Xenakis & Greece

The Xenakis & Greece exhibition will run from 29 June 2023 until 7 January 2024 at the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) and welcomes Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001), one of the most important artists of the 20th century, whose multifaceted and groundbreaking work paved new paths for the culture of the 21st century.

Visitors will have the opportunity not only to follow Xenakis' first steps in the fields of music and architecture, but also to gain an insight into his thoughts, concerns and nostalgia for his homeland and his dreams for the future of artistic creation in Greece through his letters. His relationships with important figures in Greek music, such as Yannis G. Papaioannou and Manos Hadjidakis, who appreciated and promoted his work during his self-exile in France, are presented against the background of the musical and cultural events in Greece at the time. Central to these are the five Greek Contemporary Music Weeks, an initiative that highlighted pioneering musical creation and presented Xenakis' work as early as 1966.

Unique documents, such as original handwritten letters and texts by Xenakis, articles, scores, event programmes, photographs, recordings, videos and objects such as the UPIC (the electronic composition system he invented) highlight various aspects of his relationship with Greece and confirm that contemporary music in Greece has a longer and more complex history than is widely known.

Source: Official Website of the National Museum of Contemporary Art