Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis attended today’s presentation of “Greek Art Now,” a project to digitize and showcase the collections of seven leading Greek museums through the Google Arts and Culture platform, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture.
As part of the event at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, the Prime Minister participated in a conversation with Amit Sood, Director of Google Arts and Culture, moderated by Giorgia Abeltino, Regional Director of Public policy and Government Affairs for South Europe & External relations for Google Arts and Culture.
In his introductory remarks, the Prime Minister stated:
First of all, let me start by thanking and congratulating the Google team, but also the Ministry of Culture, and all those who made this extraordinary project possible. I knew it took a lot of effort to get where we are today.
I think this project highlights several of our priorities at the intersection of arts and culture. The first, I think, was already mentioned. When you think of Greece, you usually think of the Acropolis, the Pathenon, our classical civilization, which has been one of the foundational blocks of how we understand the modern Western world. We don’t frequently think about contemporary and modern art. And that I think it’s a pity as many people who will enter into this application, this web page, this service, will realise, because Greece has a very vibrant, modern and contemporary art heritage, which is highlighted through the work that you are doing.
But it was also a priority of my government to ensure that we place enough emphasis on modern and contemporary art. First of all, by opening this lovely museum, which took us 20 years to complete it. It has really become the epicentre of a very vibrant, modern art scene, attracting visitors from all over the world, staging amazing exhibitions, attracting important donations by contemporary art collectors.
We have quite a few contemporary art collectors who are top-notch by global standards, and we want them to do more to strengthen the country. The National Gallery was completed. It’s a lovely building now with a lovely collection. Again, it was our government who worked very hard to make sure that it is now open in one of our flagship museums. So convincing people that Greece is not just about our glorious past, but also about the present and about the future was always a very important priority for our cultural policy.
And I think that the second aspect, you already mentioned it, is exactly this intersection between art and technology. And the tools that we have at our disposal today are truly fascinating. And I think they’re all highlighted in what you just showed us in terms of accessibility, whether you’re in Greece or whether you are abroad, in terms of education, in terms of curatorial work, because what you see here is not just, we don’t just throw images of artefacts into an application or into a website. I think the curators went through a lot of thought in terms of how do you actually view a piece of art through the technological lens.
And this, in a sense, gives us a new dimension. This is not just coming to a museum and seeing a painting or a piece of sculpture. And of course, I love the educational aspect, the puzzles, and the ability to engage, especially with younger audiences. And of course, at the end of the day, these exhibitions, these objects tell stories. And a lot of what happened in Greece over the past years is, to a certain extent, reflected, especially in our contemporary art scene.
Greece became a laboratory for art during the crisis. And it was only to be expected because in terms of great upheaval, this is reflected in our cultural production. And as a country is progressing, I think you get a pretty good snapshot of where we are at present, where we’re moving in the future. How do we encourage more young artists to have more visibility. In the past, you were a young artist, you had to have access to a big gallery, abroad. That’s no longer necessarily the case. Technology allows the artist also to expose their work and access a global audience in a much more effective way.
So this project ticks all boxes. So, what can I say? Congratulations.
On how emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence in particular, are influencing artistic creation and reshaping its future, Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted:
I think this is a fascinating and extremely complex question because on the one hand, one needs to protect the rights of artists in a world where digital images spread frequently without any control. But for me, I think the most fascinating question is already being asked. AI is already creating art. What does this mean for the future of art? And how do we approach a world where what is considered to be the exclusive prerogative of human nature – artistic creation, language, speech, writing – is no longer the case?
This raises profound ethical questions, but we are no longer the only ones on this planet able to create art. And of course, the questions are, for the moment, unanswered, but it is going to be a challenge to approach this new landscape, which will also require a completely different mindset.
But for the moment, let’s just pause and understand how important it is, for example, we have equipped all our schools, because we talk a lot about AI and the new technologies in the future. But one should need to not forget that even the basic technologies that we have today can be transformational. Today, we have smart boards in all our public schools from fifth grade upwards.
And the art class now could have access to this material. So imagine the interest that we can create, especially for younger kids, in something which during our days was just maybe another boring subject, and maybe here and there we found someone who might be interested in this. So I think we’re offering a tremendous breadth of educational tools through basic accessibility, like the work that you have done.
But speaking of course, this is not the right setting to speak broadly about AI. But what I can tell you is that in Greece, we see technology, the Greek government sees technology as an opportunity to really propel the country towards a great productivity leap and make up for a lot of the lost ground, which we recognise is very much a burden on us as a result of the 10-year crisis.
So starting from our digital, basic digital services to more complex AI tools. This is an opportunity, especially in sectors such as health and education, where AI can truly be more transformative. But I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Regarding the integration of technology and culture and the opportunities this opens up for tourism, the Prime Minister said:
That view, essentially, is, I think, what makes also Athens and Greece so fascinating because you have this interaction, this amazing dynamism emerging from a city which, from an objective point of view, may not be the best built or the most beautiful in objective terms, although beauty, of course, is a very subjective term. But it is exactly this energy and this dynamism which I think is present not just in Athens, but in Greece today, which also gives opportunity for new forms of artistic expression.
And speaking of technology as an enabler to better understand, especially our artistic past, I think they’re already very interesting things that are happening and applications we’re doing with the Acropolis Museum, but also the future of high quality augmented reality applications in order to better understand. If you see something and say, “okay, how was it?” And we’re not exactly sure. We try and there, of course, that is something which we cannot do without the archaeologists. But imagine the educational opportunities. Your next game would be, look at the Parthenon, look at what’s there. Okay, give it to a kid and say, “imagine, how would you do it?”
How would you create what is missing, essentially? Because what you have is a missing puzzle. I won’t go into the fact that it shouldn’t be a missing puzzle because part of it should be here anyhow, in the Acropolis Museum. We’ll talk about that at another occasion. But this need to, and also from a historical, from an archaeological point of view, you just have more of an interest in trying to understand what was there. If you have the tools to actually design it and recreate it and superimpose it upon what you have.
There’s a big startup community that’s focusing on art and culture and various applications that can be useful. And of course, what you mentioned about the high-res cameras, the ability of looking at pieces of art from different angles. But of course, at the end of the day, what we want is to use these tools also for an opportunity for people to come see it, see the museum in situ. But many people won’t be able to do that. But it’s also what we find is that usually people have an additional reason to come.
And the truth is that given our cultural heritage, we don’t have enough visitors coming to Greece for the culture. We have more visitors coming to Greece for the natural beauty, the sea and the sun. And when we’re thinking about expanding our tourist season, attracting more visitors, Athens is becoming a year-round destination. And one of the reasons it’s becoming a year-round destination is because you have so many things to do, not just the Acropolis Museum or the Archaeological Museum, which is going to be a new flagship project, the museums you mentioned, so many private foundations which are being active.
And of course, I will repeat what I said previously, incredibly important. Modern and contemporary art collectors. Dimitris Daskalopoulos has donated part of his collection to the Museum of Modern Art. We have many others who I do encourage, and some of them are already in the process of creating their own foundations, their own institutions. And all this, I think, really makes Athens, but also Thessaloniki, which is a city of tremendous interest.
And there, speaking about technology and art and cultural heritage, you should go see the Thessaloniki Metro, which is completely unique in terms of how a modern infrastructure project has been integrated within, essentially, what was a very important archaeological dig. If it were not for Minister Mendoni, this project would never have happened. But now it’s probably the most beautiful metro in the world because technology and modern engineering allows us to do these things.
Regarding what is required for Greece and Europe to take advantage of the opportunities offered by artificial intelligence, the Prime Minister underlined:
I’d say talent, good data sets, and smart regulation. Do we have a role to play? Yes, in terms of talent, we are overrepresented, as Greece I mean, in the global ecosystem of cutting-edge AI scientists, many of whom have helped us craft our AI strategy.
Data. How can you create well-curated data sets, centrally managed with a proper protection sort of regulation in place to allow for new AI applications to be developed? I should mention infrastructure and cheap energy. Many data centres are being built in Greece because we already have access to relatively cheap renewable energy.
And when it comes to regulation and governance, our government is setting up a team at my office to look at how AI applications can improve productivity across the public sector. Again, my notion being, of an AI that does not replace the human agent, but supports humans to be more productive.
And of course, when we talk about regulation, this is a question that is not just Greek, it’s European. The right balance between making sure we don’t kill innovation, but at the same time not moving away from our European values and protecting, especially those who are more vulnerable.
I’m much more, you mentioned this in terms of screen time competition. I would much more prefer kids and teenagers to spend time on this application than on others, without me naming any particular ones that I would have in mind. So how do we reward our children for spending time on these types of applications vis-a-vis others?
This is a question also for the technology companies, because one cannot just shy away from a reality that is already with us, which is related to the mental health of children and teenagers as a result of excessive and addictive exposure to certain algorithms related to social media.
So this is the space where I see that Greece can play a role, not just in Greece, but also in Europe.
Well, I have an idea which I want to say publicly with you. I was thinking, speaking to the minister, in terms of accessibility. Well, there’s a little corner in Greece where half of the world’s population will never have access. And that is the Mount Athos peninsula, 20 monastic communities, which for the foreseeable future, I don’t anticipate women to be allowed there, because it’s been like that for a thousand years. I’m not going to pass any judgement, but this is not going to change.
So there you have an opportunity to actually show something which is of incredible value, which half of the world’s population will never be able to see, simply because they will never be able to go.
