When art speaks out for democracy

An international exhibition of 140 works titled "Democracy" opens on Thursday at the National Gallery in Athens. It investigates artistic expression against totalitarianism and the attempt to reclaim freedom in Greece, Spain and Portugal in the 1960s and 1970s, combining photography with sculpture, such as Christos Kapralos' "Wounded Soldier," and paintings by Yannis Gaitis and Paula Rego. It took many trips to Spain and Portugal and many discussions to assemble the 140 works by 55 artists hosted by the exhibition, which is being held in cooperation with major institutions such as the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, as well as with private collections from Greece and Portugal.