessaloniki Airport “Makedonia” From Paris and Rome to Tbilisi, Crete, and Thessaloniki, the exhibition “Destinations,” at MOMUS Air invites travellers on a unique journey through art. MOMUS Air at the departures level of Thessaloniki Airport “Makedonia” hosts the exhibition “Destinations,” offering passengers and visitors the opportunity to discover different places through the eyes of Greek and international artists. More than 35 visual artworks, digital creations, and video walls from the MOMUS museums' collections create a visual journey where geography meets personal experience and artistic expression. The exhibition is the second thematic presentation by MOMUS Air, following the exhibition that explored the idea of flight. This time, the focus is on the places we choose to visit, those that inspire us, and the things that make them special. Paris, Tbilisi, Rome, and Crete emerge as distinct stops on a visual journey, through works that capture the character, atmosphere, and multifaceted aspects of each destination. Thessaloniki takes centre stage in the exhibition through the section “Thessaloniki as a Central Starting Point and Destination,” featuring paintings, prints, photography, and performance art that capture the artists’ relationship with the city, its neighbourhoods, and its people.  At the same time, visitors can chart their own artistic journey, discover more information about the works and the artists via QR codes, and interact with the exhibition space through photography. The exhibition features works by Jean-Christophe Ballot, Xanthippe Vyssio, David Kakabadze, Vasilii Kamenskii, William Klein, Christos Kountouras, Alexei Kruchenykh, Nikos-Gabriel Pentzikis, Marinos Tsagarakis, Yannis Stylianou, Thanasis Hondros, Alexandra Katsiani, Peter Wüthrich, and Kiril Zdanevich. MOMUS Air is part of the project ‘Enhancing Digital Projects and Cultural Exports – MOMUS’ and is implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan ‘Greece 2.0’, funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.

Destinations

The exhibition is hosting a selection of works of art from the collection and the archive Costakis of the MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art. Drawings, sketches, editions and objects from the Museum’s internationally famous collection of the pioneer collector George Costakis lead us to a marvelous journey into the Pre-Avant-Gard period, Cubo-futurism, Analytic Art, the School of Organic Art, Suprematism, Constructivism, Cosmism, Projectionism, Electro-Organism and New Representation.

The Costakis Collection. Avant-Gardists

The permanent exhibition of the works of the Iola donation is presented on three levels in the wing completed in 1997 as part of the program of the European Capital of Culture Organization "Thessaloniki '97". 47 emblematic works by Greek and international artists are included in the donation and are the personal choices of the benefactor-donor Alexandros Iolas (1908-1987), with the aim of contributing to the establishment of a Contemporary Art Center. The collector and patron of contemporary art was active in the art world in the 1950s-1980s internationally. His collection included numerous works of art, both ancient and modern.With a constant love for the work of art as an object, Iolas maintained his undiminished interest in the artistic endeavors after the war, when the overall goal was to create a new visual and cultural reality. He helped promote artists around the world and was instrumental in establishing the surrealists in America. His exhibition activity peaked in the 1960s and 1970s in art galleries and institutions in the artistic metropolises.On each level of the exhibition space, a different narrative unit develops that highlights the donor's relationship with famous artists, from Victor Brauner to Kostas Tsoklis, from Alexis Akrithakis to Giorgos Lazogas and Pavlos, from Niki de Phalle to Jean Tinguely, from from Dennis Oppenheim to Andy Warhol, from Elisseo Mattiaci to Pino Pascali, from Novello Finotti to Herbert List and Takis, the path that Iolas traveled in the artistic space, not only reflects subjective preferences, but also a sharp gaze, constantly open to artistic expression.The architectural plans of the three-story building unit are a donation of Xanthi Scarpia-Heupel of the office "Jonos, Heupel, Heupel". During construction, archaeological findings were uncovered and part of a road has been saved and preserved at ground level. Alexandros Xydis (1917-2004) is an important figure of the Greek post-war cultural reality: diplomat, critic and art historian, he was widely active in the artistic field both with his systematic art criticism, his presence in the society of Greek Art Critics and the international Association of Art Critics, as well as with the organization of exhibitions, as a member of the committee of Greek Art exhibitions abroad at the Ministry of Education initially(1963-1966) and later of the Ministry of Culture (1981-1982).His collection, formed around 60 years, is, among other things, the result of the spiritual ties he developed with artists, as well as the collaboration of his wife, Dorothea Xydis.The donation of 210 works from the collection of Alexandros and Dorothea Xydis to the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCT) in 1999 was the result of a long-term relationship with the institution since its early years. These works today are part of the concession that the MMCT advanced to, the Metropolitan Organization of Visual Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus). Achilleas Aperghis (1909-1986) was one of the most important artists in the history of Greek sculpture, who pioneered and contributed substantially to the foundation of abstraction. From the late 1950s he presented his work in group and solo exhibitions in Europe, representing Greece at international exhibitions and attracting public interest and criticism. His particular contribution to abstraction is recognized in the peculiarity of his plastic language, which is achieved after a long and painful experimentation with the materials. The titles he gave o his works, such as Birds, Revival, Flight, etc., refer to nature and natural phenomena, suggesting his interest in the plastic performance of movement and change. The donation of Aperghis’ work at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art in 2002 by his son, Yorgos Aperghis, enriched the Museum’s collections and gave an extensive picture of the work of this important artist. These works, as well as the rest of the MMCA collection, after the merger of the foundation with the State Museum of Contemporary Art in November 2018, are currently managed by the Metropolitan Organization of Fine Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus).

Donation of Iolas, Xydis and Aperghis

The truth, the power, the sensitivity and the poetics of Alex Mylonas' art are some of the elements highlighted in the permanent exhibition at MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona in Athens. The sculptures, watercolors and drawings of Alex Mylona reflect a common thread which runs through the entire work of Alex Mylona: from the anthropocentric compositions she created in the 1950s, to the formality, austere stillness, coarseness and sharp ends, the game of lines, empty forms and vertical surfaces characterising her abstract wrought iron sculptures presented at the 1960 Venice Biennale; and from the twists and turns, the curves, the movements and tensions of the malleable sheet metal in Architectural Propositions (1976), to the exceptionally simplicity of sculptural form and the purity of geometrical marble surfaces with the joining of circles and semicircles, squares or rectangles. Two emblematic works in marble from 1998, Kouros and Kore, appear to "close the circle" (her words), summarising her varied and multidimensional life both as a person and as an artist. The art of Alex Mylona succeeds in transmuting emotion and moulding its vital relationship with the world; in touching the secret of existence, birth and death, motherhood and love; in combining the myths of the ancient Greek world - the birth of Aphrodite, the Minotaur and Medea - with the spirituality of Byzantium, to seek out the balances, to reflect on the nature and potential of plastic art, to suggest a new arrangement of space and surface, of rhythm and volumes, of positivity and negativity, of emptiness and wholeness, of materiality and form. Alex Mylona was born in Athens in 1920. Her parents recognised her artistic talent early, offering her the opportunity of taking painting lessons at the age of eight. In 1940 she married politician Georgios Mylonas. In 1943 their first daughter, Maria, was born, followed in 1944 by their second daughter, Eleni. In 1945 she was admitted to the Athens School of Fine Arts, studying under sculptor Michael Tombros. In 1949 she gave birth to her third child, Alexandros. After finishing her studies, Alex Mylona devoted herself wholeheartedly to art, participating in several group exhibitions. In 1960 she represented Greece at the Venice Biennale, her sculptures drawing the enthusiastic support of art critic Herbert Read. In the 1960s she took part in several important Biennales and other international exhibitions in Alexandria, Paris, Montreal, Brussels, Buenos Aires and Budapest. During that period she also kept a workshop in Paris, located near Montparnasse. In 1980 she moved her workshop to the district of Le Marais. Living in the French capital she had the chance of meeting important sculptors, such as H. Arp, A. Giacometti and O. Zadkine, and painters like J. Atlan. Her solo exhibitions denote and reflect the different stages of her artistic and personal development. The 1961 "Parnassus" exhibition was a retrospective dominated by compositions originally exhibited in Venice. In 1976, at the "Polyplano" art gallery, she presented her projects on volume and void, while in 1984, at the Athens Art Gallery (and later, in 1988, at the Parisian gallery "Denise René"), she presented her investigations on the archetypal forms of the circle and the square expressed on marble. In 1986, the National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum in Athens hosted a large retrospective of her work. In addition to sculpture, Alex Mylona created several works on paper, was involved in painting and designed sets and costumes for performances by Rallou Manou's Hellenic Horeodrama group. Mylona's creative work was in step with contemporaneous modern and progressive art movements, while also highlighting her Greek descent and the international dimension of her compositions. In her later years, she founded the Alex Mylona Museum, looking for a permanent, public home for her works and for a place that would always welcome the works of young aspiring artists. Credits © Eleni Mylonas 1976 All rights reserved

Museum Alex Mylona

Permanent Exhibition Museum Alx Mylona

Opening 10 September at 20:00 A familiar, distinctive hum takes over the MOMUS-Museum Alex Mylona in Thissio, Athens, as words and materials, memories and dreams swirl through the space. The exhibition “eternal fan” by Myrto Xanthopoulou, an artist awarded by Art Athina, is on view in the museum’s temporary exhibition gallery from 10 September unti 25 October, 2026. Language, serving as both a tool and a mode of expression, lies at the heart of her artistic enquiry and experimentation. This interest stems, in part, from the fact that she is herself bilingual by family background. Myrto Xanthopoulou assembles an idiosyncratic archive of words and expressions, improvised poems and fragmentary sentences that evoke imagined everyday exchanges or elliptical inner monologues. At the same time, she remains fascinated by slippages of meaning, puns and verbal play. At the same time, Xanthopoulou systematically collects all manner of consumable and building materials, different kinds of paper (which she works on with adhesives, acrylics and spray paint) and single-use objects from her urban and domestic surroundings and from her studio. These used materials, the discarded matter of everyday life join language as the primary “materials” of her compositions, which emerge from an arduous and time-consuming manual process that always requires her direct physical involvement. The works barely stand on their own, and therein lies their strength—the need to hold their ground even amidst conditions of instability and uncertainty. This exhibition is part of the established collaboration between the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki-MOMUS with the Hellenic Art Galleries Association and the Art Athina institution for the Young Artist Award, seeking to support and promote the work of emerging young contemporary artists.  The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalogue, with the support of Art Athina. Curated by: Yannis Bolis, Art historian, Head of Department of Contemporary Sculpture, MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona  The Art Athina 2025 Award for Young Artist Myrto Xanthopoulou represented by Citronne Gallery is the winner of the Art Athina Young Artist Award 2025. The award was first introduced to the Art Athina program in 2022, by the Hellenic Art Galleries Association in partnership with the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki-MOMUS, aiming to strengthen artistic creation; artists up to 45 years of age, who live and work in Greece and are recommended by the gallery that represents them, where they have made at least one individual exhibition, can be nominated for the award.  After reviewing 14 nominations submitted by the galleries representing the artists, the jury deliberated and unanimously selected Myrto Xanthopoulou for the Young Artist Award 2025.  The jury praised Xanthopoulou’s practice, in their sayings, “for its consistency and cohesion, that it stands out for the breadth and multiplicity of its media – spanning installations, constructions, drawings, video and performance. With a mood that is at once reflective and either melancholic or playful, Xanthopoulou creates environments out of small gestures, in which she subverts and transforms the givens of reality”. The Art Athina 2026 Young Artist Award will be presented on a special event during the programme of Art Athina 2026, hosted at Onassis Ready, 12-16 November 2026.  Artist’sbioMyrto Xanthopoulou was born in Helsinki in 1981 and grew up in Athens, where she lives and works. She studied at the Athens School of Fine Arts (2004–2009). Her degree project, presented in the School’s Third Studio, was an installation in ordinary, low-cost materials that explored writing as a central element in an idiosyncratic narrative of everyday experience. Since then, her practice has remained focused on these areas, expanding into video and performance. She has held seven solo exhibitions in Athens and has taken part in group exhibitions in Greece and abroad, working with galleries, museums and independent art spaces. In 2020, she received the SNF ARTWORKS Fellowship in the visual arts. 2025 saw the publication of her first artist’s book, Terma Asklipiou (End of Asklipiou Street). In the same year, she received the Art Athina Young Artist Award. Coorganisation<img data-entity-uuid="51e947cb-a018-4edd-8d90-e91ba1c38cfb" data-entity-type="file" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_156.png" width="370" class="align-left" height="102" />  <img data-entity-uuid="905be325-4f68-4a09-a5f8-96b6c6692391" data-entity-type="file" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_157.png" width="369" class="align-left" height="108" />  ART ATHINA YOUNG ARTIST AWARD <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_66.jpeg" data-entity-uuid="c2412a67-1662-4091-bc08-808062243372" data-entity-type="file" width="75" height="76" /><img data-entity-uuid="a7dce0fa-693a-491a-a10e-b82c2c028f9f" data-entity-type="file" src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_158.png" width="43" height="197" />

Myrto Xanthopoulou - eternal fan | Art Athina Young Artist Award 2025 

Opening: Thursday, 8 October 2026, 20:30 How technology transforms our perceptions of place, memory, identity, communication, reality, and human existence itself? We try to find answers to this question looking at the works on show across various media and practices in the “Digital Beings”, at MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts, at the Port of Thessaloniki, 8-25 October, 2026.  Through image, sound, hybridity, interactivity, and new digital approaches, the works create different conditions for viewing and experiencing, inviting us to navigate between the real and the digital, the familiar and the unknown, the material and the immaterial, as well as their digital traces. By harnessing the ever-evolving digital technologies that shape the present, artists explore new ways of approaching human experience, seeking to understand what it means to exist and coexist within the emerging futures. The exhibition is being held to mark the tenth anniversary of the Postgraduate Programme "Audiovisual Arts in the Digital Age" at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts, at the Ionian University. This postgraduate programme serves as a space for experimentation where audiovisual creation intersects with digital media, interactive technologies, and new forms of production and dissemination of image and sound. Through this convergence, traditional artistic languages are not abandoned but are transformed, gaining new possibilities and being redefined in an environment where technology is now an active part of the artistic process. Two performances by Alexandros Monokandylos (8 October) and Sonic Scapes / Martha Gogakou – Adam Siagas (23 October), work as a parallel programme to the exhibition, with free admission. Curated by: Konstantinos Tiligadis, Artist-Professor, Director Master’s Program “Audiovisual Arts in the Digital Age”, Ionian University / Vasilis Alexandrou, Artist- Contract Lecturer, Ionian University, Ioanna Tzampa, Artist / Eirini Papakonstantinou, Curator MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts  Artists: Stergios Adam, Vasilis Alexandrou, Manty Albani, Giota Andriakaina, Myrto Apostolou, Martha Gogakou, DEMIAN, Katerina Dounavi, Charalambia Englezou, Despina Kavallari, Yanna Kali, Natalia Aikaterini Kerkyra, Konstantia Makri, Agatha Mingou, Alexandros Monokandylos, Maria Bolia, Valasia Dodulu, Gelina Palla, George Panagiotakis, Corina Papafrangkοu, Paresia Pasipoularidou, Nektarios Pachiadakis, Vivi Perysinaki, Tinatini Popiashvili, Makrina Prousali, Fotis Raftopoulos, Giorgos Simeonidis, Christina Sfakianaki, Ioanna Tzampa, Konstantinos Tiligadis, Zefi Tiftiktsoglou, Konstantinos Tsioutas, Maria Tsiroukidou, Evgenia Faliaridou Plus Events / Performances Alekos Monokandylos, Τick-ΤockThursday, 8 October 2026 / 21:00 MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts (Warehouse Β1, Pier Α, Thessaloniki Port)Time appears embodied. Clad not in numbers and calendars, but in the wild extravagance of a cosmic being. A figure straight out of Sun Ra’s imaginative universe an embodiment of the melting present, the clinging past, and the future ticking insistently: tick-tock. Before him, a PC keyboard. Each key, a second. Each press, a rhythmic sound the tick-tock of our world. With every repetition, the rhythm accelerates. The pulse quickens. And with it, the movement. The body unfolds. It carries the fear of decay, impatience, exhaustion, loss, and anticipation. The emotions generated by time transform into gesture, resistance, and a cry manifesting through glitches and paradoxical patterns. A physical composition, a sonic assault, a performance-machine that disrupts time as we know it and leaves us with nothing but the present. Admission free. Sonic Scapes (Martha Gogakou – Adam Siagas)Thursday, 23 October, 2026 / 21:00MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts (Warehouse Β1, Pier Α, Thessaloniki Port)Sonic Scapes is an audiovisual duo formed by visual artist Martha Gogakou and musician Adam Siagas. Their performance is a unique, unrepeatable live experience in which sound and image emerge together in real time. The audience witnesses Martha Gogakou creating abstract landscapes on stage through the dynamic interaction of liquids and pigments, whose movements unfold in unpredictable and organic ways. The evolving compositions are captured live and projected onto a large screen, transforming the act of painting into a living, cinematic spectacle that invites viewers into an immersive world of colour, movement, and transformation. At the same time, Adam Siagas shapes the sonic dimension of the performance through live electronics, creating ambient soundscapes that respond intuitively to the flow, rhythm, and intensity of the visual process. His live sonic interventions interact harmoniously with the colours and their movements, establishing a continuous dialogue between sound and image. With the exhibition admission ticket. Coorganisation <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_164.png" data-entity-uuid="dd6115f6-82e7-4c2b-a5c3-ade3e3102ee8" data-entity-type="file" width="262" class="align-left" height="74" /><img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_165.png" data-entity-uuid="ef26146d-8d61-4737-89fa-514d86441683" data-entity-type="file" width="99" height="110" />  <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_166.png" data-entity-uuid="2261cad6-ceda-4094-af2c-c80ebba43cb8" data-entity-type="file" width="74" height="123" />

Experimental Center for the Arts

Digital Beings

Opening: Thursday, 27 August 2026, 20:00 From the markings left by anonymous people on caves, trees, walls, and pillars, the reaction of young people living in ghettos and the emergence of an underground culture the 1960s in Philadelphia and in New York, to the established festivals in Thessaloniki and Athens in the mid-1990s, graffiti can be considered the most enduring and influential form of street art. Can it be exhibited in museums though and how? What remains from it when its existence is erased, demolished, or covered up?  The exhibition under the title "Orestis Pangalos. Works, graffiti, archive" which is being presented at MOMUS-Experimental Center for the Arts, at Thessaloniki Port area, from 27 August until 4 October, 2026, is not neither a historical or retrospective narrative of all the above, nor a without terms affirmation of the aforementioned questions. Orestis Pagkalos constructs a non-linear reading of Thessaloniki’s subculture, which thrives in every aspect of the city and its surroundings, and where works, artifacts, photographs, publications, collections, and fragments of its urban and natural landscape function as equal versions of memory—as monuments. In the exhibition, one can see original and unpublished photographic documents from his earliest graffiti works in 1993 to his installations and exhibition interventions. With more than 500 photographs of murals and graffiti, dozens of photographs of Pangalos’s installations in exhibitions and public spaces, objects collected from the street, dozens of projections and videos, and historical archival material, spanning four decades, 14 countries, 17 European cities, and 30 Greek cities and regions, the exhibition treats the subcultures as a palimpsest and reconstructs a new human geography of the city.  Pangalos’s work has existed, been captured, and also—literally—detached from sidewalks, benches, walls, and steps—from this public space that belongs and will always belong to those who dare to live it. Curated by: Areti Leopoulou, Deputy Artistic Director of MOMUS-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography / Theodore Markoglou, Art Historian, MOMUS Curator CV note Orestis Pangalos is an architect, visual artist, Ph.D. in Art Theory, and university lecturer. His work spans the fields of contemporary art, theory, architecture, and public space, combining artistic practice with research, writing, publishing, and university teaching. At the same time, he is active in designing and coordinating research programs, workshops, and conferences, creating exhibition installations and music videos, and participating in documentaries. Since 1993, he has been actively involved in street art, having created hundreds of murals and dozens of installations in public space. He is considered one of the most influential figures in Greek graffiti, having made a decisive contribution both to shaping the scene and to its historical documentation. Throughout his career, he has participated in artistic and research groups, street art collectives, and musical groups. Since 2017, he has been teaching theoretical and laboratory courses in postgraduate programs at Greek universities, including the University of Ioannina, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the Hellenic Open University, and the University of Thessaly. He has also collaborated with postgraduate programs at the National Technical University of Athens, and the University of the Aegean. His writings and works have been published in Greek and international publications—both academic and independent—contributing to the expansion of the dialogue surrounding contemporary art, graffiti, public space, and visual culture. Meet the Αrtist On Thursday, 17 September, at 18:00, we are being guided by Orestis Pangalos and the curators Areti Leopoulou and Theodore Markoglou in the exhibitions’ thematics, the Thessaloniki’s subcultures and their local expressions. The tour will be in Greek language. Ticket can be issued from <a href="https://cometogether.live/event/6169">here </a>or at the Museum’s Reception. Conscessions are applied.

Orestis Pangalos. Works, graffiti, archive

National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum, Athens Opening: Wednesday, 15 April 2026, 19:00   The commemorative exhibition under the title "The Avant-Garde World: City, Nature, Universe, Human" is a collaboration between the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum with MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, marking three decades since the first major public display of the Costakis Collection in Greece. This exhibition proposes a renewed reading of the Costakis Collection through the lens of the relationship between humans and their environment – a theme that emerged as a crucial field of artistic, philosophical, and scientific inquiry in early 20th-century Russia. Unfolding across three thematic sections, thourgh selected works from the Collection and Archive Costakis, the exhibition traces the transition from academic norms to experimental practices, and from established conventions to radical utopian visions, as artists engaged with and responded to the profound ideological, social, and aesthetic transformations of their time. The tripartite structure – City, Nature, Universe – offers a conceptual mapping of human experience across the constructed (City), organic (Nature) and unexplored (Universe) realms. Each section highlights the distinct trajectories within the Russian avant-garde as it navigated the fertile intersections of artistic experimentation, technological innovation, and utopia. The “City” section brings together works concerned with the reconfiguration of space, material culture, and everyday life through the articulation of pure form and the disciplined, functional use of materials. Rapid modernization redefined aesthetic values, while technological advances transformed daily life. Within the aesthetics of Constructivism, new approaches to architecture and design emerged, extending their influence from clothing to industrial design and redefining social roles and gender relations. The “Nature” section focuses on works that engage with the perpetual movement, vital rhythms, and mutable conditions of the organic world enveloping human life. Artists associated with the Organic School sought to restore nature to the center of artistic practice, envisioning it alternately as a primordial, overpowering force and as an integral part of lived experience. Through sustained observation and experimentation, they explored how shifts in light, temperature, and atmosphere continuously transform perceptions of the natural world, incorporating organic movement and sound into their work. The “Universe” section examines artistic responses to utopian imaginaries, cosmic exploration, and the desire to encounter “other territories.” Representations of celestial and cosmic objects combine speculative and scientific elements, giving rise to new cosmologies and philosophical frameworks. A philosophical drive to comprehend the unseen dimensions of existence – most notably the boundless expanse of the cosmos – found expression in movements such as Suprematism and Cosmism. Coexisting with scientific thought, these impulses produced dynamic, often explosive artistic forms. The “Human” section serves as a connective thread linking City, Nature, and Universe. The human figure occupies a central position in the revolutionary and utopian visions of the Russian avant-garde. Artistic experimentation extended beyond testing the limits of human capability, seeking instead to expand these limits in order to improve everyday life and articulate new models for the future. The works on display foreground the relationship between art and consciousness, collectivity, science, and spiritual and philosophical inquiry, portraying humans as active agentsin shaping the world around them.  Artists: Babichev Aleksei, Bobrov Vassilii, Bubnova Varvara, Chashnik Ilya, Chekrygin Vassilii, Drevin Aleksandr, Ender Boris, Ender Ksenia, Ender Maria, Ender Yuri, Filonov Pavel, Grinberg Nikolai, Guro Yelena, Ioganson Karel, Kandinsky Wassily, Klucis Gustav, Kliun Ivan, Kruchenykh Aleksei, Kudriashev Ivan, Ladovsky Nikolai, Lissitzky El, Malevich Kazimir, Mayakovsky Vladimir, Matyushin Mikhail, Miller Grigori, Miturich Petr, Morgunov Aleksei, Nikritin Solomon, Puni Ivan, Plaksin Mikhail, Popova Liubov, Redko Kliment, Rodchenko Aleksandr, Rozanova Olga, Semashkevich Roman, Sofronova Antonina, Stepanova Varvara, Suetin Nikolai, Sulimo–Samuilo Vsevolod, Tatlin Vladimir, Udaltsova Nadezhda, Vialov Konstantin, Volkov Aleksandr.  Director NGASM: Syrago Tsiara Exhibition Curators: Maria Tsantsanoglou, Artistic Director of MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, Syrago Tsiara, Director, National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum  Architectural Design: Nadja Korbut, Kiril Ass Exhibition Production: Eirini–Dafni Sapka (National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum), Angeliki Charistou (MOMUS) Visual Identity: DpS Athens: Dimitris Papazoglou, Aristomenis Tzanos

The Avant-Garde World: City, Nature, Universe, Human. Works from the MOMUS Costakis Collection.

Legendary figures who lived, created, or left their mark on Thessaloniki —in a manner defined only by time— come together at the Case Studio space, in MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki, from 1 to 20 September, 2026. These individuals —drawn from the city’s urban history, from the annals of major historical events, and from the poetry, the music, and then politics, or even simply from right next door— meet here, whether by happenstance or as a…timeflake. Based on the new hybrid book under the title “Timeflake. 45 stories of Thessaloniki, crafted with words and paper sculpture” (Epikentro, 2026) by Stefanos Tsitsopoulos and Thanasis Georgiou —a volume dedicated to the city’s figures and timeless facets through unique personalities, landmarks, and routes— the synonymous art installation serves as a visual transposition of a slalom through history. The coined term “timeflake” precisely describes the shifting movement between the city’s eras, forms, landscapes, and mythologies across the centuries. Drawing inspiration and reference from the palimpsest of Thessaloniki —a city which is rich in memories and present realities, transformations and future aspirations— 45 stories centered on the city are transformed into original paper-sculpture works and displayed in the space. Words, paper, colors, images, and sounds aim to capture the endless nature of our journey through time; together, we listen to and wander through the heart of the city’s myths. From Kamara to the “Selini” club, from the Ottoman fountains in the Upper Town (Ano Poli) to the workers' housing in the neighborhood Finikas, the copy shops on Melenikou Street, the “Berlin” bar, the Ladadika district, and Nikos Papazoglou’s music studio “Agrotikon” studio in Kato Toumba area; alongside the band Trypes, Yiannis Boutaris with his unfiltered cigarettes, musician LEX, writer Nikos Gavriil Pentzikis, musician Dionysis Savvopoulos, poet Dinos Christianopoulos, orator and philosopher Cicero, fashion designer Sero Abrahamian, poet Manolis Anagnostakis, politician Ho Chi Minh, and the legendary basketball player Aristeidis Moumoglou —wearing the jersey of the Byzantine Athletic Club— they all mark the starting point, and the timeflake unfolds. Post-opening Event On Tuesday, 15 September 2026, at 19:00, we meet at MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art to share many stories —using words, paper, and more— during an evening where we will also write new stories of our own! CV notes Stefanos Tsitsopoulos makes his living through words. A journalist, author, and radio producer, he was born in Alexandroupoli in 1964 and spent his teenage years in Xanthi, though he also considers Thessaloniki his home. He has collaborated with various magazines and radio and tv stations. Today, he writes for Athens Voice, while his idiosyncratic music shows are hosted on Imagine 89.7. He made his literary debut in 2010 with Flaneur (Ianos), followed by Rock Star (Metaichmio, 2019), Ta Chloma Sintrivania tis Fokionos Negri (Oxy, 2021), and I Anthoula Stathopoulou stin Egnatia me Nevra (Armos, 2024). He studied Law and Communication, served on the Board of Trustees of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, and was an Artistic Advisor for the Dimitria Cultural Festival. His motto is a line spoken by his friend and fellow native from Evros, Renos Haralambidis, in the film Ftina Tsigara: “Life knows, and I trust it”. Designer Thanasis Georgiou (designmono) has designed magazines, newspapers, publications, and books for various publishing houses, and has created designs for cultural events, visual identities, and product packaging. He has overseen the design of permanent collections in various Greek museums and has designed numerous cultural exhibitions for foundations and museums. He worked as the creative-art director for the magazine division of the Makedonia newspaper (1999–2005) and founded the creative studio designmono. He has received awards in competitions both in Greece and abroad (European Newspaper Design Awards [Aachen], EBGE, etc.) and has participated in poster and graphic design biennials (Golden Bee Moscow, Brno International Biennial, Tehran International Poster Biennial, etc.). A pioneer in digital printing technology developments for 30 years, Whale Graphics has tranformed the “Timeflake” of words and images by Tsitsopoulos and Georgiou into a truly unique, eco-friendly execution involving printing, cutting, engraving, and 3D printing. Bridging design with implementation and combining technology, innovative materials, and production expertise, Whale Graphics plays an active role in the cultural landscape of Greece; the 1997 European Capital of Culture in 1997, the Olympic Games in 2004, the Thessaloniki Metro in 2023, and the Museum Thessalonikeon Mitropolis in 2026, are just a few examples of the cultural projects it has brought to life. Artworks’ photos / portraits: Lazaros Grekos  Exhibition Supporters: Whale Graphics, Anatolikos Vineyards – Athanasios and Marios Nikolaidis, Local Thessaloniki, Ariadne Perraki &amp; Perrakis Papers S.A.

Timeflake. 45 stories of Thessaloniki, crafted with words and paper sculpture

ΕΧΤΕNDED UNTIL 30 AUGUST 2026 The first exhibition in Greece dedicated to Niki de Saint Phalle (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1930 – California, 2002), titled "From Shooting to Freedom", is presented at the MOMus–Museum Alex Mylona in Thiseio, Athens, from 12 December 2025 to 24 May 2026. Niki de Saint Phalle was one of the most iconic and disarmingly free artists of the 20th century — a creator who transformed anger, pain, and rage into explosions of color, into a lasting celebration of life, imagination, and rebirth. Fearlessly crossing the boundaries of artistic expression, she was a combative woman who found redemption through art and delivered some of the most daring artistic gestures. Through her work—dark and joyful, complex, contradictory, playful, free, creative, “innocent” and “dangerous” at the same time—she challenged institutions and patriarchy. "From the Shooting pieces (Tirs)" to the multicolored "Nanas", and through paintings, collages, books, and sculptures, the world of Niki de Saint Phalle unfolds in the exhibition like a child’s game, with all the immediacy and enthusiasm that art allows to find new paths of expression. Starting from the emblematic works that belong to the collection of MOMus–Museum of Contemporary Art in Thessaloniki thanks to the donation of the visionary collector and art dealer Alexandros Iolas and Saint Phalle herself, the exhibition seeks to reframe her artistic universe and reveal its parallel facets. The two shared a relationship of trust, artistic faith, and a common pursuit of freedom; and with Iolas’s support, Saint Phalle’s work reached an international audience and was established as one of the most recognizable of the 20th century. The work of Niki de Saint Phalle remains profoundly relevant amid today’s social struggles, in an era that denounces abuse once again and renews the demand for freedom and equality for women (and beyond), with global interest in her work stronger than ever. The exhibition is accompanied by guided tours, activities, and educational programs for all levels. Curated by: Thouli Misirloglou, Artistic Director of MOMus–Museum of Contemporary Art Creative supporter <img src="/sites/default/files/inline-images/image_101.png" data-entity-uuid="150f4f17-c06a-416e-b57e-700830e515e8" data-entity-type="file" width="457" class="align-left" height="78" />  CaptionMother is dead / Maman love, 1968 Silkscreen on offset-super-bütten paper, part of a series of 6 prints from the stage play ICH, whereas Niki de Saint Phalle used the original drawings as visual narrative element. 60x123 cm. Donated by Giorgos Kitis MOMus-Museum of Contemporary Art

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