NEON collaborates with the National Hellenic Research Foundation and presents the exhibition Before and after science, a new commission to artist Iris Touliatou.

Once again, NEON works with institutional cultural organisations to activate public and historical places through contemporary art, contributing to the interaction of art, society and the city. The exhibition is part of the program City Project 2024, an initiative conceived and commissioned annually by NEON to a Greek artist for the creation of a new work to be exhibited in a public space for a specific time period.

The exhibition unfolds in the outdoor space, the lobby, and the Library of Science, Technology and Culture “K.Th. Dimaras” of the National Hellenic Research Foundation. It explores the history, infrastructure, and operation of the Foundation: its interior and surroundings, the structural materials and immaterial structures that shape its organisation, and the human relations that fuel its function. Before and after science reflects on the visibility – or invisibility – of the elements that comprise the Foundation’s entity; on the accessibility of the premises; on information; and on the production and dissemination of knowledge. It examines its institutional and social role as well as the transition from a national to a public, personal, and emotional field.

Borrowed from the Brian Eno album of the same name, the title, which works as a time giver, captures the live – in vivo – and laboratory – in vitro – process of composition through analysis, deconstruction, and reconstruction, synchronising infrastructural, environmental and social conditions.