empty pr(oe)mises

How does one inhabit emptiness? There is a tension and struggle between the will of the space in preserving its void and the will of the forces that wish to occupy it. This conflict became the subject matter of conversation between the Director of EMST (National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens), Katerina Koskina, and curator Lanfranco Aceti after they shared their concerns for the realization of any exhibition starting from zero. These concerns are only magnified in the case of the opening of a new museum, as is the current situation of the EMST.

empty pr(oe)mises is a project conceived and curated by Lanfranco Aceti and Katerina Koskina for which artists are invited to visualize and localize the struggle between the promise of a future idea and the process of realization in the empty premise—the temporary exhibition space of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). Details on the call for submissions, the curatorial statement and the exhibition space can be found here.

Artworks "in fieri" will be selected for an online exhibition with the Museum of Contemporary Cuts (MoCC) by a committee consisting of Lanfranco Aceti, Bart De Baere, Katerina Koskina, Barbara London and Monika Szewczyk. The art projects will also be considered for future physical exhibitions at EMST. The most exceptional project proposals will be included in a highly illustrated catalogue published by the Leonardo Electronic Almanac – MIT Press.