National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT)

EMΣT | The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens is the leading national institution for contemporary art and visual culture in Greece, and one of the flagship institutions in Southern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. It began its operation in 2000. In the first years of its existence, it was a nomadic institution, hosted by institutions such as the Athens Concert Hall and the Athens Conservatoire, as its new home – the former Athenian landmark, the industrial modernist FIX brewery – was being retrofitted as a state-of-the art contemporary art museum. In 2015 it moved into its new premises while in 2020, a part of its collection was installed and EMΣT finally opened to the public.

EMΣT acquires, safeguards, preserves, documents, researches and exhibits works of contemporary Greek and international art. The museum promotes education in the contemporary visual arts and constantly aims to raise awareness as regards critical and experimental trends in current art. One of its founding goals is to promote artistic innovation and to commission and produce works in all media. EMΣΤ offers the public opportunities to interact with contemporary art through its exhibitions and publications as well as its education and public programmes; the latter are free of charge. EMΣΤ also aims to promote Greek contemporary artistic production more generally by connecting to expand the domestic community of contemporary art by connecting it with professionals from the international scene, through – for example – the International Curators Visiting Programme. Likewise, it aims to connect international artists to Greece through its Residency Programme. Finally, it also provides professional support to emerging artists and curators through its Mentorship Programme. In a constantly changing world, EMΣT represents the exchange of ideas and perspectives through contemporary art, enriching the daily lives of the public and the experience of the visitors.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMΣT) is situated in the emblematic FIX brewery, an Athenian industrial modernist landmark with distinct architectural and sociological significance. The FIX family, brewers of German origin, who built the first brewery in the newly independent Greek republic in the 1860s on the site of what is now the museum, decided to modernize the brewery and entrusted its redesign and renovation to the architect Takis Zenetos, one of the most significant representatives of post-war modernism in Greece, in collaboration with Margaritis Apostolidis. Zenetos, without interrupting the operation of the factory, integrated all the existing buildings in the new design and created an extroverted, flexible construction, capable of being transformed and of adapting to diverse circumstances in future use. The renovation was completed in 1961. Zenetos’ industrial building is considered to be pioneering for its architecture era and with the dynamics of its form, its size and elongated shape, was a futuristic imposition the post-war urban landscape. Following an extensive refurbishment which was completed in 2015, the building was retrofitted and now functions as the permanent home of the museum, with state-of-the-art facilities.