Sammy Baloji, Janis Rafa, Kasper Bosmans, and Emma Talbot

EMST Athens is proud to present two solo shows by Sammy Baloji and Janis Rafa and two new large-scale, site-specific commissions by Kasper Bosmans and Emma Talbot, where the four artists delve into the imprint humankind has made on nature, culture and the planet, with a special view onto the life and histories of exploitation of the other-than-human.

Baloji’s first solo exhibition in Greece, Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress, offers a powerful examination of colonial legacies and resource exploitation, while Bosmans’ kaleidoscopic 30-metre wall painting, The Fuzzy Gaze (2025), explores the various roles we assign to animals and the animal gaze. Rafa’s evocative and immersive solo exhibition, We Betrayed the Horses, continues the artist’s investigation into power relationships between humans and horses, while Talbot’s monumental new textile installation Human/Nature (2025) and accompanying animation film, You Are Not the Centre (inside the animal mind) (2025) attempt to understand the world viewed from non-human perspectives and an eco-feminist framework.

These projects are all part of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens’ 2025 programme, Why Look at Animals?, which explores questions of power and control over the natural world and the deliberate marginalisation of the non-human ‘Other’ in a biosphere where we are all co-dependent. Together they form a prologue to the major flagship exhibition, Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives, curated by the museum’s artistic director, Katerina Gregos, which opens on 15 May 2025 with the participation of over 60 artists. It aims to generate a discussion around the rights and welfare of non-human lives and the ethics and politics surrounding their fate and plight at the hands of humans.

Sammy Baloji: Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress
Curated by ioLi Tzanetaki 
For more than two decades, Sammy Baloji has been exploring the complex interplay of cultural identity, colonial history, and industrial exploitation within his homeland, the Democratic Republic of Congo. His work is an ongoing research of the cultural, architectural and industrial heritage of the contested and mineral-rich region of Katanga, as well as a critical examination of the impact of Belgian colonisation. 

The exhibition brings together installations, video works, and photographic series from the past 13 years of the artist’s practice, and also features a new commission, highlighting Baloji’s artistic research on the history, present-day reality and contradictions inherent in the formation of Congo. More specifically, it looks at the interactions between the pre-colonial Kongo empire and Europe; investigates how the violent exploitation and resource extraction his country suffered under Belgian colonial rule has affected the country’s local infrastructure, culture, and nature; and examines Katanga’s current forms of corporate resource extraction and the ecological destruction they cause. 

The title points to the haunting, lingering presence of colonial legacies, and the continuation of economic exploitation in contemporary Congo. As Baloji states, “I am not interested in colonialism as nostalgia, or in it as a thing of the past, but in the continuation of that system.” In With Echoes of History, Shadows of Progress, Baloji masterfully casts a critical eye on contemporary societies by drawing attention to the fact that cultural clichés continue to shape collective memories. 

Janis Rafa: We Betrayed The Horses
Curated by Daphne Vitali
Janis Rafa’s work in film, sculpture, and installation explores the complex relationships between human and non-human animals, addressing themes of love and domination, seduction and consent, mortality and loss. Her practice delves into animalistic instincts, untamed behaviors, inherited violence, and human fears, desires, and failures. Her works often focus on the silent presence of animals, allowing them to become the leading force within her poetic and timeless compositions. Her subjects are positioned within unusual cinematographic sets on the urban fringes and decaying landscapes that blend the fictional with the mundane. 

Rafa’s first solo institutional exhibition in Greece, We Betrayed the Horses, commissioned by EMST, presents a series of new works exploring the desire for, and domination of, the animal body—specifically the horse. The artist transforms two museum spaces into an evocative installation referencing the taming and riding of horses, inviting viewers into a sensuous environment where sculpture and text-based works highlight the ambiguous relationship between the horse and its controlling rider. The exhibition includes a new film set in equestrian spectacle arenas alongside archival footage from the Eye Filmmuseum, which depicts domesticated animals instrumental in colonial expansion.

Central to the exhibition is Rafa’s concept of the “performed horse,” a construction shaped by human desires, removed from its natural instincts and physicality, reduced to an instrument for human needs. Rafa’s works also examine the gendered, elitist, and nationalistic dimensions of horsemanship throughout modern history. Themes of care, betrayal, obedience, and non-consensual relationships between humans and animals are further explored, emphasising the exploitative dynamics between species. While Rafa’s past works have often centered on the animal body, We Betrayed the Horses shifts focus to its absence. Through human-made structures and technologies designed to control, house, or dominate animals, the exhibition suggests a haunting presence—the trace of an exploited and subdued identity. Turning to the horse as a paradigm of this constructed body, Rafa challenges viewers to rethink entrenched notions of animal productivity, efficiency, and spectacle, questioning the seductive but often violent bond between humans and animals. 

Kasper Bosmans: The Fuzzy Gaze
Known for his multifaceted practice spanning sculpture, installation, painting, and drawing, Kasper Bosmans’ works are intricate compositions filled with references to high art, literature, folklore, mythology, heraldry, and anthropology, approached through a playful and queer lens. He gathers anecdotes and stories from diverse cultures, translating idiosyncratic practices and rituals into contemporary narratives that draw attention to mythological remnants in modern life and his latest project explores the shifting roles of animals in human society. The work, a new 30-metre mural, loosely investigates the history and development of the animal-human gaze in the shape of a procession or enfilade.

Emma Talbot: Human/Nature
Emma Talbot is known for her large-scale installations of painting on silk, a medium whose formal characteristics she finds suited to articulating a feminist discourse. Human/Nature, newly commissioned for EMST, is a monumental textile installation made of painted silk featuring chimaeras, monstrous human inventions combining different animals, which is accompanied by an animation film entitled, You Are Not the Centre (inside the animal mind). In these—as in many of the artist’s works—there’s a female protagonist—a version of the artist herself—who is always searching and exploring, trying to make sense of the world. Here, Talbot leaves the human sphere to enter the animal mind. Together, these two works seek to unravel human-nature entanglements and envision the possibility of alternative, more caring futures.

For further information, please contact:
International press: Amanda Kelly and Vanessa Saraceno at Pickles PR
National press: Marigo Siakka at EMST Athens

EMST Athens is one of the few public art institutions in the world to allow animals. Pets and their owners are welcome to visit the museum, including the exhibitions.

EMST—National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens is funded by the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports.