September marks the return to the rhythm of everyday life and, with it, a reconnection with the city’s fabric. Beginning with the city and opening outwards to nature and the universe, the exhibition The Avant-Garde World. City, Nature, Universe, Human invites us to look at the world afresh as our own routines resume.
The exhibition and its public programme run until 27 September 2026, when we bid farewell to the Costakis Collection with a two-day symposium featuring scholarly discussion, a documentary screening, a concert, guided tours led by the exhibition’s curators, and educational programmes.
Two further exhibitions at the Central Building also come to a close this month: Francisco Goya – Los Caprichos and Natasa Biza’s Changing Grounds – Stories Beyond the Record: The National Gallery Archive. Both are on view until 30 September.
Temporary exhibitions continue across the National Gallery’s Annexes: Alekos Fassianos. Under the Summer Sun at the Corfu Annex; Wassili Lepanto. Landscapes of the Soul at the Coumantaros Art Gallery, Sparta; and Helene Pavlopoulou – Zoephoros at the Nafplion Annex. Open Horizons also remains on view at the Old Customs House, Nafplion.
National Gallery – Central Building
Two-Day Symposium: The Avant-Garde World. City, Nature, Universe, Human
To mark the close of the exhibition The Avant-Garde World. City, Nature, Universe, Human, organised in collaboration with MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum invites the public to two days of discussion, a documentary screening, a concert, guided tours, and educational programmes. Dedicated to the memory of Anna Kafetsi, the symposium takes place on 26 and 27 September in the National Gallery’s “Onassis Foundation” Auditorium.
On Saturday 26 September, a panel discussion turns to the history of the Costakis Collection: the Collector himself, the exhibition that the National Gallery hosted in 1995, the collection’s later life in Thessaloniki, and its international collaborations.
Speakers:
Syrago Tsiara, Art Historian, Director of the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum
Maria Tsantsanoglou, Art Historian, Artistic Director, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection
Nicoletta Misler, Professor Emerita of Russian and East European Art, Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”
John E. Bowlt, Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Southern California
The day also includes a screening of the documentary When Chagall Was Worth Less Than a Pound of Potatoes, attended by its directors, Giorgos Papakonstantinou and Giorgos Zervas. A discussion with the audience will follow the screening.
On Sunday 27 September, we will enjoy a programme of chamber music in the exhibition space, bringing the Russian avant-garde and contemporary artistic production into dialogue. Phoebe Rousochatzaki, Georgios Demertzis and Alexander Wollheim perform two pieces by Sergei Prokofiev and Hafliði Hallgrímsson, which illuminate different facets of the artistic experience in the Soviet Union. Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins (1932) is a premier example of the modernist musical idiom of the first half of the twentieth century. Its clarity of form, economy of means, contrapuntal writing and insistent rhythmic drive reflect the creative climate of a moment when the artistic avant-garde was searching for new modes of expression and new aesthetic directions. Hallgrímsson’s Seven Epigrams (1996) offers a contemporary musical reflection on the same historical period. Written with extraordinary economy, these brief “epigrams” stand as a tribute to the power of artistic creation in the face of repression and oblivion.
Performed together, the two works open a dialogue between the historical avant-garde and contemporary artistic thought, drawing out the enduring bond between music and memory, freedom of expression and artistic exploration.
Guided tours follow, led by the exhibition’s curators, Maria Tsantsanoglou (Art Historian, Artistic Director, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection) and Syrago Tsiara (Art Historian, Director of the National Gallery – Alexandros Soutsos Museum).
The symposium’s two-day programme also includes a painting workshop for adults inspired by works from the Costakis Collection, a thematic tour of the exhibition in Russian with art historian Maria Costaki and an educational programme for children aged 3 to 8 inspired by the Russian literary fairy tale The Little Scarlet Flower.
