The unexpected, the ambiguous and the enigmatic, the imaginary and the grotesque serve as the conceptual and spatial grid for the exhibition “a Cabinet of Curiosities” presented at the MOMus-Alex Mylonas Museum, from 13 February to 31 August 2025. The temporary exhibition space of the Museum in Thiseion, Athens, is “occupied” by 78 visual artists with paintings and prints, sculptures, constructions and videos – works that are extremely diverse in terms of style, materials, qualities, sensitivity, visual values and aesthetics.

Zoe Sklepa

Cabinets of curiosities, which appeared in Europe during the Renaissance period, became synonymous with collecting mania, aesthetic pleasure and amazement with their wondrous and rare exhibits: From works of art, antiquities, strange and ‘exotic’ artefacts from distant cultures, scientific tools and instruments to exhibits from the natural world or related to medicine, zoology, botany, gemology, mineralogy and astrology, but also to the occult sciences, alchemy and magic. These ‘cabinets’, described as the forerunners of modern museums, played a decisive role in shaping the Western perception of the ‘other’, but also offered an aesthetic, social, anthropological and political field with many research benefits.

In the contemporary, expanded Cabinet of Curiosities at the MOMus-Alex Mylonas Museum, in a multiple connection of images and realities, the works cover a wide range of subjects, opening up to different worlds, times and regions and tell stories in an inventive and original way around themes such as life and death, nature and technology, vanity and paradox, violence and threat, myth and dream, erotic desire and sexual drive.

Eva Mourtzi

The exhibition “a Cabinet of Curiosities” functions as a proposal-challenge for a contemporary, new “cabinet” that, although seemingly creating a horror vacui, can nevertheless serve as a starting point for a new vision of the present we live in.

Curated by: Yannis Bolis, Art Historian, Head of Contemporary Sculpture Department, MOMus-Alex Mylonas Museum

Andrianna Verveti

The Artists: Lena Athanasopoulou, George Alexandridis, Angelos Antonopoulos, Mary Antonopoulou, Anita Argyroiliopoulou, Michael Arfaras, Andreas Vais, Vassilis Vasilakakis, Babis Venetopoulos, Adriana Verveti, Andreas Vousouras,Takis Germenis, Nikos Yavropoulos, Leonidas Giannakopoulos, Marina Genadieva, George Gyparakis, Lydia Dambasina, Martha Dimitropoulou, Christoforos Doulgeris, Jenny Dupi, Rania Emmanouilidou, Katerina Zacharopoulou, Marion Iglesi, Dionysis Kavallieratos, Antigoni Kavvatha, Antonis Kapnisis, Aris Katsilakis, Nikos Kachrimanis, Daphne Klagou,Yannis Kontaratos, Alexandros Maganiotis, Thanos Makris, Dimitra Marouda, Panos Matthaiou, Kyriaki Mavrogeorgi, Dimitris Merantzas, Christina Mitrentse, Eva Mourtzi, Manolis Babousis, Thodoris Bargiotas, Lina Bempi, Mania Benisi, Emmanuel Bitsakis, Fani Bounturoglou, Alkis Boutlis, Margarita Bofiliou, Nurako (Fanouris Moraitis), Maria Xynopoulou, Nikos Papadimitriou, Antonis Papadopoulos, Xenia Papadopoulou, Aliki Pappa, Konstantinos Patsios, Natassa Poulantza, Vassilis Poulios, Pericles Pravitas, Iphigenia Sdougkou, Nikos Seppetzoglou, Dimitra Siaterli, Zoe Sklepa, Miltos Skouras, Marios Spiliopoulos, Andreas Spiliotopoulos, Dimitris Tzamouranis, Nikos Tranos, Giorgos Tsakiris, Giorgos Cherionis, Maritasa Tsimblaki, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Costas Tsolis, Panos Famelis, Marios Fournaris, Pantelis Chandris, Panos Charalambous, George Hadjispyrou (Looper), Dionysis Christofilogiannis, Elli Chrysidou, Lia Psoma

MOMus-Alex Mylonas Museum

Agion Asomaton Square 5, Thision, Athens

Days and Opening Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 10:00-18:00, Thursdays : 10:00-21:00, Mondays closed