Commisisioned by ΕΜΣΤ for the exhibition, Maria Tsagkari’s The Blissful have no Past revolves around the work of Greek sculptor Euripides Vavouris (1911-1987), an artist whose preoccupation with animal life as both subject matter and existential challenge runs through his entire artistic career. Tsagkari’s work takes the form of a sonic documentary, a podcast which not only attempts to provide an account of the artist’s life and work but also to shed light on the historical, social and political context that shaped his view of animals and was the canvas against which it developed. Indeed, the narration explores Vavouris’s personal and artistic imprint, incorporating anecdotes from Greek and international history as well as thoughts rooted in a study of his sculptural work. What is the place of animals in sculpture? What are the implications of devoting one’s artistic work to non-human beings at a time when the latter are being systematically marginalised, exploited or ignored? What is the political impact of placing a sculpture of a dog in a public space dominated by the monuments and symbols of political and religious power? And, furthermore: what are the current interpretations of Vavouris’s preoccupation with animals in the context of Greek Modernism? How may we take stock of the silent yet tenacious resistance that becomes apparent as one studies his work; the attempt to make manifest and give a voice to that which the dominant aesthetic discourse tends to disregard, and in so doing to promote a different reading of the world and of our place in it?   

Μaria Tsagkari’s work is presented both inside and outside the museum. In the public space, near Greyhound, 1940, Vavouris’s famous dog sculpture on Fokionos Negri Street, a sign containing information about the work and a QR code which allows viewers to access the sonic documentary, permits an approach of the work and of Vavouris’s story in situ, in what is the sculpture’s natural habitat. A second QR code will be available inside the museum next to the artist’s works on display.