What does freedom of art mean when artistic expression becomes the target of censorship, political intervention or physical attack? Where does provocation end — and who has the authority to draw that line?
With Freedom of Art, Kai Dikhas Foundation invites audiences to an evening dedicated to artistic freedom and to the space art occupies within contemporary political and social debate.
At the centre of the evening is the work of Greek artist Christophoros Katsadiotis, whose practice moves between printmaking, collage and the moving image. Born in Athens, Katsadiotis studied Fine Arts at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and printmaking at the Eugeniusz Geppert Academy of Art and Design in Wrocław. His work often confronts society, religion and human nature through a visual language that combines traditional engraving with experimentation and moving images. He lives and works between Paris and Athens.
The evening will open with the screening of The Engraver (2025), a documentary by filmmaker Sissy Morfi. The film has been screened successfully at the 28th TiDF Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival. The film enters Katsadiotis’ studio and follows an artistic practice in which traditional engraving encounters the moving image, while exploring his perspective on society, religion and the human condition.
The film also addresses an event that placed Katsadiotis’ work at the centre of a wider public debate: works by the artist exhibited at the National Gallery in Athens were vandalised by a member of the Greek Parliament. The incident generated extensive discussion in Greece around artistic expression, religion, institutional responsibility and the limits of intervention in art. It is precisely from this tension that Freedom of Art takes its point of departure.
Following the screening, Christophoros Katsadiotis will join Moritz Pankok, curator of the current exhibition Metamorphose des Denkens, for a conversation reflecting on the film, Katsadiotis’ artistic practice, and the broader question of artistic freedom today.
Rather than understanding freedom of art as an abstract principle, the evening asks what happens when this freedom is challenged in practice: when artworks disturb, provoke or confront dominant social, political and religious narratives. What responsibilities do cultural institutions carry in such moments? And how can art remain a space for disagreement, resistance and critical thought?
PROGRAM
19:00 — Doors open
19:30 — Film screening
The Engraver – Christoforos Katsadiotis
by Sissy Morfi, 2025, 61 mins.
21:00 — Discussion: Freedom of Art
Christophoros Katsadiotis in conversation with Moritz Pankok
