While Greece may be synonymous with marble columns and ancient pottery, in the words of the recent Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan, “times are a-changin”.
The capital has seen the country’s National Museum of Contemporary Art, EMST, finally open its doors to the public a year-and-a-half after its soft opening, and no one is more excited than director Katerina Koskinas.
“We are very used to feeling proud about our past. Now the moment has come to bridge the past with the present,” Ms Koskinas told Al Jazeera News.
“I think this should have happened years ago.”
And she couldn’t be more right, considering the legislation for the museum was passed some 19 years ago. But the delay, surprisingly, has not been about money, but politics, which some may argue are one and the same thing.
Thirty-seven million dollars have been spent on the project, turning the Fix brewery located in central Athens into an art space, along with the purchase of a permanent collection. While still under construction, the museum has been host to various exhibitions, offering a glimpse of its vision and significance.
In the meantime however, it has received a few blows as the result of successive governments fighting over regulations and administration. The wasted time cost EMST a $3.3 million EU subsidy, and a grant they had won from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
All that is now in past, and the opening has the country’s artists, who face increased struggles as a result of the crisis, welling with hope.
While the museum may not have a direct impact on the art market itself, it is creating a new platform for artists to showcase their work, some of whom have their chance in the inaugural exhibition.
Since the plan for EMST was conceived, Greece has developed numerous cultural attractions including the Acropolis Museum, two concert halls, and a national library and opera valued at $600m thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Following on from the Olympic Games, could Greece’s next national project be culture?
