Instead of a Prologue

Under this unprecedented, in modern times, condition, during which we all witnessed how a virus can affect the entire world and cause us to revise much of what we had hitherto perceived as a given, which took countless human lives and hit even the most powerful economies in the world, cultural organisations, including the Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, were also called upon to face the consequences of the pandemic and test the limits of their resilience.

The Foundation’s Museum in Athens, like all museums in the country, remained closed, by state order, from November 2020 to May 2021. This resulted in the Museum’s ascendant course experienced in the period after its opening, to be halted for a second time, considering also the first period of closure between March 2020 and June 2020.

Taking these developments into account and utilizing the lessons learnt from the first lockdown, which highlighted the absolute need for museums to develop alternative means of communication with the public, the Foundation ensured that the largest part of its Collection became digitally accessible, providing the public with the opportunity to immerse themselves remotely in most of the works of the Collection, accompanied by an audio guided tour. Additionally, via the programme “Game for adults”, it offered people aged 65+ the opportunity to interact remotely with selected works from the Collection, highlighting the therapeutic dimension of Art and its benefits for social health which was intensely tested by the pandemic. In a spirit of extrovertness and by utilising digital tools, the Foundation curated a cycle of short videos entitled “Vanishing Points”, dedicated to the Collection’s landscapes, which it offered the public via its social media channels, and secured its Members exclusive access, via the internet, to the Athens Museum’s renewed exhibition spaces; they were also able to enjoy the thematic guided tour “War and Peace”, during which they were able to interact with exhibits by leading artists of the 20th century on whom the war has left its indelible traces. News of the reopening of museums on 14 May 2021 and the overall reintroduction of cultural activities in the everyday life of the public could not but make bring joy to the people of Culture. This resumption, apart from offering the Foundation the opportunity to welcome visitors to the renewed exhibition spaces of its Museum in Athens, also offered the opportunity for the Museum to reintroduce its programme of activities such as guided tours, workshops, library, café and restaurant operation, venue hire, etc., which had also been suspended.

The arrival of the summer season also intensified expectations for the reopening of the Museum on the island of Andros; 4 July 2021 saw the opening of the important tribute to the work of one of the greatest Greek artists of his generation, with strong ties to the Foundation, George Rorris. The exhibition, entitled “George Rorris – The Nobleness of Purity”, was embraced by the public, attracting a significant number of visitors despite the prevailing difficult conditions. Particular mobility was also observed during the summer months at the Museum of Athens where the majority were overseas visitors.

At the beginning of autumn, visitors to the Museum in Athens had the opportunity to ‘travel’, artistically and cinematographically, to Minamata - the coastal town in Japan where one of the greatest ecological disasters of the 20th century took place - through the sculptures and film by the same name of the multifaceted American artist Andrew Levitas which were presented by the Foundation for the first time in Greece.

The end of 2021 saw the opening at the Museum in Athens of the artistic tribute to distinguished Greek painter Sotiris Sorogas, entitled “Sotiris Sorogas – The time of memory in his artistic language”, in which, through the artist’s favourite subjects, decaying matter and landscapes of abandonment, visitors are immersed into the artist’s personal universe, in an imaginary dialogue about decay, time and memory.

2021 was, undoubtedly, another difficult year because of the pandemic. The Cultural sector and museums by extension were intensely and extensively hit by its consequences. Despite this and within a short period of time, the Foundation’s Museums displayed prolific activity, as will be reported in detail herein. Our wish for 2022 is that it leads us to the epilogue of this testing period and will formulate conditions which will favour the healing of the wounds left by the pandemic. Specifically for the Foundation, we hope it contributes actively to the collective effort for the eradication of social isolation that was intensified by the pandemic wave and to the timely and productive dialogue for the redefinition of the identity of museums as places of democratization, integration and pluralism.

Viviane Koutsomallis Head of Administration Legal Department