“Parliament”: A work by choreographer and artist Michael Kliën at the Benaki Museum

The Benaki Museum presents Parliament, a work by choreographer and artist Michael Kliën (Austria, 1973). ‘Parliament’ is a landmark in the emerging field of “Social Choreography”. Originally commissioned by the Benaki Museum in April, 2014, today will be presented as a full-scale exhibition for the first time.

‘Parliament’ is more than an exhibition; it unfolds as a participatory site where the dynamics of human relations are reimagined. In a world mired by divisive identities and habitual social norms, ‘Parliament’ offers a much-needed withdrawal — a space for embodied cooperation and collective presence.

For the first time, ‘Parliament’ will be developed into a fully-fledged, 7-week long exhibition at the Benaki Museum. Each day, the core of the exhibition is formed anew by humans in relation, encompassing citizens-performers and audiences alike, who together embedded in a contextual framework of on-site dialogues, archives, and texts.

‘Parliament’ is an experiment in democracy beyond language. It challenges participants to confront the unfamiliar and engage deeply with others, allowing genuine connections to emerge. This is not a performance to observe but a living organism to inhabit, an experience that demands one’s presence—a call to action for all who dare to dream of a world made anew. It actively engages a wide range of stakeholders from Athens’ diverse communities, becoming a catalyst for self-reflection, mutual understanding, and emerging social relations. ‘Parliament’ promises a profound, embodied intervention in the current socio-political landscape. This carefully constructed social choreographic situation has been successfully tried and tested dozens of times around the world. In this format, the work’s social technology will be augmented for a much larger number of people to continuously enter into relations and wordless dialogue with each other, extending what a museum, an exhibition, and an artwork can be.

Sitting within Michael Kliën’s wider oeuvre of “choreography as an aesthetics of change,” ‘Parliament’, originally grew out of him living in Greece throughout the financial crisis and extended public unrest. A consistent thread runs throughout these contexts: the pursuit of embodied ethics and the development of new frameworks for how we live together. Rather than staging performances, Kliën composes living environments where presence, attention, and interrelation are explored as civic acts.

‘Parliament’ is curated by Polina Kosmadaki with co-curator Alexander Strecker. The project’s director is Vitoria Kotsalou with assistance from Aris Papadopoulos.

Supported by the Kenan Institute for Ethics through the Laboratory for Social Choreography at Duke University (US) and the Austrian Embassy.

Tickets: € 6 (full price), € 5 (reduced)
For the first time it is introduced a combined ticket, € 12 (full price), € 10 (reduced), offering access to both ‘Parliament’ and the contemporary art exhibition In a Bright Green Field co-organized by the Benaki Museum, DESTE Foundation and New Museum New York.