Home. Permanent or temporary residence. Shelter from all sorts of stormy weather. Place of rest, reorganization, recollection. Field of working with the inside, difficulties that grow unwanted. Space to cultivate privacy. Where one can laugh for a reason. And without one. [ Panos Kokkinias, Laughter, from the series «Home», 1994-1995]

This sculpture belongs to a period when Alex Mylona worked on sculpture compositions of thin white marble slabs, having minimal ancient shapes, such as that of the circle. The brightness and texture of the stone, the imperceptible cuts on its surface, the harmonious and simple structure, contribute to its aesthetic pleasure. The creator, through the purity of geometry, attempts to capture and summarize the spirit of the place. And at the same time, the perfect shape of the circle comes to indicate life, to submit feelings of relaxation, calmness and inner peace in a troubled and unpredictable world. [Alex Mylona, Aegean II, 1984, Athens, marble, 62 x 63 x 24 cm., MOMUs-Museum Alex Mylona]

Ksenia Ender (1895-1955) was an artist who glorified nature. Like her three siblings Boris, Maria and Yurii, studied art in St. Petersburg. In the 1920s she worked as a research assistant in the “Organic Culture” department of the State Institute for Artistic Culture in Leningrad and experimented with space under the supervision of her teacher Mikhail Matiushin. In 1924 she participated at the 14th Venice Biennale. She was very interested in the organic forms, colors and light and depicted nature as a constantly changing organism. She liked to work for decorative panels and used patterns with organic themes. An example of her engagement in decoration and graphic design are these repetitive flower patterns made with the collage technique. [Ksenia Ender, Untitled (flower pattern), mid 1920s, MOMus - Museum of Modern Art – Costakis collection]

Touch is one of the first senses we experience even as fetuses in the womb, followed by becoming our means of getting to know the world. It is unnegotiably of vital significance, an innate demand and a primary function inextricably linked to perception, in addition another way of seeing. By activating feelings of love, reassurance, tenderness, support, and empathy, touch is one of the most fundamental indicators of communication. However, the gesture of contact is often restricted or prohibited, indefinitely interrupted, or postponed for a while. According to the British poet John Keats, though, "touch has memory" as our deeper stories are imprinted on the body, which is a reservoir of knowledge and experience. Even when it is absent, the marks and memories it leaves remain resilient and incomparable over time. Tania Bohuslavska's video, presented at the 2nd Thessaloniki Queer Arts Festival in June 2019 at the MOMus-Experimental Arts Center, praises the ritual of contact and the emotions it evokes. [Tania Bohuslavska, Gala's Music, 2017, video, 05:28 minutes]

The Planet is our Home: From 1919 to 1921 Gustav Klucis was working on the idea of the painted representation of a planet floating through space, a planet on which the rules of atmospheric gravity are observed while the various minimalist planes intersecting the sphere seek to convey messages relating to the possibilities of new technological advances. The central painting, of particular interest in terms of the use of materials which transform the texture, is titled “Dynamic City”. Klucis also presented the painting under the title “Plan for the City of the Future”, and described his artistic method as “axonometric painting”. The work also reflects the fascination felt by many of the Russian avant-garde artists for theories of cosmic, astronomical phenomena, and their interest in the future conquest of space, the study of the universe and the habitation of planets. Klucis continued working for several years on this motif of the “Dynamic City” and made a series of photomontage images, which capture a futuristic representation of a modern city with facades of skyscrapers and obtain a selectively representational character with elements of human figures and walls of buildings projected from all points and thus creating a sense of gravity, as it happens on a planet. [Gustav Klucis, Dynamic City (photomontage), 1921, MOMus-Museum of Modern Art – Costakis Collection]

Home is the protected par excellence place of family, where custody is practiced at all times, where predispositions are forged, characters and ideologies are cultivated, where symbols and icons dominate. It is also the place where sometimes invisible bars rise, useless limitations appear, and big compromises take place. It is a protected place from which one might sometimes need protection. [Christina Calbari, Custody, 2002, From the series «Short Stories of Entrapment», MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography].

Defence is one of the Alex Mylona's compositions with which she participated in the Venice Biennale of 1960. It is an abstract artwork made of hammered iron; it is characterized by frontality, sharp ends and a balanced arrangement of flat surfaces. Defence is a symbolic wall, a metaphor of resistance, as well as protection and endurance in difficult and extreme conditions and situations. [Alex Mylona, Defence, 1960, Athens, hammered iron, 65 x 125 x 22 cm., MOMus-Museum Alex Mylona]