The new art installation coming to the SNFCC through a collaboration with EMST

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) and the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens are working together to present the large-scale outdoor installation Return to Sender by Nairobi-based art collective NEST. The work will be exhibited on the SNFCC Esplanade from April 26 to September 30, 2023, and access is free to the public.

Return to Sender was created for Documenta 15 (2022), and the version of the installation at the SNFCC will be the first presented outside Kassel. The work, one of the most talked about at that event, consists of a pavilion made from large bales of used clothing. These bales, called "mitumba" in Swahili, are made up of unwanted used clothes from wealthy Western countries that wind up in Africa. The majority of them end up in landfills, creating a major environmental problem. The bales used at the SNFCC will be made of fabrics and clothes collected from Greece and intended for recycling or reuse, which is what will happen to them after the installation is taken down.

Installation of Return to Sender at the SNFCC is made possible through a grant from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), which will also support a number of educational and creative activities for all ages accompanying the project throughout its stay at the SNFCC.

Return to Sender | The Nest Collective

A co-production between the SNFCC and EMST, artistically curated by Katerina Gregos

Esplanade, SNFCC

April 27 – September 30, 2023

Free access