AN ART EXHIBITION PROJECT FOR NIKOS ENGONOPOULOS
This work focuses on the creation of a hypothetical art exhibition inspired by the painting of Nikos Engonopoulos, one of the leading representatives of surrealism in Greece. Its purpose is to explore both the form and style of his artistic expression and the enduring influence of his work on the modern era, through a modern exhibition design. The exhibition attempts to function as a creative dialogue between past and present, inviting the viewer to move between imagination, history and personal identity.
The idea for creating this hypothetical exhibition came about since we are students from the fields of advertising and public relations and culture and cultural management. We therefore wanted to take a holistic approach, combining these two perspectives in a proposal on how a potential art exhibition could be realistically structured and how to promote and advertise it. The sources were drawn from the archive of Engonopoulos, where the artistic paintings that we would like to exhibit were selected.
The central idea of the exhibition is based on a tour of a museum space, where the works will be categorized into three thematic axes (costumes, architecture, Byzantine), each of which illuminates a different aspect of his artistic personality. The main exhibition material is enriched with poems by the artist, while, at the same time, additional activities are organized in order for the active participation of visitors and the practical assimilation of their newly acquired knowledge.
The main objective of the exhibition is to highlight the work of Engonopoulos in terms of its connection with Greek mythology and historical memory, as well as his relationship with urban culture and Eastern Orthodox art. Special weight is given to the intense physicality in his figures and the way in which he incorporates and redefines them in the present, through the rich, symbolic context in which he places them.
The methodological approach of the project was based on principles of visual composition, creative writing and the utilization of archival material. The exhibition narrative was designed as a form of "visual scenography", where each thematic unit functions as a backdrop, transforming the viewer from a passive observer to an active participant in the interpretation of the work. At the same time, accompanying texts from his poetry collection were incorporated, which function as voices of the artist himself or his depicted figures, enhancing the surrealistic dimension of the overall experience.
The use of archival material (photographs and poems) contributed to the creation of a historical basis on which the direction of this fantastic exhibition was based. This exhibition, although hypothetical, aspires to give food for thought about how we can re-approach and artistically activate the work of a creator with such a peculiar visual voice.
HISTORICAL AND THEORETICAL CONTEXT
Nikos Engonopoulos was one of the most important representatives of the generation of the '30s and the founder of a peculiar version of surrealism, adapted to Greek standards. Born in Athens, he spent his childhood in Constantinople and France, while he studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts (1932–1938). Decisive for his work were the influences from his teachers, Fotis Kontoglou and Alexandros Xyggopoulos, through which he developed his personal, widely recognizable, artistic character. His art is a unique collection of Byzantine iconography, modern Greek historical tradition and mythology through the mirror of surrealism.
Engonopoulos' work is organically part of the surrealist movement, but it presents peculiarities related to the Greek cultural context. Surrealism, as mentioned by André Breton in his Manifeste du Surréalisme (1924), aimed at freeing the mind from logic and placing it in a condition of dream and domination of the unconscious. Engonopoulos adopts these basic features, but he reinterprets them. As Nasos Vagenas (1995) notes, Greek surrealism develops not in confrontation with tradition, but as a reclaim of it on a hyper-temporal level. Engonopoulos himself writes: "There is no more poetic person than Androutsos; nor more surreal" (Eleftheros Snieftis, 1985, p. 64).
The connection of his work with the archive, memory and narrative is crucial. His paintings function as "visual archives", i.e. collections of symbolism and references that do not refer to a single past, but to a set of timeless meanings, open to interpretation. Art theorist Hal Foster, in his article An Archival Impulse (2004), refers to a new form of artistic practice where the archive is not represented, but reconstructed. Engonopoulos seems to incorporate exactly this logic into his work, through the presence of symbolic and ritualistic figures such as Homer, Kolokotronis, Hermes or the Byzantine emperors, placing them not in a narrative context, but in post-historical "places without time" (Vassiliou, 2011).
The image, in Engonopoulos, is not representative; it is a construct. According to Roland Barthes (Image, Music, Text, 1977), the image functions as a tool for commentary, not for representation of the real. The ambiguity of the ethereal, dreamlike, figures in his paintings promote the idea that the narrative is not concrete; it must be constructed by the viewer as a direct participant in the narrative process. The absence of expressions by the persons, The stylized body language and flat perspective intensify this narrative ambiguity.
In terms of sources and documentation, this hypothetical exhibition was mainly based on works housed in the archive of Nikos Engonopoulos, in the library of the Athens School of Fine Arts
The incorporation of these theoretical and documented readings has contributed to the formation of an exhibition that does not reproduce the artist's biography, but reflects on the importance of his work in today's visual and cultural discourse.
TABLE ANALYSIS
The painting "Panagia Vrefokratousa" (1949) by Nikos Engonopoulos is a characteristic work of Greek surrealism and incorporates strong elements of both Byzantine iconography and modernism.
The painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding Christ as an infant, in a posture that strongly refers to traditional Byzantine iconography. However, the work is characterized by unrealistic and surrealistic features of Engonopoulos' art. The work mixes the sacred with the secular, the past with the present, the myth with reality. The Virgin Mary appears as an earthly and transcendental figure. The coexistence of contradictory elements is a key characteristic of surrealism.
It is also worth mentioning the influence from the Byzantine tradition. The Virgin Mary is depicted without outline or realistic perspective. Her face is immobile and austere, as is the case in hagiographies. Correspondingly, the infant Christ is not presented as a child with physical characteristics. This iconographic approach refers to the spirituality and abstraction of Byzantine art, where the purpose is not the faithful representation, but the metaphysical reminder of the sacred.
The artist, without imitating, reinterprets Byzantine aesthetics through surrealism. It creates an image that belongs to the past and the present at the same time, to the religious and the secular, to the historical and to the poetic. The Virgin Mary of Engonopoulos is not an exclusively theological figure. On the contrary, it embodies a timeless mother principle, a national memory, of Greek culture
TABLE 2
The painting presents the town of Hydra, with the characteristic stone houses of the island, with a frontal arrangement, like a theatre setting. The composition is flat, with bright colors and the absence of shadow. Engonopoulos combines a realistic landscape (Hydra) with mythical figures that disrupt the normal perception of space and time. These figures are not persons, but symbols. The surrealist element is found in the metaphysical silence that surrounds the stage, in the absence.
In this painting, Engonopoulos fully integrates into the modernist element of discontinuity, silence and abstraction. The composition has no narrative or temporal succession. The forms are isolated, they do not interact, but coexist juxtaposedly.
This deconstruction of the continuity of traditional painting is a deeply modernist element, which makes Engonopoulos unique in the synthesis of Greek painting with the European avant-gardes.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CREATIVE PROJECT
As mentioned above, our project is an attempt to combine our knowledge in the field of marketing and culture to create a hypothetical exhibition that could, potentially, work in a realistic context. Therefore, the process was divided into two parts so that each of the two students could deal with the part on which they have special knowledge.
Initially, as far as the content of the exhibition is concerned, we chose to include a variety of his most characteristic works, classifying them according to three different themes. The exhibits were classified into three individual thematic units, each of which is housed in a separate room, in order to enhance the narrative and experiential understanding on the part of the visitor. The first room focuses on the depiction of costumes and costumes, treating the garment not only as an aesthetic element, but also as a carrier of identity, otherness and cultural memory. The second room brings together works that showcase buildings of architectural interest —mostly classical or neoclassical, which serve as backdrops for the artist's imaginary world. Finally, the third section highlights Engonopoulos' relationship with the Byzantine element and religious iconography, approaching the metaphysical dimension of his work and its connection with a theology.
This particular structure did not arise by chance, but from our desire to form an overall view of Engonopoulos' artistic identity, through a multi-thematic but at the same time coherent museological axis. Each unit functions as an autonomous interpretative core, but at the same time communicates with the others, illuminating the creator's deep relationship with historicity, myth and tradition.
Next, we will analyze how we decided to promote this exhibition to the public, choosing methods that we believe are in line with the philosophy of Engonopoulos' work. To begin with, we set the goals we wanted to achieve with this exhibition, which were to read, raise awareness and inform the public about where they can visit and interact with the archive. As a second goal, we set the emergence of the modern artistic identity and the surrealist element in Greece.
In terms of the promotion of the exhibition and the strategy of the campaign, we chose to have a presence on social media (Instagram, Facebook), where we would start by uploading short video teasers that would reveal the details of the event little by little. Later, after there would have been a buzz around the exhibition, our content would have had more of an educational purpose. We would quote photographic material from the archive, poems and others in order for those interested to be informed and learn more about the works of Engonopoulos.
As our goal is to attract and arouse the interest of a younger audience, we decided to do another action at the same time, the creation of posters, which would advertise the three-day exhibition. How many hours of our day do we spend at a bus stop waiting for the bus to go to work, university, walk? So we thought that the greater visibility of the exhibition would result from the out of home advertising (OOH) and would bring the recognition we are looking for about the exhibition. We would place the posters in bus and subway stations.
Wanting to bring the contemporary world closer to Engonopoulos' surrealism and artistic way of expression, we would hypothetically organize a series of actions that would take place during the exhibition, wanting in this way to bridge this gap that exists between the young audience and the artistic tradition. The actions we have chosen to include are, initially, creative writing and painting workshops inspired by the artist's works. There, visitors would be led to tables where they would find the necessary materials they would need for the expression of their creativity such as papers, paints, pencils but also books with poetry and visual works by Engonopoulos from which they could take inspiration. At the same time, the person responsible for maintaining the flow of the program would guide the participants on how to write or paint, according to the artist's style. As a result, the audience would have a deeper understanding of the content of his works as well as specialized concepts such as surrealism and modernism.
Also, one of the opening days of the exhibition, we would like to organize a poetry evening dedicated to the work of Engonopoulos. Readings of his poems and letters to his wife would take place there, creating a calm and hospitable atmosphere that, undoubtedly, would be appropriate to the aesthetics of the exhibition. This would be followed by analyses of the content of the poems as well as discussions about his life and work where expert scholars and archivists could communicate openly with visitors. Finally, the individual activities would include educational programs and visits by schools, so that in a simpler and more understandable way children could acquire cultural education, getting to know one of the most important Greek artists. They could, therefore, through connections between his works and history and mythology, understand their content and cultural value in a deeper context.
DESCRIPTION OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
The process of implementing the paper for its presentation at the workshop dedicated to Nikos Engonopoulos was carried out through the creation of an exhibition of ideas on Canva. The creative part of the work had already begun from the moment we arrived at the Nikos Engonopoulos archive at the School of Fine Arts. There, the possibilities given to us by the endless and priceless material were enormous. In the end, we ended up using the books that included his works of art and the paintings themselves that were in the space. Photographs of many works were taken, accompanied by their titles and dates of creation, which we then sorted out so that some of them could be used in the ideas exhibition.
The idea for the theoretical exhibition then emerged as we felt it was an opportunity to combine our knowledge of marketing and culture management, respectively. Therefore, the way we thought of presenting our idea was through Canva. The next stage of the process was to sort through the photographs we had taken in order to arrive at the themes around which the content of our exhibition would revolve. The three themes we came up with were costumes, architecture and Byzantine.
Choosing the three themes was the most time-consuming process during our work. The reason for this was that Engonopoulos, although an artist with a characteristic and immediately recognizable style of painting, had great variety in the content of his works, which allowed them to be categorized into many different themes. At first, this puzzled us and delayed the brainstorming process quite a bit. In the end, the choice of costumes, architecture and ecclesiastical/Byzantine costumes was made due to the clear differentiation of the three from each other. The exhibition would acquire diversity, since the works would be divided into three different rooms, giving the visitor the opportunity to choose which of the three themes he wanted to see. Furthermore, we considered that of all the content of the artist's works, these were the most recognizable by the general public.
The photographs were then processed and placed on three different slides, graphically curated to refer to three rooms of a museum, with the title and date of their creation accompanying them as an exhibit caption. This, in addition to making our presentation more attractive, was a way to visualize our idea not only to the guests at the conference, but also to our professors and fellow students.
Having dealt with the issue of the selection of exhibits, our next concern was regarding the location of the exhibition. Taking into account the economic situation and the theme of the exhibition, we considered that, for a realistic, hypothetical situation, our best choice that would suit an art exhibition would be the space where the archive is housed, i.e. the School of Fine Arts.
The preservation of the exhibition in the archive space, in addition to aesthetically matching the idea of an art exhibition in a space of study of emerging artists, helps to inform the public about the existence of the archive. The archive, as it was not open to the public until now, would gain additional publicity from visitors, as their contact with Engonopoulos' works and their participation in activities related to it would push them to visit the archive and learn more about the artist.
Then, after adding to the presentation the date and location of the exhibition and all the ways we could advertise it in order to bring publicity to it, our last reflection was how we could enrich it so that it would be interesting for all audiences and have something more to offer than paintings.
Therefore, we thought of a number of complementary activities that could take place on the premises of the School of Fine Arts. Some of them included creative writing and painting workshops, poetry evenings, and guided tours for children. We believe that, since children are one of the most important and numerous groups of the public, museums should organize educational activities for them. Especially in an art exhibition like this one, the possibilities for children's activities are many and we would like, at least some of them, to be exploited.
After the presentation of the exhibition of ideas at the workshop on Nikos Engonopoulos, we were informed by those responsible for the preservation of the archive that, already, many of our ideas, especially those concerning the participation of children and their guided tours, have already begun to be implemented within the framework of the archive. This fact offered us great pleasure as it led us to understand that our proposals can, potentially, be exploitable in a realistic context of an art exhibition.
CONCLUSION
The aim of this thesis was to explore how the visual work of Nikos Engonopoulos can be a starting point for the creation of a modern, multi-sensory exhibition, which combines museological curation with strategic promotion in the field of cultural marketing. Through this hypothetical approach, our goal was to highlight the timeless value of the artist's work and to emphasize the possibility of activating his cultural imprint in the present, with tools that bridge artistic research with communication strategy.
The choice of thematic units (costumes, architecture, Byzantine influences) highlighted the multidimensional nature of Engonopoulos' creation and his deep relationship with Greek history, memory and mythology. The integration of poetry and archival material strengthened the scenographic and narrative structure of the exhibition, creating an artistic environment where the visitor becomes an active interlocutor of the work.
This work demonstrated how the connection between past and present can be made creatively and fruitfully, when approached with creativity and innovative design. Although this is a hypothetical proposal, its conception is based on realistic data and practices of contemporary cultural organization, offering an example of how art can become a tool for cultural literacy, participation and reflection. It becomes obvious that Engonopoulos, with his unique visual and poetic language, remains topical and open to new interpretations, acting as a bridge between tradition and contemporary artistic research.
Literature Review
Barthes, R., 1977. Image, Music, Text. Translated by Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang.
Breton, A., 1924. Manifesto of Surrealism. Paris: Éditions du Sagittaire.
Ampazopoulou F., 2008. Introduction to the poetry of Engonopoulos. University Publications of Crete.
Engonopoulos Nikos, 19 June 2025 National Gallery. (https://www.nationalgallery.gr/artist/engonopoulos-nikos/)
Perpinioti-Aghazir K., 2007. Nikos Engonopoulos: his painting world, Athens: Benaki Museum.
