With the title itself, “La Bocca La Grotta” (The Mouth The Cave), referring to the Platonic allegory or to the oracles of chthonic temples, the balances between archetypal opposites such as darkness and light, the upper and lower worlds, comedy and drama, life and death, the cosmic and the metaphysical, make up the fabric of the exhibition by award-winning artist Panos Profitis at MOMus-Alex Mylonas Museum (5 Agion Asomaton Square, Thissio) in Athens, from September 12 to November 30, 2025.

In the exhibition “La Bocca La Grotta,” Panos Profitis’ sculptures, constructions, and stage installations are presented, not coincidentally, in a museum dedicated to contemporary sculpture, inviting viewers to boldly move their gaze into the shadows, where the promise of certainty is called into question.

Profitis, speaking a hybrid and clearly postmodern language, returns—morphologically—to the plastic origins of archaic sculptures and—conceptually—to the body, viewing it as a symbol and a myth.

The historical depth of his sculpture and, even more so, the vivid continuity that his work manages to develop in the field of Greek sculpture ultimately demonstrate a thoroughly contemporary artistic approach. His sculptures/installations, narrative in an innovative and personal way, have a perfectly sound historical and aesthetic background; they converse with the past and reexamine it through entirely contemporary materials and perspectives.

The exhibition is being held as part of the programmatic collaboration between the Metropolitan Organization of Visual Arts Museums of Thessaloniki (MOMus) with the Panhellenic Association of Art Galleries and the Art Athina institution for the new artist award, seeking to support and promote the work of young contemporary artists.

The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual catalog, with the support of Art Athina.

Exhibition curator: Areti Leopoulou, Art Historian-Curator, MOMus

The Art Athina 2024 Award for Emerging Artists

Panos Profitis, represented by The Breeder gallery, is the winner of the Art Athina Award for Emerging Artists for the year 2024. The institution, established by the fair in 2022 in collaboration with the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), aims to promote artistic creation. Visual artists up to 45 years of age who live and work in Greece and are nominated by the gallery that represents them, where they have held at least one solo exhibition, are eligible for the award.

After examining the 17 nominations for the award submitted by the art galleries representing them, Panos Profitis’ work was unanimously selected for the 2024 award by the members of the Evaluation Committee. Panos Profitis’ work was judged to be exceptionally coherent and distinguished by the multiplicity of his artistic media—compositions with ready-made objects, sculptures, installations, and performances—his experimentation, and his theoretical-research framework as reflected in the breadth of his references, which cover a wide range (from the ancient world and mythology to Dante’s Divine Comedy, literature, folklore and history, everyday realities and structures).

The Art Athina Award for New Artist for the year 2025 will be announced at a special event on Friday, September 19, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., at the Zappeion Megaron.

BIO

Panos Profitis lives and works in Athens. He grew up in a small town at the foot of Mount Parnassus. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Arts (2016) from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, with an emphasis on site-specific art/installation art, as well as a degree from the Athens School of Fine Arts (2013). He also holds a degree in Graphic Design from Akto Art & Design College (2008).

He has presented his work in exhibitions in Greece and abroad. Solo exhibitions (selection): Fluttering of the line /a dialogue with Alekos Fassianos, Alekos Fassianos Museum, Athens, Greece, 2025; ΚΩΜΩΔΙΑ/COMOEDIA, The Breeder Gallery, Athens, Greece, 2023; From Callas to Medea – An Installation in Three Acts, Greek National Opera, Athens, Greece, 2023; Primitive Future, Annie Gentils Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, 2017. Group exhibitions (selection): Augmented bodies, 4th edition Artocène – Biennale of Contemporary Art, Saint-Gervais Mont-Blanc, France, 2025; The posterity of the Sun, curated by Ludovic Delalande, VIMA, Cyprus, 2025; Weird Double, curated by Jerome Nicod, 10N Gallery, Minorca, Spain, 2024.

He has received numerous awards and scholarships: for his master’s degree, he received a scholarship from the NEON organization (Master’s in Fine Arts, 2015-2016) and for his master’s thesis he was awarded the Hugo Roelandt Prize by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Hugo Roelandt Prize from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Hugo Roelandt Estate & Objectif Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium 2016). He has been distinguished in the Artworks Artist Fellowship Program by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF Artist Fellowship Program, 2018), and has represented Greece in the Errors Allowed exhibition at the Young Artists Biennale, Ancona, Italy (2013).

He has also participated in numerous residencies (selection): Studio Volante Residency, Rome, Italy, 2018; Initiator Residency, Eleusis 2021 European Capital of Culture, Eleusis, Greece, 2018; Saline Residency, Public Sculpture Residency with the support of the Municipality of Peloponnese, Porto Heli, Greece, 2018; Residency in Moita Serra, coordinator Kris Vant Hoff, Porto Muchela, Portugal, 2015; Bronze Casting Foundry Introduction, Weekly workshop organized by the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp at Alts, Belgium, 2015; Survival-kit, coordinated by Stephan Dillemuth, Residency in collaboration with the Akademie der Kunst München, Germany, 2014; Everything Flows Residency, coordinator Norbert W. Hinterberger in collaboration with the Bauhaus University of Weimar, Hydra Art Station, Greece, 2012; Animation and Moving Image Residency, Maltepe University, Istanbul, Turkey, 2012.