“When I was taking my first steps in art at a very young age, I turned to an artist already known for her work for advice. I asked her what path I should take in my work in order to achieve something, and she told me: “Do what you like, do what you are good at, and little by little people will start respecting you.” . It was the best advice I have received as an artist. And that’s what I also have to say to those who are just starting out.”

William Kentridge is comfortably seated on one of the three sofas set up for this evening at the National Museum of Modern Art (NMCA) café, addressing the audience with disarming honesty. At 68, this internationally acclaimed Johannesburg born, living and working artist, when not traveling the world to present his work, seems to have mastered the precious virtue of simplicity. Invited to the Rolex Arts Festival, which celebrates the 20th anniversary of the mentoring program this year, Kentridge takes part in this public discussion on “socially conscious art in places of tension” with fellow Rolex artist Sami Baloji, while the discussion is moderated by an artistic Head of EMST Katerina Gregu.

While the conversation turns to the pressing issues of the time—democracy and inequality, colonialism and post-colonialism, gender and racial oppression—and the artist’s moral stance on these political issues, Kentridge prefers to talk about the artist’s right to fear any kind of certainty. “I never start something with a preconceived idea. My workshop is my own little world, where the political and historical context comes second.”

On the other hand, 45-year-old Sami Baloji, a photographer and sculptor, cites his experiences in the country where he grew up, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a political transition that marked the end of a long period of colonial rule and the end of the Cold War. Balozi took part in the Rolex program as a protégé and was mentored by Icelander Olafur Eliasson. Now living in Brussels, he works with copper material, “a clear testament to the experience of the people of my country,” he explains.

group exhibition

“My workshop is my own little world, where the political and historical context comes second,” says William Kentridge.

On the third floor of the EMST, in Project Rooms 1-2, where the festival’s contemporary art group exhibition takes place, Baloji presents two works on the political, religious and commercial transactions that took place between the Kingdom of the Congo, Portugal and the Vatican from the 16th century onwards. He brought to Athens one of the copper plates made from Congolese raffia fiber pillows.

Seven more young generation artists from all over the world, “students” of famous fine art masters, exhibit their work in these two EMST spaces. They hail from Germany, Uruguay, Japan, South Africa, Colombia and Vietnam and have been mentored by David Hockney, John Baltessari, Rebecca Horne, Anis Kapoor and Joan Jonas. The works are experiments with expressive means that formed the visual language of each artist – painting, collage, constructions.

Of particular note is Thao Nguyen Phan’s excellent video triptych entitled “Silent Wheat”, which lyrically but with a clear visual eye intertwines oral tales of the famine that hit the country after the war, with magical elements borrowed from Vietnamese folk traditions and chronicles.

The exhibition will run until June 4th.