How do we find our bearings in a fractured world, and what role can museums and cultural institutions play when orientation itself feels elusive? Goethe-Institut Athen and EMΣT | National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, warmly invite you to a lecture and a hands-on workshop dedicated to decoding contemporary art, rethinking museum practices, and developing transformative educational tools.

LECTURE

Friday, 9 October at 19.30 | Goethe-Institut Athens
Challenging times, and museums – perspectives on understanding contemporary art

Our contemporary experience is increasingly shaped by two defining dynamics: hypercomplexity and polycrises. All too often, this sense of disorientation is intensified when encountering contemporary art—especially when attempting to decipher its forms and meanings.

Ernst Wagner’s lecture tackles the vital question of how art education can be re-imagined and effectively practiced today. In doing so, it addresses how we can meaningfully respond to pressing challenges, not least the urgent imperative to decolonise museums. Which lines of argument currently define and drive these critical debates? And crucially, how can we harness these discourses to enrich public dialogue and develop innovative pedagogical concepts?

Free admission 

Biography

Ernst Wagner studied visual arts at the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, as well as art history, philosophy, and European ethnology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich. He holds a PhD in art history and began his professional career teaching at secondary schools in Germany. From 2005 to 2014, he served as an educational researcher and curriculum specialist at the Bavarian State Institute for School Quality and Educational Research (ISB) in Munich, where he oversaw art, drama, and film education, with a particular focus on curriculum development.

Since 2008, he has conducted research and taught at the UNESCO Chair in Digital Culture and Arts in Education at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. In addition, he has served as a senior researcher and guest lecturer at several universities across Germany and Austria. In 2014, he was appointed adjunct and honorary professor at The Hong Kong Institute of Education (now The Education University of Hong Kong).

Ernst Wagner has initiated several major international networks in arts education, including the African-European network Exploring Visual Cultures, the European Network of Observatories in Arts Education (ENO), and the UNITWIN Arts Education Research for Cultural Diversity and Sustainable Development network. His research focuses on visual culture studies, intercultural communication, education for sustainable development (ESD), museum education, and global citizenship education. He has authored and edited more than 400 book chapters and volumes published in ten languages.

WORKSHOPS

Workshop for Teachers & Art Educators
How to understand and communicate contemporary art?

Saturday, 10 October 11.30 – 14.30 | EMΣT
Sunday, 11 October 11.30 – 14.30 | EMΣT

Contemporary art frequently defies quick comprehension, reminding us that effective strategies for engagement and meaningful interpretive frameworks must be continually re-examined and renegotiated. Designed specifically for educators and cultural mediators, this collaborative workshop presents compelling, proven approaches to art mediation and puts them into practice through the lens of the current exhibition South by Southeast at EMΣT.

The workshop is structured in three consecutive parts:

1. Theoretical Foundations: A focused exploration addressing fundamental questions: How can and how should we approach and view contemporary art? What diverse methodologies are at our disposal when navigating complex, challenging exhibitions?
2. Practical Application & Exploration: Participants will directly apply and test the methods introduced in the first part of the workshop across selected artworks within the South by Southeast exhibition at EMΣT. Observations and pedagogical insights will be systematically documented using a tailored questionnaire.
3. Synthesis & Shared Practice: Participants will present their reflections and findings directly in front of the selected works of art. This collective process leads to a practical, field-tested guided tour of South by Southeast that educators can readily implement in their own teaching and mediation practices.

The workshop will be conducted in English.

Participation is free of charge and the maximum number of participants is 23. Places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The workshop is addressed exclusively to ASFA students, primary and secondary school teachers and museum educators.

Registration through the Goethe-Institut Athen website.

IN COLLABORATION