The Architecture of Public Spaces as Museums: The case of MOMAFAD
November 18th, 2021
Physical Event & Post-event Online Screening
"The Architecture of Public Spaces as Museums: The case of MOMAFAD" at EMST - Temporary Exhibitions Space (-1), is the inauguration of the 1st MOMAFAD and is being held as part of “SunShip: The Arc That Makes The Flood Possible,” Arts Letters & Number’s exhibition in the CITYX Venice Italian Virtual Pavilion of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale.
MOMAFAD (THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART FOR A DAY) is a project/artwork created by contemporary Greek artist Dionisis Christofilogiannis which reclaims spaces and transforms them into museums for the duration of one day. Each edition brings together the works of a group of contemporary artists which are handed over to the project’s organizers for a day. Subsequently photographed, these temporary installations are turned into a permanent piece of the site’s history.
The first MOMAFAD took place in the abandoned terminal of the Ellinikon International Airport of Athens designed by Finnish modern architect Eero Saarinen in 1968. Both the architectural value of the building and its emotional salience as a site of public memory contributed to its selection. Lying vacant since 2001, the former East Terminal was designated as a national heritage site in 2006 yet remained abandoned until only recently when it was incorporated into the large-scale Ellinikon redevelopment project. As the texts that follow will explore, the space is a site of contradiction, history, memory, and fragility, private, civic, and public ownership.
The photographs of the ephemeral installations, newly commissioned texts, and archival material comprise MOMAFAD’s final form, a publication, which aims to become an archive in its own right.
Dionisis Christofilogiannis, Ariana Kalliga, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Loukas Triantis, Theofilos Trampoulis, Eleni Riga, Sotirios Bahtsetzis
Introduced by Adrianos Efthymiadis
Hosted by The National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (EMST)