This year the B&E Goulandris Foundation in Athens became the first museum in the Greek capital to host a Slow Art Day event.
The Foundation’s Slow Art Day included more than 200 visitors who looked slowly at these four artworks from their permanent collection:
- “Caparisoned horse”, a funerary figurine from China’s Tang Dynasty (8th century)
- “The Red Fish” by A.R. Penck on the second floor
- “Large Study in Cadmium Red” by George Rorris on the third floor
- “London Cityscape Piccadilly Circus I” by Chryssa on the fourth floor
Visitors were invited to take a leaflet with slow looking prompts for their session, and were encouraged to keep it for their next visit. Facilitators also encouraged all visitors to discuss their Slow Art Day experiences with friends as well as to share on social media, using the hashtag #SlowArtDay.
Separately, The Foundation also co-hosted two mindfulness sessions with art historian, educator and mindfulness instructor Lydia Petropoulou.
Those sessions focused on Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s work “Ninety-nine Heads”, with the first session being for both adults and children aged 7+, while the second one was for adults only.
The mindfulness sessions, they said, aimed to help participants become active, conscious viewers, encouraging them to draw information from what they see and feel instead of what they already know.
The B&E Goulandris Foundation submitted over 100 photos from their event for this report, which capture the beauty of slow looking at a range of the museum’s collection (we have included a few of those photos below our signature line).
We can’t wait to see what the B&E Goulandris Foundation comes up with for Slow Art Day 2025!
-Johanna, Ashley, Jessica Jane, and Phyl
See a selection of photos below.
