The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art is participating in “The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945”, the 30th exhibition of the Council of Europe, with the parallel emblematic exhibition “Art in Europe since 1945: Beyond boundaries”, which includes more than 200 works of art from renowned Greek and foreign artists. The exhibition is under the auspices of the Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the European Union and will run from February 8th until May 4th 2014.

The Desire for Freedom:
“Desire for Freedom” is a first attempt to view art after 1945 in a pan-European context, without the usual ideological boundaries that the Cold War imposed.
The project is an idea of Monika Flacke and presented at the Deutsches Historisches Museum from 17 th October 2012 to 14th of February 2013 as well as at Palazzo Reale, Milan and in an additional version in Collegium Hungaricum in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow. Additionnal venues are scheduled 2015 in the Dox Centre for Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of Bosnie and Herzegovina in Sarajevo.
The Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art was chosen to present a parallel exhibition representing Greece and its artistic position within the pan-European context.

The exhibition “Art in Europe since 1945: Beyond boundaries” at the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art.
The exhibition in the MMCA presents the European artistic reality through the presence of Greek artists who were dispersed throughout Europe and the relationships they developed with artists from other European countries or social groups who had also been expatriated, exiled, immigrants or were simply travellers along the European cultural horizon. Through emblematic works and unpublished documents are brought forth the complex European relationships that a series of people have developed from 1945 until today. People who in order to support the ideals of freedom, democracy and human rights, moved from one place to another both geographically and mentally, ideologically and artistically.
The 20th century was the brightest yet also the darkest century of history. After the 2nd World War, the artists and artistic movements throughout Europe were forced to confront a world in ruins and a frayed dynamic of social dialogue. They were called to participate in an era that vehemently interrogated the role and identity of the work and the artist.
Greece before the war had dramatically experienced the contradiction between modernism and tradition through the domination of a nationalistic and introverted interpretation of modernism. After the war, the artists, in an attempt to link their vision with that of the contemporary European reality, one which was desperately seeking a liberation from the traumas of fascism and every kind of introversion in all spectrums of public life, were forced to a great extent to expatriate and thusly participated in the international developments.

The exhibition is organised within the frame of the 30th Exhibition of the Council of Europe:The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945. An exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum of Berlin. Project Leader: Monika Flacke

Art in Europe Since 1945: Beyond Boundaries

Curated by: Denys Zacharopoulos, art historian-artistic director MMCA in collaboration with Alexios
Papazacharias and Maro Psyrra.

Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art
Egnatia 154 (on the grounds of Thessaloniki International Fair)
546 36 THESSALONIKI

Τ: 2310 240002, 2310 281212

Exhibition duration: February 8 – May 4 2014

Visiting Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 10:00-18:00