SNFCC Μembers Special 30' Talk x NEON | Louise Bourgeois, Maman

Members’ exclusive tour by NEON’s Assistant Curator, Galini Notti 

Louise Bourgeois’s monumental sculpture Maman (1999) is brought to the Greek public by NEON and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), collaborating for the first time. This iconic giant spider — one of the works that made the artist internationally famous — will be on display at SNFCC’s Esplanade for a seven-month period, with free entry to the public.

Through her art, Louise Bourgeois expressed her innermost thoughts and fears, worked through problems, and gave form to her emotions. In prints, drawings, textiles, installation, and, most famously, sculpture, Bourgeois explored themes of guilt, fear, memory, motherhood, and love. Bourgeois’s art was informed by her life, particularly her childhood years. She first made drawings of spiders in the late 1940s, and nearly 50 years later created the giant three-dimensional spiders for which she has become well-known.

Maman, standing at over 10 metres tall, was created for the Tate Modern’s first Turbine Hall commission in 2000, and was subsequently cast in an edition of bronze, stainless steel, and marble. Bourgeois stated that the work was symbolic of her mother, a weaver and tapestry restorer. With twenty eggs in its abdomen, the sculpture embodies ideas of maternal protection. However, the artist’s relationship to motherhood was ambiguous, contradictory, and complex. Dominating its surroundings and teetering on rangy, segmented legs, Maman also evokes fear and suggests entrapment.

Area: ESPLANADE, Μaman sculpture

Meeting Point: ESPLANADE, Μaman sculpture

Start Time: 12:30

Duration: 30'

According to the latest measures to protect public health from the risk of spreading COVID-19, a valid vaccination certificate or a disease certificate, is required for the public to enter the event venue, as the venue operates as a pure venue. The above applies to adults. Μinors from 4 to 17 years old may, alternatively, submit a statement of negative self-diagnosis (self test) of the last twenty-four hours, a certificate of PCR (72 hours) or rapid (48 hours) diagnostic test, in accordance with the recent government measures.

The use of face mask and social distancing measures are mandatory in indoor and outdoor areas of the SNFCC, in accordance with Hellenic National Public Health Organization regulations.

A parallel identity check will be carried out on the persons who show the required certificates, as provided by law.

Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.