Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives centres on animal rights and animal well-being, highlighting the urgent need to recognise and defend the lives of non-human animals in an anthropocentric world that exploits, oppresses and brutalises them. The exhibition is inspired by John Berger’s seminal essay of the same name, “Why Look at Animals?” (1980), which explores the changing relationship between humans and animals, particularly in the context of modernity. The essay reflects on how animals, once deeply integrated into human life, have become increasingly distanced, objectified and commodified.
Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives aims to engender a discussion around the ethics and politics of how we treat animals. By exposing the exploitative, violent mechanisms behind systemic animal abuse, it renders what is shamefully invisible visible. The exhibition and its public programme hope to raise awareness of the conditions of non-human animal life today, from the home, the street and the factory to their threatened natural habitats. Why Look at Animals? invites us to consider the non-human animal not as “Other”, but as a being with a “voice” and intrinsic value of its own, capable of artfulness, play, socialisation and transformation, pleasure, inventiveness, pain and grief.
The exhibition begins on the museum’s lower ground floor where the focus is on the deeply interconnected phenomena of colonialism, industrialism, and technological “progress”, which led to the first large-scale destruction of habitats as well as the violent exploitation of animals. As visitors ascend through the museum, they will encounter works that examine the present state of things: how animals exist and survive in urban environments, examples of animal activism, and new forms of animal knowledge, among other themes. Finally, on the fourth floor of the museum, the exhibition shifts in tone; here, poetics, ecofeminism, animism, play, animal creativity, and humour intersect. Animals reclaim their dignity, and we are prompted to imagine a future world in which there will be more harmonious interspecies co-existence and collaboration. Advances in animal studies continue to show that more and more species of non-human animals possess intelligence and sentience; that they feel pleasure, pain, grief and fear.
The exhibition puts into question human exceptionalism, and aims to confront one of the carefully hidden and largely unspoken crimes of humanity on a mass scale: that of the daily, institutionalised, systematic violence against animals – whether directly or indirectly – a violence that denies them their basic natural rights. Why Look at Animals? highlights the fact that the myriad species that exist alongside us are an integral part of our biosphere and ecosystems, not products and automata, separate from and subordinate to us. With this project EMΣT places ecological justice and the rights of non-human life at the heart of its programming for the months to come. Any serious engagement with climate justice and environmental protection must therefore involve animals as an integral part of the conversation.
Ang Siew Ching I Art Orienté Objet (Marion Laval-Jeantet & Benoît Mangin) I Sammy Baloji I Elisabetta Benassi I John Berger I Rossella Biscotti I Kasper Bosmans I Xavi Bou I Nabil Boutros I David Brooks I Cheng Xinhao I David Claerbout I Marcus Coates I Sue Coe I Simona Denicolai & Ivo Provoost I Mike Dibb & Chris Rawlence I Mark Dion I Radha D’Souza I Maarten Vanden Eynde I Jakup Ferri I Alexandros Georgiou I Igor Grubić I Gustafsson & Haapoja I Joseph Havel I Lynn Hershman Leeson I Annika Kahrs I Menelaos Karamaghiolis I Anne Marie Maes I Britta Marakatt-Labba I Nikos Markou I Angelos Merges I Wesley Meuris I Tiziana Pers I Paris Petridis I Janis Rafa I Rainio & Roberts I Marta Roberti I Mostafa Saifi Rahmouni I Lin May Saeed I Panos Sklavenitis I Sonic Space I Jonas Staal I Daniel Steegmann Mangrané I Oussama Tabti I Emma Talbot I
Nikos Tranos I Maria Tsagkari I Dimitris Tsoumplekas I Euripides Vavouris I Kostis Velonis I Driant Zeneli
Curated by Katerina Gregos
EXHIBITION CREDITS
Curator: Katerina Gregos, Artistic Director, ΕΜΣΤ
Administrative–Financial Direction: Athina Ioannou
Exhibition Architecture & Scenography: FLUX Office (Eva Manidaki,
Thanasis Demiris, Dimitris Zampopoulos)
Campaign: Erik Kessels
Graphic Design: Dimitra Chrona (Schema)
Producer: Yorgos Efstathoulidis
Artistic Production: Yannis Arvanitis (manager), Anastasia Tsopelaki
Exhibitions Advisor: ioLi Tzanetaki
AV Coordination & Supervision: Stamatis Schizakis
Coordination: Anna Mykoniati
Assistant Curator: Mathilde Skiloyannis
Lighting Design: Sakis Birbilis
Audiovisual Consulting: Makis Faros
Audiovisual Equipment & Installation: M-SPIRIT
Text Editing: Theophilos Tramboulis
Translations: Vassilis Douvitsas, Maria Skamaga, Thodoris Tsapakidis
Proofreading: Yiannis Bolis, Andrew Spyrou
Registrar: Maria Drakou
Conservator: Fotini Alexopoulou
Transport & Art Handling: construcktivist & ARTLOCK
Constructions: constructivist & Α.M. Architecture & Management
Photographic prints: Colour Consulting Group Bros. Granis Ltd. | Photolab
Athens – Stratos Aktidis | Sdralis Artworks | Macart M. Varouxis and Co. |
Graphicon Anestis Kyriakidis
Silk Screen Printing: Tind – Manolis Angelakis
Layout Graphic Design (exhibition signalisation): Fotini Filoxenidou (Schema)
Signage: Nikos Paschalides
Head of Technical Services (EMΣΤ): Iro Nikolakea
Technical Support: Vagelis Filippas, Aimilios Petrikis, Gregory Sampanis
Insurance: Karavias Underwriting Agency S.A.
Communication: Marigo Siakka (ΕΜΣΤ), Sergio Zalmas (Social Media),
Iliana Siarga (Graphic Designer)
Communication Consultant (Greece): Maria Tsolaki
International Press & PR: Pickles (Amanda Kelly, Vanessa Saraceno)
Marketing: Despoina Barabouti
Accounting: Christos Prantalos, Aggeliki Delaporta, Sofia Mavragani,
Despoina Pagoni
Secretary to the Directors: Despoina Konstantinidou
Administrative & Financial Support, Hospitality: Vicky Triantafyllidou
Management consulting: Analysis Consulting (Lia Michalaki)
Architectural Design Assistant: Efi Lazakidou
Intern: Klara Tsoumpleka
ΕΣΠΑ
The exhibition is co-financed by ESPA 2021-2027 in the framework of the approved project “EMST Exhibition 2025-2026 ‘WHY LOOK AT ANIMALS?’” with MIS code 6018632, following the call 20 of the Programme “ATTICA 2021-2027” ERDF fund with A / A OPS ESPA: 2148, entitled: “Cultural events – Development of innovative actions in the field of culture and tourism”.
