Why Look at Animals? exhibition
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    • Why Look at Animals? exhibition

      16 May 2025 — 15 February 2026, Curated by Katerina Gregos

      Why Look at Animals? A Case for the Rights of Non-Human Lives was a major group exhibition that centred on animal rights and animal well-being, highlighting the need to recognise and defend the lives of non-human animals in an anthropocentric world that marginalises, oppresses and brutalises them.

      The exhibition put into question human exceptionalism, and aimed 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?  highlighted 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. Any serious engagement with climate justice and environmental protection must therefore involve animals as an integral part of the conversation.

      Member of Døcumatism Menelaos Karamaghiolis participated in the exhibition with selected works:

      Today I am, Tomorrow I’m not

      2023, digital video, two channels, colour, stereo sound, duration: 16’ 25”, english subtitles

      Today I am, Tomorrow I’m not, filmed in the industrial wasteland of Aspropyrgos, near Athens, reveals a forgotten place with forgotten lives. The two-channel installation highlights the struggle for survival of stray animals in this derelict industrial landscape where human waste accumulates in a vast landfill.

      In Search of a Cage

      2023, slide projection, 80 slides in dia carousel

      In Search of a Cage is a slideshow consisting of 80 slides which document the tender relationship between a juvenile detention centre inmate and a young bird who share the same cell.

       

      More info:  https://www.emst.gr/en/exhibitions-en/why-look-at-animals

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    • Website of the exhibition
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  • Ongoing
    • the AfroGreeks [2009-2026]
    • Greekies [2011-2026]
    • RE-REC Borders/Meeting With Remarkable People [2011-2021]
    • ROMnet [1989-2026]
  • Exhibitions/More Works
    • Why Look at Animals? exhibition
    • the AfroGreeks/SPACE OF TOGETHERNESS exhibition, NEON
    • Re/member your House | exhibition
    • Greekies @ IN SITU REALITIES Eleusis 2023
    • Døcumatism @ MYSTERY 188 THE LIGHT | exhibition
    • Greekies @ Ethno☰hauntology vol1 | exhibition
    • Racism is a Fail
    • Greekies vs Greekless | Hellenic Centre London
    • Reminiscences of an Unprocessed Leather Technician
    • SECCMA Trade: Details of Love exhibition
  • Timeline
      • 2026
        • 21-27/01/2026 Greekies @ Ethno☰hauntology vol1 | exhibition
        • 29/03/2026 the AfroGreeks at Athens International Literature Festival
        • 27/03/2026 the AfroGreeks at Nicosia Antiracist Festival 2026 
        • 14/02/2026 - 15/02/2026 SoulArt: No End Edition 5 Year Anniversary
      • 2025-2026
        • 16/05/2025 — 15/02/2026 Why Look at Animals? exhibition
      • 2025
        • 25/04/2025 REMEMBER THIS SONG | Black History Month 2025
        • 17/12/2025 Discussion after the performance “Black and White”
        • 11/12/2025 Screening on 14th AAGFF
        • 02/11/2025 Gumboot Dance/Click Songs & the AfroGreeks on SNFCC
        • 25/06/2025, 18/07/2025 2 Workshops by Moiz Salman on SNFCC
        • 21/08/2025 3 Films on CINEFIX #9
        • 12-15/06 & 25-28/06 Movies & Video Installation at the HOLLAND FESTIVAL 2025
      • 2024
        • 19/10/2024 SINGING IN THE SPACE OF TOGETHERNESS
        • 19/10/2024 DANCING IN THE SPACE OF TOGETHERNESS
        • 10/10/2024 COLOR AS AN OBSTACLE/LIMITATION FOR AN ACTOR IN GREECE
        • 29/09/2024 THE NECESSITY (OR NOT) OF THE TERM AFRO-GREEK
        • 09/09-20/10/2024 the AfroGreeks | SPACE OF TOGETHERNESS exhibition
        • 20/06/2024 I DID NOT COME, I LEFT | mural work, screenings
      • 2023 - 2025
        • 2023 - 2025 Workshop at NATO Avenue
      • 2023
        • 18/03/23 – 03/06/23  Dance Your Way Around Us | ROMnet
        • 07/12/2023 Greekies vs Greekless @ Hellenic Centre London
        • 16/12/23 Greekies @ IN SITU REALITIES Eleusis 2023
        • 10/05/2023 - 07/04/2023 Døcumatism @ MYSTERY 188 THE LIGHT | exhibition
        • 14/05/2023 Screening of Sweet Bunch and Q&A
        • 01/11/2023 Dance Battle – Geneva: The Art of Now
        • 01/11-23/12 2023 Re/member your House – the AfroGreeks
        • 31/10/2023 Dance performance live event: Re/member your House
        • 07/10/2023 All-day festival with on-site graffiti and dance
        • 20/09/2023 the AfroGreeks & Industries of Coexistence
        • 22/06/2023 the AfroGreeks at the Athens and Epidaurus Festival
        • 11/06/2023 the AfroGreeks activate an abandoned public space
        • 5-7/05/2023 the AfroGreeks at I HAVE A DREAM festival
        • 24/04/2023 the AfroGreeks screening & street concert for Serpentine
        • 27-30/03/2023 the AfroGreeks and Døcumatism participate in Life Cinematic
        • 07/10/2023 Heatwave Jam: All-day festival, on-site graffiti & dance
        • 30/09/2023 “Stray” screenings of Greekies in an open-air cinema
        • 11/06/2023 Public Action: Is my art (also) my homeland?
        • 05/05/2023 Dance workshops for primary school children
      • 2022
        • 18/12/2022 the AfroGreeks celebrate 20 years of Greek Forum of Migrants
        • 16/12/2022 Future of Kypseli market: a public action
        • 8-9/12/2022 the AfroGreeks at the African Women in Media 2022 Conference
        • 06/12/2022 the AfroGreeks Clean Week 2022
        • 22-24/09/2022 the AfroGreeks at the Afroeuropean Conference
        • 12/09/2022 Love Is The Message, The Message Is Death: live event & discussion
        • 23/06/2022 the AfroGreeks project at the Ludwig Maximilian University
        • 11/06/2022 Empowering young people of African descent in Greece
        • 31/05/2022 Black History Month in Greece: Radio and live stream event
        • 18/05/2022 Concert to commemorate the African Diaspora in Crete
        • 28/04/2022 Mediterranean history of the African Diaspora workshop
        • 19/03/2022 Basic Needs: a public discussion
        • 17/02/2022 A multimedia performance for the Museum of Cycladic Art by the Afrogreeks
      • 2021
        • 11/12/21 & 17/05/2022 Football vs Homophobia and Transphobia for Human Rights
        • 01/11/2021 the AfroGreeks at the Aspirations and Awakenings performance
        • 22/10/2021 the AfroGreeks visit the UBUNTU exhibition
        • 17/10/2021 Afro-Greek students at the exhibition 1821 before and after
        • 09/10/2021 Residents of African descent in Thrace
        • 1-3/10/2021 the AfroGreeks perform at World Music festival
        • 16/09/2021 the AfroGreeks meet OMMA group dancers
        • 01/05/2021 the AfroGreeks and Greek traditional music
        • 25/04/2021 Afrofitness workshop for primary school children
        • 03/04/21 Negros tou Moria performance celebrating Kolokotronis
        • 21/03/2021 Restoring Closeness, the AfroGreeks live: Events & live-streaming
      • 2020
        • 10/12/2020 I Am Not Your Negro & the AfroGreeks – Online event
        • 24-25/09/2020 Images of African & Black Diaspora – Art workshop
        • 14-15/07/2020 Dreaming of a black Evzone – painting workshop
        • 14/06/2020 Sit-in protest & concert in solidarity to the BLM movement
        • 05/06/2020 Dance action as solidarity protest for the BLM movement
      • 2019
        • 05/04/19 - 01/06/19 All Souls Day – Part II | ROMnet
        • 05/04/2019 - 01/06/2019 All Souls Day – Part II | GREEKIES
      • 2009-2019
        • 09/09-10/10/2019 Installation of the AfroGreeks-prologue with live events
        • 15/05/2019 Screening of the AfroGreeks – prologue & public dialogue
        • 19-24/09/2016 The first public action of the AfroGreeks as part of IdeasCity
        • 2015-2018 Døcumatism is filming the African diaspora in Athens
        • 2012-2019 African women in the documentary My Cotton Family
        • 2011-2018 Inmates of African origin in the film Beyond Limits
        • 2011 Young people of African descent in the film Dear Ancestor
        • 2009 Public actions vs the deportation of Loretta Μacaulay
        • 2012-2017 Greek Animal Rescue – the starting point
  • Press
      • Greekies vs Greekless | Hellenic Centre London
      • the AfroGreeks [2009-2026]
        • "Long Live Poetry – Down with Racism!" | EFSYN
        • "The AfroGreeks" / Breaking Stereotypes Through Art | AVGI
      • Greekies [2011-2026]
        • Why Look at Animals? at EMST | Jurriaan Benschop
      • RE-REC Borders/Meeting With Remarkable People [2011-2021]
        • Exploring the Greek financial crisis through 12 interactive stories | Submarine Channel
      • ROMnet [1989-2026]
        • "ROM": Menelaos Karamaggiolis on[...]the Romani People | ATHINORAMA
  • Profile

    • The real power of document can be an important starting point for an art that would be contemporary and topical, with creative social interventions: outside the restrictive borders of galleries and museums, ensuring the active participation of the protagonists themselves in the final result, without them being approached just as subjects of depiction.

      Døcumatism is a  group of filmmakers, artists, curators, historians, social workers, researchers, and educators, who since 2009, starting from the moving image and the document as art, have been organizing artistic actions and public dialogues on critical social issues, aiming at exploring invisible and inaccessible landscapes and launching possible solutions. Initiate dialogues to find possible solutions to crucial social issues, making the "invisible" visible.

      Through artistic actions and films starring anti-heroes and stories that break barriers and stereotypes, the Døcumatism team makes film art a functional tool for those living on the margins of society.

      The main aim of the group is the interaction and collaboration between artists and spectators in order to design ways by which an artistic action, which concerns a key social issue, can function as a "lever" and "weapon" throughout its preparation, production, and distribution in order to mobilize broader debates, making the recipient, a witness.

      Grace Chimela Eze Nwoke, Adla Shashati, Menelaos Karamaghiolis | DØCUMATISM Leading Team


      The Team

      Døcumatism consists of filmmakers, visual artists, sociologists, prison school teachers, art curators, journalists, and researchers who collaborated for 10 years during the preparation of the film J.A.C.E - Just Another Confused Elephant and the first Greek interactive documentaries entitled "MEETING WITH REMARKABLE PEOPLE".

      The main motivation for the creation of the group was the great success of these films with praising reviews on television, in festivals, cinemas, schools, universities, conferences, clubs, and prisons, and the discussions that followed with the audience after the screenings. The screenings of these films - which continue in Greece and abroad - provoke strong public participation, resulting in direct, concise, and thorough information on sensitive social issues (such as homelessness, unemployment, volunteerism, reclaiming public space, stray animals, neglected areas of the capital, education in juvenile detention centres, the reintegration of released prisoners, immigration, refugees, etc.) resulting in immediate activation of the audience.

      The intense and immediate social impact of these films made the members of the group design ways in which a film or an artistic action with a key social issue can act as a "lever" and "weapon" throughout its preparation and distribution, with the ultimate goal of mobilizing wider actions and debates and launching possible solutions for the purpose of art-cinema-community interaction and exchange.

      The members of Døcumatism identify the themes on which the group's films and artistic actions will be based, creating broader collaborations with filmmakers, artists, musicians, social workers, scientists, and educators, starting from Athens, its visible and invisible problems, its new heroes (anti-heroes whose lives are success stories) and its hidden and unlimited dynamics.

      The teams of these actions are:
      1. the scientific/consultative/research team that selects and designs the themes.
      2. the art team which undertakes the production of the films and other artistic actions.
      3. the journalism team that prepares the ways in which the actions will have a scaled social interaction and penetration to targeted and wider populations and social groups.
      4. the educational team that uses the process of preparing Døcumatism actions to ensure the creative participation of young artists, filmmakers, students, and pupils.
      5. the productive & economical team that organizes the financing and realization of the films and actions.

      The teams work closely together throughout the preparation and production of the actions in order to prepare a fertile ground for their access to targeted audiences at the time of completion and distribution of the films and actions. This is achieved through parallel events, publicity in print and online press, a strong presence in social media, and collaboration with groups that are active on specific issues.
      Døcumatism has already started its next activities, an intervention in key social issues, through diverse and innovative cultural actions, using art, cinema, and new technologies, together with educational, artistic, and research programmes that initiate the development of a public dialogue between the audience, the creators, the protagonists, and the works themselves.

       

      Listed below are the partners by whom the Døcumatism team was officially established, who contribute with personal work combining their scientific, artistic, and technical knowledge.

      Grace Chimela Eze Nwoke, is a Greek social scientist, performing artist and curator of Nigerian descent. With a Masters from the Department of Social Anthropology of Panteion University, she continues her research about the African Diaspora in Athens, contributing to the conversation of its visibility in Greece. As a core member of the team Døcumatism, she has undertaken the production, organization and artistic supervision of the collective community project the AfroGreeks as curator at the exhibition Re/member Your House at the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève 2023 coordinating along with Andrea Bellini its public program and at the exhibition Space of Togetherness curated by Elina Kountouri at the Drama School of the National Theatre of Greece 2024. She has experience in organising live events and educational workshops (more than 70 for the AfroGreeks project) using creative artistic performances to delve deeper into matters regarding the inclusivity, visibility, and empowerment of African communities and has presented in conferences, collaborated with municipalities, governmental institutions, universities, grass root organizations and NGOs in Greece and abroad. Grace is also a member of the theatrical group Vice Versa, co-founder of the dance group Bantu Dancers, and the co-founder of Afrosocially—the first African community engagement platform in Greece.

      Adla Shashati is the Director of the Greek Forum of Migrants, an activist for migrants' rights, social justice and intercultural inclusion in Greece and Europe. She holds a degree in Media and Culture, as well as a Master’s degree in New Media Technologies. She is an active member of the Sudanese Community in Greece, with many years of experience in the fields of migration, anti-racism and community empowerment. Alongside her work on migration she has curated and coordinated a large number of artistic actions of a collective nature. These actions include cultural, artistic exhibitions and public actions with migrant and refugee communities, museums and international organisations with the aim of promoting the visibility, inclusion and active participation of these communities in public life. Events that combine art, performance and social dialogue to highlight the diversity of contemporary Greek society.  She has represented Southern European countries in the Board of the European Network Against Racism (ENAR) and is currently a member of the Steering Committee of Equinox - Initiative for Racial Justice. As a member of the collective Døcumatism, she has curated public actions and presentations of the collective community projects the AfroGreeks and LOSING NORTH in Greece and abroad. She has also overseen the organisation of the group's multimedia archive, bringing her rich experience in community organising and intercultural collaboration to new forms of collective storytelling and creative participation.
      Menelaos Karamaghiolis, artist, director and screenwriter. All his films aim at social awareness and are used as "weapons" by their protagonists: from ROM, documentary, 1989 (first depiction of the term Roma in Greece in a documentary film), J.A.C.E.- Just Another Confused Elephant, co-produced fiction, 2012 (the life of an orphaned immigrant) to the interactive documentaries MEETING WITH REMARKABLE PEOPLE (2011-2020) with struggling and "doomed" heroes with no prospect.

      Mazin Hussein, an Athenian with Sudanese-Greek heritage, is a User Experience Designer based in Switzerland who breathes life into tech, design, and photography. With a rich background in diverse projects and organizations such as MarineTraffic, Ericsson, Scania, and BuzzBrothers, Mazin has delved into the transformative power of design thinking on innovation. He has founded TEDxAUEB and is an active participant in numerous social organizations and grassroots initiative.

      Orestis Plakias, marketing manager, and content curator specialized in information and advertising distribution in social media with impressive results such as the active mobilization of viewers at NYXTES PREMIERAS, the multimedia empowerment of EN LEFKO with site-specific events that activated a large number of audiences in unexpected locations of the city and Content Product Manager for Vodafone TV's content delivery platform.

      Vassiliki Papagiannakopoulou, with a longstanding career in the Media industry as the editor-in-chief of Madame Figaro, is now a freelance journalist, copywriter and communications specialist with a focus in Media, Cultural Research, and Audiovisual Arts. She is in charge of curating cultural interventions through public dialogue and oversees communications for the group in order to develop networks of cooperation with other cultural and scientific institutions, etc.

      Renia Papathanasiou is an XR designer, researcher and lecturer. Her research concentrates in XR systems and interactive installations, especially in engaging XR technologies to increase social impact on key social issues via immersive ludic environments. Her individual and team works have been presented and published in several conferences, festivals and journals around the world. Since 2019 is a member of the Døcumatism team as an XR Production Director / Business Development & Innovation Manager, focusing mainly on documentary films and cinematic interactive installations. Currently she is a PhD Candidate at the School of Film of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, focusing on XR and EEG/BCI systems in Documentary films and Location Based Narratives.

      Katerina Pramatari, professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, managed after an intensive 15-year effort to introduce students in a functional way to the depths of IT, to effectively support innovation and entrepreneurship by setting up Acein, a space that enables young people (who have no way to move on to further studies and education) to develop their ideas and present them to the market and by launching Unifund which supports Greek innovative teams by activating an international funding network in cooperation with international organisations such as Equifund.

      Antonios Vallindras was born in Athens and raised in various cities both in Greece and abroad. He studied economics in Athens and has worked as an Account Executive for Ogilvy Greece. In 2014, he decided to change careers and focus on filmmaking. He holds an MA in Directing Film and Television from Bournemouth University and has directed four short films. His film The Life of a Sober Man (2016) was nominated in the UK for the RTS Student Television Award. He has worked on numerous projects as a director and producer and as assistant director and co-producer in the film Amerika Square (dir. Yannis Sakaridis). He took part in the START – Create Cultural Change program of the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki and is a co-founding member of the Ladies’ Fingers directing duo. His latest film, White Christmas 1948 (2022), received funding from the Greek Film Center and the Microfilm program ran by the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation. He has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by Artworks (2022).

      Petros Damianos, a mathematician, who two decades ago started volunteering to give lessons to prisoners in the Avlonas juvenile detention centre and today runs 3 well-organized schools inside the prison where teenagers (often going to school for the first time) and prisoners who take university entrance exams attend and manage to continue their lives integrated into society after release. Through cultural activities and synergies with university institutions, scientists, and artists who entered prison and opened the students' horizons, it made schooling attractive to prisoners and succeeded (through a recent bill) in establishing new schools throughout the country and staffing them effectively.

      Sylvia Kouvali of Rodeo Gallery in Istanbul, London, and Piraeus has created groups, exhibitions, and actions with international impact where art manages to interact with society, target racial restrictions and socially restrictive stereotypes, and create platforms of expression with marginalized people. Her collaboration on artworks and films of critical social interest and her strong international engagement enable the group to connect with successful examples from around the world and with internationally renowned artists.

      Yannis Papadopoulos, journalist (in publications such as TA NEA, KATHIMERINI) is mainly active in social issues and their consequences through deep, thorough and analytical research, which results in presentations and texts of exceptional accuracy and narrative competence that activate the direct participation of the reader through a subject matter that is unexpectedly revealing on difficult, inaccessible issues. He ventured into a multimedia presentation using - in addition to the text - photographs, video, and any medium that enables the reader/viewer to interactively follow themes and landscapes unfamiliar to them.

       

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      Developed by Chrystos Tsamardas

       

  • Contact

    • 64 I. Drosopoulou str
      11 257 Athens, Greece

      Døcuscreen | 1F
      Døcumatism | 2F

      t+30 694 4524 042, +30 698 318 1871

      email : [email protected]
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