"ECLIPSE", the seventh Athens Biennale comes in September 2021, supported by Onassis Culture

24.09 - 28.11.2021

Designed to reflect the various aspects of the current transformative experience, AB7: ECLIPSE rises to activate our imagination for tomorrow through a cross-cultural discourse on alternative ways of co-existing. Right here, right now.

The Onassis Foundation supports the Athens Biennale since the beginning being a part of the change and the evolution of the contemporary art and culture scene in Athens, emerging as one of the most exciting worldwide. The Onassis Foundation and Athens Biennale are mapping out a long-term strategy that will further develop the event, its international presence, the connection between performance and visual arts and the promotion of Greek artists globally.Committed to the realisation of a translocal cultural event, ensuring the participating artists' presence as well as the local and international audiences' accessibility to the exhibition, the 7th Athens Biennale ECLIPSE will take place from 24 September to 28 November 2021.

The last year has been relentlessly revealing visions, hues, and textures of a reality which we are unable to capture in its totality. Behind the veil of unrest, uncertainty and flux, glimmers, prophecies and omens still reflect the dynamic of a vigilant era that is calling us.

Presenting more than 80 artists from North and South America, the Caribbean, Africa and Europe, the 7th Athens Biennale examines issues of identity, history and cultural complexity that constantly shapeshift our experience and perspective, rousing interpretations, awakening beliefs, and illuminating potential escapes and parallel worlds.

In ECLIPSE, contemporary black and queer narratives converse with primitive incantations and myths, astral readings, and radical healing practices, forming a ritual where fear, surprise, humour and irony guide us beyond the moments of absolute darkness.

About ECLIPSE

The exhibition title highlights the obscured perspective of reality caused by the constant state of flux we are experiencing in our society now. ECLIPSE engages the social, political and spiritual changes of today's global construct and in Athens itself, as a rising metropolis located at the intersection of Europe, Asia and Africa both physically and historically. An eclipse is a phenomenon of filtering and shrouding as well as a cosmic event. The experience of the eclipse functions as a catalyst for reprocessing an unresolved past that can inform an unspoken present and ultimately shape our future. Thus, Athens serves as the appropriate vantage point for contemplating the nuances of time and space. Furthermore, examining the questions is the west in decline or in a moment of significant transformation?

Discover the 7th Athens Biennale ECLIPSE, here