Greek Pavilion 2026: ESCAPE ROOM

The first marks Greece’s inaugural participation in the Venice Biennale, 61st International Art Exhibition with Escape Room, the work by artist and architect Andreas Angelidakis, representing Greece under the curation of Giorgos Bekiaris. About From what little could be revealed – as Angelidakis himself noted, given the Biennale’s strict confidentiality – it seems the Greek Pavilion will leave a strong impression. It will be one of those installations that linger in memory, politically charged, filled with messages – “an ideologically loaded space,” as the curator described it. Escape Room has been framed as a contemporary Platonic cave. Yet, unlike Plato’s cave, in Angelidakis’ version, truth is not singular. Angelidakis himself describes Escape Room as follows: “There’s nothing offensive in the Pavilion. There are two mechanisms. One resembles a bouzoukia stage, the other a kiosk selling tourist souvenirs. These are two mechanisms, like Plato describes, that can produce an image of truth. One is entirely digital and contains only the architectural fragment – the columns in pouf form. The other is what I’d call ‘à la turka.’ It’s about making something out of whatever you find in front of you. The Greece I relate to is a combination of both: the ‘à la turka,’ Ottoman Greece, and what we call the ‘Romios’ – the one who came from abroad and supposedly knew better. Both must coexist. So I mix the two.” Escape Room invites us to escape versions of ourselves that passively accept a given condition. As Angelidakis explains: “I present Escape Room as a space of entertainment within the Biennale. A place where someone might even get confused and think it’s the Biennale party or the shop. But if they take out their phone and Google, say, the image of a female soldier, they’ll discover it’s Storm , photographed by Kostas Kouvaras.” Read more Toggle Installation