ATHENS.- Titled “everything must change. Radical Intelligence. Saloniki 9”, curated by independent curator Nadja Argyropoulou and organized by MOMUS-Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, the 9th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art announces artists, participants, and projects. A more detailed list will appear and be updated on the Biennale’s website.
Since its prelude last October, Biennale 9 has been shifting and changing by necessity or choice. It will continue to do so until its end, when a publication will capture this lived experience on what may constitute aesthetic sociality, solidarity, insurgency today.
Through all its shared utterances, visual frequencies and abundance of f(r)ictions and glitches; through its peripheral place in the artworld; through its precarious position in the structural container and its economies, Biennale 9 employs a mode of close narration and is marked by what it proposes.
It is cast as a para-biennale that acknowledges paradoxes of enclosure and escape, takes pleasure in errant paths and improvisation, and sides with tactics of joyful militancy and the intimate labor of attending to the unrecognized. It is made by works that explore divergent, even conflicting stories, ways to speak truth to power; works that suggest when to rant and how to whisper, when to laugh and how to love. If “the revolution is like housework—you have to do it every day” (G. C. Spivak)—then “everything must change. RIS9” wishes to be part of this every day.
Featuring works by
Basma Alsharif, Minos Argyrakis (b. 1998), Meriem Bennani, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley, The Callas (Lakis & Aris Ionas), Leonidas Christakis (b. 2009), Disobedience Archive, Sofia Dona, Errands Group, Stelios Faitakis (b. 2023), Alexis Fidetzis, Forensic Architecture, Matsi Hatzilazarou (b. 1987) with Andreas Embirikos (b. 1975), Pierre Huyghe, Arthur Jafa, Christos Karakolis, Maria Karavela (b. 2012), Dionisis Kavallieratos, Katerina Komianou, Dimitris Korres, Panos Koutrouboussis (b. 2019), Maria Kriara, Stefanos Levidis, Ligia Lewis, Le Nemesiache, Eva Papamargariti, Nikos Gravriil Pentzikis (b. 1993), Agnieszka Polska, Oliver Ressler, Ben Rivers, Kostas Sfikas (b. 2009), Jakob Steensen, Eleni Tomadaki, Antigoni Tsagkaropoulou, Nanos Valaoritis (b. 2019), VASKOS (Vassilis Noulas, Kostas Tzimoulis), Marina Velisioti, Lewis Walker, Phillip Warnell & Juri Akiyama, Marie Wilson (b. 2017), Anna Zemánková (b. 1986), and an anonymous work [Anon., Zante (?), 18th c., Three-Faced Christ, Loverdos Collection (L 434/CL 429), Byzantine and Christian Museum, Athens].
Installations of works include
Pan Daimonium. On Surrealism as a state of mind, with works by Samuel Beckett, Victor Brauner, André Breton, Nicolas Calas, Marcel Duchamp, Nikos Engonopoulos, Max Ernst, Wifredo Lam, André Masson, Mario Prassinos, et. al.
The Museum of Friendship, with works from the collection of Jean-Marie Drot (1929–2015) as housed in the island of Ios.
Earth in Turmoil and Agitprop machines, with works of the Russian Avant-Garde from the G. Costakis Collection, MOMUS-Museum of Modern Art, Thessaloniki.
Flipper Zone. Playing against the spectacle, with archival material, original publications and reproductions by the Situationist International and Guy Debord, Jacqueline de Jong, Asger Jorn, Ivan Chtcheglov, and works in various media by Nikos Arvanitis, Echelle Inconnue, Experimental Jetset, Forensic Architecture, Marina Gioti (lecture performance), Maria Papanikolaou, Eva Stefani, Hito Steyerl. Co-curated with Vanessa Theodoropoulou.
Flights, a series of curated reading spaces where visitors can read (or listen to) texts, graphic novels, poems, books, archives, verses. Among them, one is dedicated to poet and author Katerina Gogou (1940–1993) and another to artist Maria-Electra Zoglopitou (1970–1997).
Time-based works include
Rap Riot—a work/event commissioned to performers Ladelle, Dolly Vara, Sara ATH, Penny & Iria (in visuals) for the Biennale 9 public opening on May 23.
Playing Otherwise—a project conceived by Biennale 9 and realized with Heinrich Böll Foundation - Thessaloniki Office and Another Football, aiming to claim the sport commons and celebrate the revolutionary potential of play. A game of 3-sided football will be realized among self-organized teams Abalos FC, Becazzes FC, Faltsa FC, Muhabeti FC on May 24.
Wayward Waters—a series of events (performances, lectures, public interventions) that will unfold over the course of the entire Biennale, starting with the activation of public water fountains within the wider TIF-HELEXPO area via two performances: The DJ lecture In Overflow by Chara Stergiou & the lecture-performance Tap into it: water is personal by Chris Vrettos and VASKOS. The series is realized in cooperation with Greenpeace Greece and several other cultural platforms and civil society entities.
Moving in Riot—a program of film screenings initiated at the Biennale prelude in October 2025 and scheduled to develop throughout its duration. It includes works by Ester Krumbachová (b. 1996), Valentin Noujeim, Khalil Josef, Forensic Architecture, Errands Group, Kostas Theos, Abigail Child, and more, as well as a documentary commissioned to journalist Alexis Litsardakis about the urban Biennale venues and their social significance.
In Motion with(in) the Biennale is a program of performances inaugurated with the Aerites Dance Company intervention DETH arthó last October and Mephisto Me Studio’s live tagging of used art canvas bags with the Biennale logo (to be repeated on May 22). On May 23, Dimitris Ameladiotis will present the performance the ha(l)lophyte at Kalochori Lagoon & Axios Delta National Park, to be repeated later during the Biennale. The program of enactments and work activations will be continued and enriched throughout the Biennale.
Curator: Nadja Argyropoulou
Visual Identity: studio precarity
Architectural Design: Y2K Architects
Curator’s Assistant: Evelyn Zempou
Lighting Design: Edeko Lighting Studio
Audiovisual Consultant: Makis Faros
MOMUS Production Team: Angeliki Charistou, Eftychia Petridou, Silia Fasianou
