“What Makes Great Art?” with Katerina Gregos – Season 2, Episode 5

Continuing with our pursuit of the question “What makes great art?”, Lauren Wetmore sits down with Greek art historian, curator, and writer Katerina Gregos, in Brussels. Their conversation builds on a quote from Gregos’s recent exhibition The Anatomy of Political Melancholy, hosted by the Schwartz Foundation at the Athens Conservatory:“We are increasingly witnesses to the debasement of political language, the infantilization and polarization of political debate; the growth of a simplified discourse that panders to collective fears rather than addressing the real, pressing questions; the lack of accountability from politicians, and of course, ‘fake truth’ and ‘alternative facts’. Clearly there is something profoundly wrong with contemporary politics.”What follows is a discussion that exchanges this quote’s “politics” for “art,” and interrogates the conditions by which we frame political comment in exhibition-making.Momus: The Podcast is edited by Jacob Irish, features original music by Kyle McCrea, and assistant production from Mitra Shreeram. Our many thanks to Katerina Gregos for her stirring contribution to this episode.