Athena 2.0
Emancipation, freedom, and shared values
History
During the night of 14 to 15 January, the front building of GO! Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerpen went up in flames. Due to structural instability caused by damage and weathering, the Athena statue that held a prominent place on the facade also had to be removed. Over the years, the school rebuilt the facade and developed a policy centered on shared values, freedom, and empowerment. Art became the means of communication between the different cultures and philosophies of life within both the school and the city of Antwerp. The non-profit organisation (vzw) Athena-syntax submitted a "Commissioned Art" proposal to the Flemish Government. The project was approved and realised with funding from the Department of Culture, Youth, and Media. On Saturday, 14 January 2023, a new statue was placed on the roof of GO! Atheneum Antwerpen: ‘In dialogue with Athena, a metaphor for empowerment, freedom, and shared values’. The goddess of art demonstrates how art can act as a unifying force around shared values and standards in this city. Flames and fire are transformed into warmth and connection.
Design Nadia Naveau
Athena 2.0 is an impressive bronze statue with a patina and coloured finish. Nadia Naveau opted for a recognisable, figurative statue of Athena/Minerva, but moved away from the rigid, white-marble neoclassical style of the 19th century. The face and posture are calm and dignified. The execution gives the work a postmodern, almost hybrid appearance: classical in form, yet distinctly contemporary. The emphasis is primarily on the seated, watchful posture and the presence of the figure itself; it functions chiefly as a symbolic figure atop the building, rather than a detailed mythological tableau.
Metaphor
Athena stood and stands as the goddess of wisdom, art, and science, but she also represents empowerment, freedom, and universal shared values. The project to create a new statue offers an opportunity to give a contemporary interpretation to the representation of those values and to reflect the new, hyper-diverse community of the current Atheneum and the city of Antwerp. The new statue engages the neighbourhood in a dialogue surrounding freedom, tolerance, and reciprocity. In this sense, it will stimulate reflection and energise the public space. Athena 2.0 enters into a dialogue with her surroundings.
Ancient Athena
The old Athena statue was a classical, neoclassical statue of the Greek goddess of wisdom that matched the nineteenth-century eclectic style with Neo-Renaissance influences of the school's architecture. Athena is made of Brauvilliers limestone. The statue is currently stored in the cellars of the Atheneum, awaiting restoration and a new location within the school. The statue was created by the Antwerp sculptor Joseph Ducaju, an artist who produced several public works in and around Antwerp. It was placed on top of the facade of the school building, which was completed in 1884, crowning the facade and serving as a visual symbol of the Atheneum as a temple of knowledge.
Reviews
When Nadia Naveau creates a monument, you can expect that the word "monument" always carries the word "monument" in its core. Her work is about transformation—a transformation that seems to take place right before our eyes, as if the sculptures are alive, as if the process initiated by the artist with her living hands is now being carried on independently by the sculpture itself.
Jeroen Olyslaegers
Cartoon figurations is intrinsic, to her sculpture and elsewhere we find hand as glove, hand as hat and hand as comic space.
Jon Wood
Nadia cuts form out of art jackets and Millet jackets.
Celine Mathieu
An artwork in the public space is never entirely uncontested. It must confront the public directly. It can never please everyone, but ideally, it should try to accommodate everyone in society. In this case, the statue of Athena serves as a symbol and a means of communication for the school, while simultaneously translating values that transcend the school context. Rooted in their humanistic foundations, GO! Koninklijk Atheneum Antwerpen and Athena-syntax prioritise values such as empowerment, freedom, and shared values—universal shared values that the mythological Athena represents on a conceptual level. Naveau’s sculpture translates this same philosophy in a contemporary and visual way, rather than simply relying on literal references to the Greek goddess or the former statue on the Atheneum roof.
Tamara Beheydt
Athena 2.0
