The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) organises within the framework of Athens 2018 World Book Capital of the City of Athens the exhibition Unpacking My Library in the space of the reading room/ library, which will open to the public for the first time.

Starting from the library as a metaphor of a space for the accumulation, classification and organisation of knowledge, the exhibition will explore artistic practices around collecting classifying systems of knowledge and sharing information, activating memory, revisiting history. The title comes from Walter Benjamin’s essay “Unpacking My Library. A talk about book collecting”. The works in the show are about existing or imaginary libraries, libraries of the past or the future, with a literal or virtual presence, in physical space or in a digital environment.

The exhibition, using the infrastructure and layout of the museum’s library shortly before it is put to its regular use, features twelve artists from the EMST collection, archive and library, recent or historical works as well as new productions designed specifically for the space.

Artists: Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin, Theodoros Giannakis, Angela Detanico & Rafael Lain, Fehras Publishing Practices, John Latham, Chris Marker, Vlado Martek, Yiannis Papadopoulos, Nina Papaconstantinou, Julien Previeux, Pantelis Xagoraris’ Archives, Chryssa - Archival Photographs.