Time, memory, decay, doubt, politics and philosophy – just a few of the themes that open up the artistic universe of Lydia Dambassina. A universe woven from questions directed at the viewer through the 70 works of the acclaimed Greek visual artist. These works form the core of her new exhibition "Red Line, Κόκκινη γραμμή, Ligne rouge", organised by the Municipal Art Gallery of Chania, curated by Dr Konstantinos V. Proimos, Assistant Professor at the University of Patras.

The exhibition, opening on 13 December 2025, is held under the auspices of the French Embassy in Greece and runs until 19 April 2026.

Combining painting, photography, installations, video and readymades, the exhibition includes both recent and earlier creations by the artist, who lives and works between Greece and France. The works span a wide range of her visual language, drawing from the current socio-economic context to confront poverty, economic dependency, inequality and war, through her direct, sharp, strict, ironic yet tender gaze.

Through the works in this exhibition, Dambassina explores the boundaries and limitations we live within – often without having chosen or imposed them ourselves. A concept hinted at in the exhibition title: "Red Line, Κόκκινη γραμμή, Ligne rouge".

From the 2008 piece "1,330 grams of grey matter that encapsulate the history, passions and doubts of humanity" – a lambda print depicting black graphite accumulated on a wooden table, posing the philosophical question "what is real and what is illusion" – to the brand new "Untitled" (2025), in which one side of a scale holds a glass globe without countries and the other 37 credit cards, commenting on the mechanisms of late capitalism and the Western world’s dependence on ‘plastic’ money – the viewer is invited into Dambassina’s visual vocabulary and long-standing reflections.

"Are we, perhaps, dreaming and living through a nightmare? Because when we’re dreaming, we usually don’t know it; we can never be certain whether we are dreaming or not. We might be living in a permanent dream state without the ability to wake up. We can only hope that, when we do awaken, we’ll realise it was just a bad dream, and eventually, the great awakening will come – bringing with it the comforting certainty that the unpleasant experience we lived through was indeed a nightmare. Dambassina’s work heralds this great awakening,"
notes curator Konstantinos V. Proimos in the exhibition catalogue.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated bilingual catalogue (Greek-English). It will also include guided tours, educational programmes, talks, roundtables and other events, details of which will be announced soon.

Lydia Dambassina was born in Thessaloniki, later moved to Lyon, France, where she completed school and studied Fine Arts, Psychopathology and Pedagogy in Grenoble and Paris. She lives between Paris, Athens and Kea.

Her work is site-specific, always conceived in relation to the location where it is exhibited and designed specifically for the place and its context. She has held solo exhibitions at major institutions in Greece and abroad, such as MOMus – Contemporary Art Centre of Thessaloniki, the Alex Mylona Museum, Eleftherias Park in Athens, the Municipal Art Gallery of Larissa – G.I. Katsigras Museum, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Saint Eustache Church in Paris, and has participated in numerous group exhibitions including at EMST, the State Museum of Contemporary Art, the Thessaloniki Museum of Photography, the Benaki Museum, the Athens Epidaurus Festival, the Museum of Greek Folk Art and Tradition, the Athens School of Fine Arts, the Jewish Museum of Greece, the Municipal Gallery of Mithymna, the Musée de l’eau (Pont-en-Royans), the Manege Museum (Saint Petersburg), the Collegium Artisticum (Sarajevo), the Círculo de Bellas Artes (Madrid), and the Salon de Montrouge (Paris).
Her works are held in public and private collections in Greece and internationally.

INFO
Duration: 13 December 2025 – 19 April 2026
Opening: 13 December 2025
Venue: Municipal Art Gallery of Chania
Address: Chalidon 98–102
Phone: +30 2821 341680
Website: www.pinakothiki-chania.gr
Facebook & Instagram: @MunicipalArtGalleryChania

Opening Hours:
Monday: 10:00–14:00
Tuesday to Saturday: 10:00–14:00 & 18:00–21:00
Sunday: 10:00–14:00

General admission: €5
Reduced admission (students, unemployed, people with disabilities, families with three or more children): €2
Every Tuesday: Free entry for all