Greece is participating in the 7th Beijing Biennial of Contemporary Art as the honoured country, in the framework of the Greece-China Year of Cultural Exchanges and Cooperation of Cultural Industries. The Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Lydia Koniordou will be the keynote speaker at the 7th Beijing Biennial of Contemporary Art on 24  September 2017, where the exhibition “The Body, The Soul and The Place. Contemporary Greek Artists” is hosted. 27 contemporary Greek artists will participate in the exhibition, which is organized by the State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki (SMCA) at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing.

The exhibition will take place from 15 September until 15 October 2017, and is curated by Dr. Maria Tsantsanoglou, Director of the Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art and Dr. Syrago Tsiara, Director of the Contemporary Art Center of Thessaloniki.

In parallel with this event, an international symposium on co-operation with China in the field of visual arts will be held on 25 September and will be addressed by the Vice-President of the Board of Administration of the Thessaloniki State Museum of Contemporary Art, Professor Sophia Kaitatzi-Whitlock and by SMCA Director, Dr. Maria Tsantsanoglou.

The exhibition aims to highlight the dynamism and extroversion of contemporary Greek art in China, a country that has, in recent years, come to occupy such an important place in the international art scene. The curators seek to show how subjective narratives, experiences and interpretations in the work of contemporary Greek artists give shape to positions that reveal the totality of being. The words “Body”, “Soul” and “Place” signify basic parameters of artistic practice. The “Place” is associated with the artist's cultural background, “Soul” with emotion and subjectivity, while the “Body” becomes a powerful vehicle for self-expression, especially in the context of the performative arts.

With an emphasis on material and texture, the exhibition covers a wide range of media and techniques: painting and sculpture and also video, drawing, engraving and photography. The common background for all is the wide range of the artists' visual vocabulary indicative of both their own cultural background and their integration in the international artistic environment.

With this first presence of contemporary Greek art in Beijing, the SMCA seeks to broaden its partnership with Chinese art institutions and museums. It will be followed by an exhibition of contemporary Chinese artists that will be inaugurated in Thessaloniki in the spring of 2018.

Participating artists:
Manolis Baboussis, Kostas Bassanos, Rania Bellou, Christina Calbari, Lizzie Calligas, Elli Chrysidou, Aikaterini Gegisian, Giorgis Gerolympos, Manolis Giannadakis, Vangelis Gokas, Kornelios Grammenos, Fotini Kariotaki, Georgios Katsagelos, Panos Kokkinias, Sotiris Lioukras, Andreas Lolis, Alexandros Maganiotis, Despina Meimaroglou, Eleni Pavlopoulou, Vassilis Poulios, Danae Stratou, Panos Tsagaris, Giorgos Tserionis, Babis Venetopoulos, Richard Whitlock, Konstantinos Xenakis, Vasilis Zografos.