Mystery 15 The Living Museum – the landmark exhibition by renowned visual artist Vana Xenou that reimagines Elefsina as an open museum and a timeless urban sanctuary – has been extended until 22 June 2025.
Hosted at IRIS and within the archaeological site of Elefsina, the exhibition has already drawn hundreds of visitors from the local area and Athens alike. Alongside the main exhibition, public events such as open guided tours with the artist herself and educational visits for schools and local associations are also being held.
This multi-layered project—combining research methodology, archival synthesis, visual art practice, and spatial design—invites viewers to experience a transition: from melancholy to vision, from a ruined present to a place of spiritual awakening.
Among the exhibition’s most evocative works are the monumental sculptural Persephone – Kore, the large-scale painting titled The Living Museum, the installation Eleusis featuring 26 bronze sculptures, Emerging Gaia, The 20 Columns, Nystis, the 15 Marble Inscribed Slabs, and The Ancestors – and The Ancestors in the Depths of Mythical Thought. Displayed across the two exhibition spaces, these works trace threads of kinship and continuity, exploring the interplay between the real and the mythical, descent and emergence, death and transformation, the sacred and the initiatory.
The exhibition’s research focuses on the long journey of the Eleusinian Mysteries, highlighting the historical and mythical fragments that shape the city’s natural, cultural, and anthropological identity.
With striking large-scale sculptures placed in symbolically powerful locations both in Greece and abroad, immersive new works, spatial installations, landmarks, and architectural interventions, The Living Museum avoids a static reading of Elefsina. Instead, it offers a transformative journey—from ruin to revelation. The proposed spatial markers and installations link temporal nodes across different eras, offering the visitor—the contemporary flâneur—a deeply experiential path.
Information
Exhibition Duration: Extended until 22 June 2025
Opening Hours – IRIS:
Wednesday to Friday: 18:00 – 21:00
Saturday & Sunday: 13:00 – 21:00
Free admission
Access to the Archaeological Site exhibits is available only during the official site opening hours.
Entry Fee (for the archaeological site): Full: €10, Reduced: €5
Supported by the Ephorate of Antiquities of West Attica.
Mystery 15 The Living Museum is implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Greece 2.0, with funding from the European Union – Next Generation EU.
