What If Women Ruled the World?

ΕΜSΤ is pleased to present For Dear Life. A Retrospective, the first major museum retrospective in Europe of the work of Penny Siopis, one of the most important artistic voices of her generation. The exhibition is the flagship event of the third part of What If Women Ruled the World?, a year-long cycle of exhibitions centred on women artists and artists who identify as female.

Born in South Africa in 1953 to Greek parents, Siopis came to prominence in the 1980s and 1990s with her historically and culturally charged paintings that exercised a fierce critique against colonialism, apartheid, racism and sexism. She went on to experiment with other media such as installation and film, creating a rich, incisive and poignant body of work that has consistently engaged with the persistence and fragility of memory, notions of truth and accountability, the rights of women and the disenfranchised, the issue of vulnerability, and the complex entanglements of personal and collective histories. 

For Dear Life. A Retrospective features work from each of Siopis’ major series, including the Cake (1980–84) and History (1985–95) paintings, Will (1997–), and Pinky Pinky (2002–05), as well as a number of her celebrated experimental films, which combine found footage with personal archives and texts to produce poignant meditations on the political, personal and historical cornerstones that marked her life, as well as that of her home country, during a time of socio-political change and rights-based struggles in South Africa and beyond.

Katerina Gregos, EMST artistic director and curator of the exhibition, notes: “This artistic output constitutes a remarkable body of work that is both conceptually and visually engaging and where content and form are in perfect balance. Throughout her career, all of the artist’s works advocate materiality and process as inseparable from concept, meaning and ideas, while her commitment to emancipatory politics has remained steadfast. It is no coincidence that Penny Siopis has become an important point of reference for artists of a younger generation, so many of whom are seeking a moral and artistic compass in these uncertain times.”

The retrospective is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue, designed by Schema, with texts and contributions by Sinazo Chiya, Katerina Gregos, William Kentridge, Achille Mbembe, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Griselda Pollock, Laura Rascaroli, and Olga Speakes.

Also opening on May 17 is the first presentation in Greece of the work of Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley. Known for their distinctive, irreverent, witty and humorous films which conjoin painting, poetry, caricature and satire, as part of the What If Women Ruled the World? cycle, the duo present their work The Rape of Europa (2021). 

A contemporary take on Titian’s Renaissance masterpiece of the same name, in this film, Europa is given agency, voice and attitude—a deliberate contrast to Titian’s objectified, passive depiction. Liberating her from the subservient and silent role that she has long been forced to play in art and literature, Europa becomes a naughty, often foul-mouthed polemical advocate and spokeswoman for women’s rights.

The title of the exhibition series What If Women Ruled the World? is inspired by an iconic neon work of the same name by Yael Bartana, which has been reconstructed as a large-scale outdoor installation on the north and south façades of the museum.

Artists currently on view from May 17 include: 

Danai Anesiadou
D POSSESSIONS
Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki

Yael Bartana 
What if Women Ruled the World and Two Minutes to Midnight
Curator: Stamatis Schizakis

Claudia Comte 
The Origin of the Shockwave Ripple Effect (yellow and turquoise)
Curator: Daphne Vitali

Hadassah Emmerich 
Epicurean Eden
Artistic production / Coordination: Yannis Arvanitis
Supported by the Mondriaan Fund

Lola Flash 
SALT
Curator: Ioli Tzanetaki

Malvina Panagiotidi 
All Dreams Are Vexing
Curator: Anna Mykoniati

Chryssa Romanos 
The Search for Happiness for as Many as Possible
Curators: Eleni Koukou and Dimitris Tsoumplekas

What If Women Ruled the World? also features the first rehang of the museum’s collection since 2019. WOMEN, together addresses a major issue confronting all museums today: the under-representation of women and the urgency of gender equality. Curated by Katerina Gregos and Eleni Koukou, the exhibition presents works from the museum’s collection, including a number of works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift to EMSΤ, seven new acquisitions, and a new long-term loan of a major work by Etel Adnan, courtesy of the Saradar Collection.

The final iteration of What If Women Ruled the World? opens with Part IV on June 13, 2024.

For further information, please contact:
International press: Amanda Kelly and Vanessa Saraceno at Pickles PR
National press: Kassiani Benou at EMST Athens

EMST | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.