Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives

“If animals believed in God, the Devil would look like a human being.” —Sue Coe

ΕΜSΤ / National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, is proud to announce the inauguration of its ambitious new flagship exhibition, Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, which officially opens on May 15, 2025.  Curated by ΕΜSΤ’s artistic director, Katerina Gregos, and extending across seven floors of the museum, the exhibition draws inspiration from John Berger’s seminal 1980 essay Why Look at Animals?, reflecting on how animals have been marginalised and rendered invisible in human societies, and the moral imperative of rethinking our relationship with them. 

Unlike exhibitions that simply explore the role or representation of animals in art history, Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives breaks new ground as the first major exhibition to offer a profound ethical and philosophical exploration of humanity’s complex, fraught and often contradictory relationship with animals—potentially the largest group exhibition on this subject ever presented.

Works by over 60 artists will place the spotlight on the lives, rights, well-being and sentience of animals, while addressing urgent ecological and ethical questions surrounding the human-animal relationship and exploring themes such as animal intelligence, speciesism, ecological interconnectedness, animal exploitation and the human-animal divide in the context of modernity.  

EMST’s artistic director and exhibition curator, Katerina Gregos notes: 

“This exhibition raises the urgent issue of the necessity of defending non-human life. It aims to engender a discussion about the systemic injustices that animals suffer at the hands of humans while also acknowledging animals as not separate from—but integral to—our biosphere and ecosystems. Climate change, pollution, industrial ‘factory’ farming, war, hunting, destruction of natural habitats, experiments on animals, neglect of domestic animals all have a dramatic impact on animals and their habitats. Speciesism—our idea that humans are superior to all other living creatures and have greater rights—has justified the widespread, violent exploitation, even as advances in animal studies show that more and more species of non-human animals possess intelligence and sentience; that they feel pleasure, pain, grief and fear. If we seriously want to engage with climate justice and environmental protection, animals form an integral part of the dialogue. It is an ethical imperative to re-examine our relationship with those non-human beings with whom we co-habit the earth, to imagine new forms of inter-species coexistence, and to acknowledge animal being as different but not lesser than our own.”

With exhibition design by FLUX Office, Athens (Thansis Demiris, Eva Manidaki and Dimitris Zampopoulos), Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives features over 60 artists from across the globe, including:

Ang Siew Ching (Singapore), Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoit Mangin, France), Sammy Baloji (Democratic Republic of Congo), Elisabetta Benassi (Italy), John Berger (UK), Rossella Biscotti (Italy), Kasper Bosmans (Belgium), Xavi Bou (Spain), Nabil Boutros (Egypt), David Brooks (USA), Cheng Xinhao (China), David Claerbout (Belgium), Marcus Coates (UK), Sue Coe (UK/US), Denicolai & Provoost (Italy/Belgium), Mike Dibb & Chris Rawlence (with John Berger) (UK), Mark Dion (USA), Radha D’ Souza (India), Jakup Ferri (Montenegro), Alexandros Georgiou (Greece), Igor Grubić (Croatia), Laura Gustafsson & Terike Haapoja (Finland), Joseph Havel (USA), Lynn Hershman Leeson (USA), Annika Kahrs (Germany), Menelaos Karamaghiolis (Greece), Anne Marie Maes (Belgium), Britta Marakatt-Labba (Sweden), Nikos Markou (Greece), Angelos Merges (Greece), Wesley Meuris (Belgium), Tiziana Pers (Italy), Paris Petrides (Greece), Janis Rafa (Greece), Minna Rainio & Mark Roberts (Finland), Marta Roberti (Italy), Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni (Morocco), Lin May Saeed (Iraq/Germany), Panos Sklavenitis (Greece), Jonas Staal (Netherlands), Daniel Steegmann Mangrané (Spain), Oussama Tabti (Algeria), Emma Talbot (UK), Nikos Tranos (Greece), Maria Tsagkari (Greece), Dimitris Tsoumplekas (Greece), Maarten Vanden Eynde (Belgium), Euripides Vavouris (Greece), Kostis Velonis (Greece), and Driant Zeneli (Albania).

Sonic Space
A guest-curated project by Joanna Zielinska, chief curator at M HKA, Antwerp, immerses visitors in the remarkable languages and sounds of animals—birdsong, whale calls, primate sounds, and even the hum of laughing rats, alongside bee dances and inaudible frequencies through the work of sound artists, scientists and researchers—in a specially designed environment inside the exhibition. Artists include: Dimitris Batsis, Kathy High, Jonas Gruska, Panayiotis Kokoras, Lisa Schonberg, Dr. Roger Payne, Andrew Spirou, Dimitris Tsoumplekas & Georges Salameh, Jana Winderen and Peter Zinovieff.

While Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives serves as the programme’s centrepiece, a number of solo exhibitions, projects, public installations, screenings and public events broaden its scope, fostering a museum-wide dialogue on moral, ethical, ecological, and political questions surrounding animal rights and justice. 

An overview of the programme
Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress 
A powerful exhibition of installations, video works, and photography exploring the colonial legacies and continued exploitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kasper Bosmans: The Fuzzy Gaze
A vibrant 30-metre installation that investigates shifting animal-human relationships, blending regional folklore and heraldic references with playful artistic narratives.

Janis Rafa: We betrayed the horses
An installation and new film works explore themes of betrayal, control, and intimacy between humans and horses, reflecting on exploitation and non-consensual relationships.

Emma Talbot: Human/Nature
A monumental painted silk installation and animation film examine human-nature entanglements, offering imaginative alternatives through the eyes of non-human beings.

Octopus, the EMSΤ magazine, Issue II
The second issue of Octopus, the thematic, bilingual, art criticism and theory journal published by EMΣT, will also be dedicated to non-human lives. The guest editor is the writer and curator Filipa Ramos, one of the key figures in the study of the cross-section between art and ecology. Octopus will complement Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives with anthropological, narrative, poetic orientation with original texts by prominent Greek and international writers. In addition, Octopus Garden, the experimental, archival section of the magazine, will host autonomous sound, visual and textual works related to non-human life. The issue will be published at the end of June.

Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives is accompanied by an illustrated and bilingual (English–Greek) catalogue and an exhibition guide designed by Schema. The exhibition opens on May 15, 2025 and runs until January 7, 2026. 

EMST Athens is one of the few museums in the world to allow pets, who are welcome to visit the exhibitions with their owners.

For further information, please contact:
International press: Amanda Kelly and Vanessa Saraceno, Pickles PR / National Press: Marigo Siakka and Maria Tsolaki, EMST.

EMST / National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. The exhibition Why Look at Animals? is co-financed by ESPA 2021–27 in the framework of the approved project “EMST Exhibition 2025–2026” with MIS code 6018632.