Public Secrets

Thia group exhibition features works by Eleni Christodoulou, Alexandra Christou, Maria Hassabi, Maria Joannou, Athena Kalogirou, Iva Lulashi, Olma, Paulina Olowska, and Georgia Sagri.

Curated by Milovan Farronato, the exhibition explores the delicate boundaries between visibility and concealment, intimacy and exposure. As Farronato notes:

What takes place when we alter our perception or step away from the familiar path? To deviate from the expected—to delirare, meaning to move beyond the “lira,” the Latin term for an arable field, a carefully controlled space—invites a reconsideration of norms. This exhibition examines those spaces where convention is disrupted, where the familiar is unsettled, and where secrets surface. What occurs when the private becomes public, when previously untold stories emerge from obscurity into visibility? It may resemble the proverbial elephant in the room—an unavoidable truth that suddenly becomes apparent.

Public Secrets draws its theme from this complex relationship between what is visible and what remains hidden, between the internal and the external, the private and the public. Through the works of the participating artists, the exhibition investigates the tension between concealment and exposure, encouraging viewers to face that which they might prefer to ignore. It aims to reveal “the other side of the coin,” presenting not only what is openly visible but also what lies hidden in plain sight.

At the heart of this exploration lies a question that resonates across contexts: what does it mean to disclose a secret? How do relationships—between individuals, within communities, and across societies—transform when something once hidden becomes known? Yet perhaps truth is never absolute; perhaps it always manifests as a partial truth. When one part is revealed, does something always remain unseen—or is it precisely within this partiality that the truth is located?

As the exhibition unfolds within the gallery space of The Breeder in Athens—a city shaped by both its historical significance and its contemporary realities—the artworks form a narrative that invites reflection on unspoken truths, on the aspects of life often left unacknowledged, and on the boundaries that separate us from what we may choose not to see.