12.april

Our ref: 6220

Dear Mr. Syberberg,

In the framework of the events that will take place prior to the inauguration of the new building of the National Museum of Contemporary Art of Athens, the reconstruction of which is expected to be completed during 2008, we organize a large scale international exhibition under the title “The Grand Promenade” in the summer of 2006 (17 July – 29 September).

The idea of the exhibition was born from the close proximity of the museum to the archaeological sites of Athens that offers us a possibility of various transcultural communication networks between antiquity and contemporary international art. The title of the exhibition refers to the “Grand Promenade”, a huge urban intervention around the Acropolis that creates an “open” museum, perhaps the largest one worldwide, unifying the rich cultural heritage with the capital’s daily life and multicultural reality.

For the forthcoming exhibition we have invited approximately 40 artists to participate with recent and, in some cases previous, works or site specific commissions, which will be presented in outdoor archaeological spaces, monuments, public and uninhabited private buildings, along the “Grand Promenade” (see attached plan).

As experience and metaphor the “Grand Promenade” allows unexpected encounters and ties, stories within History, new relationships between the local and the universal, and an open conceptual narrative incorporating the Elsewhere and the Other.

I would like to invite you to participate in this exhibition with the film version of “The Cave of Memory” based on the homonymous installation which you showed in the 1997 Documenta in Kassel. Along the pathway of the Promenade, and opposite the Acropolis, there is a historic open-air cinema which is a characteristic sample of summertime cinemas in Greece. We are in negotiations with the owner and the idea is to show the film after midnight and alternatively in other spaces.

I would be glad to discuss further the details of the exhibition and hear your thoughts. Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

With kind regards,
Anna Kafetsi
Director

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Pawel Althamer
Ghada Amer
Andreas Angelidakis
Janine Antoni
Kutlug Ataman
Per Barclay
Michael Blum
Christian Boltanski
Pavel Buchler
Vlassis Caniaris
Fouad Elkoury
George Hadjimichalis
Thomas Hirschhorn
Yu Hong
Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
Y.Z.Kami
Anish Kapoor
Gülsün Karamustafa
Toba Khedoori
Jannis Kounellis
Wolfgang Laib
Luisa Lambri
Miltos Manetas
Julie Mehretu
Max Neuhaus
Ernesto Neto
Silke Otto-Knapp
Adrian Paci
Susan Philipsz
Dimitris Pikionis
Angelo Plessas
Khalil Rabah
Steve Roden
Ulrich Rückriem
Thomas Schütte
Santiago Sierra
Nedko Solakov
Lina Theodorou
Evanthia Tsantila
Kostis Velonis
Ameli von Wulffen
Rachel Whiteread
Vana Xenou

--------------------------------

Anna Kafetsi, Director
National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST)
14 Amvr. Frantzi street., Athens 117 43 Greece
Tel: + 30- 210- 9242111-2
Fax: + 30-210-9245200
director@emst.gr
www.emst.gr