KATERINA PARRI
The EMST welcomes spring with 2 solo exhibitions and 2 new large-scale in situ commissions by internationally acclaimed artists Janice Rafa, Sammy Baloji, Kasper Bosmans and Emma Talbot.
Janice Rafa’s evocative and immersive solo exhibition “We Who Betrayed the Horses” explores issues of control, intimacy and exploitation of these animals, while Sammy Baloji’s first solo exhibition in Greece “Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress” is a sharply critical look at the issue of colonial legacy and resource exploitation. Kasper Bosmans‘ new 30-meter kaleidoscopic mural “The Blurred Gaze” (2025) examines the instrumentalization of animals by humans, while Emma Talbot’s new monumental 9-meter silk painting installation “Human/Nature” (2025) invites us to imagine a better future with more harmonious relationships between humans and nature.
Together, these consciousness-raising exhibitions invite us to consider the catalytic influence of humans on the Earth, its ecosystems, and non-human life in general.
Janice Rafa: We Betrayed the Horses
2nd floor Exhibition space until October 5, 2025
Curator: Daphne Vitali
In recent years, Greek artist Janice Rafa has established herself internationally as one of the most dynamic young artists with a particular and militant interest in animals, especially horses. Her work in film, video, installation, and sculpture explores the complex relationships between human and non-human animals, raising questions of love and dominance, seduction and consent, mortality and loss. Janice Rafa explores animal instincts and behaviors, hereditary violence, and human fears, desires, and failures.
Her first institutional solo exhibition in Greece, “We Who Betrayed Horses”, with new works, all commissioned by EMST, presents a series of new works focusing on desire and dominance over the horse’s body. The artist transforms two rooms of the museum into an evocative installation, inviting visitors to rethink entrenched notions of animal productivity, efficiency and spectacle, and to reconsider the seductive and often violent bond between humans and animals.
Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress
Exhibition space Isiogeion
Until 2 November 2025
Curated by Ioli Tzanetaki
With his name consistently appearing at the top of ART REVIEW’s list of the 100 most influential people in the arts, Sammy Baloji is a sought-after, world-renowned artist. For the past 20 years, his work has explored the complex relationship between cultural identity, colonial history, and industrial exploitation in his native Democratic Republic of Congo. The exhibition “Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress” features videos, installations and photographic series from his work over the past 13 years, as well as a new work commissioned by the EMST. As the title suggests, the exhibition examines the interactions between the pre-colonial Congolese empire and Europe; explores how the brutal exploitation and resource extraction his country suffered under Belgian colonial rule affected the local infrastructure, architecture, culture and nature of the country; and turns his gaze to current forms of resource extraction in the Katanga region and the ecological devastation they are causing.
Sammy Baloji will also participate in the large group exhibition “Why Look at Animals: A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives. Justice for Non-Human Lives,” which opens May 15.
Kasper Bosmans: The Fuzzy Gaze
Exhibition space Isiogeion
Until 15 February 2026
cccc is renowned for his diverse body of work that includes sculpture, painting, installations and drawing. His works are complex painting compositions full of references to high art, literature, folklore, mythology, and anthropology, with a playful approach and queer perspective. In his latest work, Kasper Bosmans invites the audience to consider the changing roles of animals in human society through a rich visual narrative.
His work at the EMST, a 30-meter mural on the ground floor, depicts the history and evolution of the animal-human relationship in the form of a procession. Horses, teddy bears, hedgehogs, frogs and feline eyes compose a variety of scenes in different settings (from domestic spaces to circus arenas) revealing animals as companions, entertainers and commodities subjugated and adapted to human utility and desire.
“The Blurred Gaze” is commissioned by the EMST and is a prelude to and part of the major group exhibition “Why Look at Animals: a Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives? Justice for Non-Human Lives”, opening on 15 May.
The work of Kasper Bosmans is the result of the Residency Programme of the SUB 6.4. project, “Actions for the promotion of Greek cultural exports and the strengthening of the Greek cultural name by the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Athens”, which is being implemented in the framework of the project.
Emma Talbot: Human/Nature
2nd floor exhibition space
Through February 15, 2026
Emma Talbot, best known for her large-scale silk painting installations, explores ecology and the environment in works that combine painting, drawing, animation, and large-scale sculpture with distinctive imagery, mythological and rhythmic motifs, vibrant colors, and calligraphic text.
“Human/Nature”, commissioned by the EMST, consists of a monumental 30-foot-high fabric installation of dyed silk and an accompanying animated film entitled You Are Not the Center (inside the animal mind). As in many of Emma Talbot’s works, there is a female protagonist/ecofeminist – a version of the artist herself – always searching and exploring, trying to understand the world. Together, these two bodies of work seek to unravel the entanglements between humanity and nature, and to imagine the possibility of an alternative, better future.
Emma Talbot’s project “Human/Nature” is the result of the residency program of the SUB 6.4 project “Actions for the Promotion of Greek Cultural Exports and the Strengthening of the Greek Cultural Name by the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Athens”, implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” and funded by the European Union – NextGenerationEU.
These 4 exhibitions are part of the EMST’s broader 2025 program, which focuses on exploring the complex dynamics between animals and humans and their central role in the well-being of the planet.
At the heart of this program is the major international group exhibition “Why Look at Animals: a Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives. Justice for Non-Human Lives“, curated by Katerina Grego, Artistic Director of the EMST, while the other solo exhibitions and installations contribute to the expansion of this ecological reflection throughout the museum, and to the realization of a dialogue on ethical and ecological issues related to animal rights and justice, as well as issues of care for the planet’s flora and fauna. The exhibition “Why should we look at animals? Justice for non-human life,” featuring more than 60 artists, will open on May 15, 2025.
The EMST is one of the only national art institutions in the world to allow pets. Pets and their owners are welcome in the museum’s spaces and exhibitions.
