MOMus–Museum of Contemporary Art–Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections

MOMus Contemporary, in full MOMus, Museum of Contemporary Art, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art and State Museum of Contemporary Art Collections, is a contemporary art museum in Thessaloniki, Central Macedonia, Greece. Located in the area of the Thessaloniki International Fair, it is the oldest institution in Greece primarily devoted to contemporary art. Since 2018, it has operated under the Metropolitan Organisation of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus), a merger that combined it with MOMus Modern, MOMus Experimental, MOMus Photography, and other institutions. The museum was founded in 1979 as the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (MMCA, Greek: Μακεδονικό Μουσείο Σύγχρονης Τέχνης, ΜΜΣΤ), and its permanent collection now numbers approximately 2,000 works.

The museum originated from a conversation between Maro Lagia and the gallerist and collector Alexandros Iolas following the 1978 Thessaloniki earthquake. When Iolas expressed concern about damage to monuments, Lagia proposed creating a contemporary art centre in Thessaloniki. Iolas responded enthusiastically, declaring that Thessaloniki needed "a centre of contemporary art" rather than more hospitals and orphanages. The association "Centre macédonien d'art contemporain" was founded in 1979 as a marker of the city's renewal. In 1984, Iolas donated 47 works as a nucleus for the museum's collection. This initial gift inspired subsequent donations from collectors including Magda Kotzia, Franz Geiger, Alexandros and Dorothea Xydis, Giorgos Apergis, and Dimitris Meïmaroglou. The institution benefited from Thessaloniki's designation as European Capital of Culture in 1997, inaugurating a new wing that year in the Thessaloniki International Fair premises it had occupied since 1992. Previously, it had been housed in part of the Philkeram-Johnson factory in Pylaia. A 1999 extension increased public space to nearly 4,000 square metres, adding exhibition halls, a library, a conference room, artists' studios, and a cafeteria. Since 2017, the creation of MOMus has united the former Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art with post-war works from the former State Museum of Contemporary Art of Thessaloniki.

The permanent collection comprises approximately 2,000 works by Greek and foreign artists, encompassing paintings, sculptures, installations, assemblages, engravings, and photographs. It is continuously augmented through gifts from collectors, artists, gallery owners, and private individuals. The collection's core remains the 47 works donated by Alexandros Iolas. Beyond the permanent display, the museum has mounted over 100 exhibitions of works by Greek and foreign artists. It has published more than fifty bilingual catalogues to accompany solo and group exhibitions. The museum also organises educational programmes related to its temporary exhibitions and permanent display, devises programmes for other visual arts institutions, and offers guided tours. In the framework of EU programmes, it collaborates with other museums to develop educational programmes for adults. Its library contains 2,500 titles of books and periodicals on painting, sculpture, engraving, architecture, and photography, along with all catalogues published by the museum, audio-visual material, and the museum's archive of artists.

The collection features significant works by modern and contemporary artists. Retrospectives held for the first time in Greece include those devoted to Yannis Tsarouchis, Tsoclis, Photios Kontoglou, Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Kokkinidis, Alekos Fassianos, Aggelika Korovessi, Spyropoulos, Psychopaidis, Pavlos, Kessanlis, Alexis Akrithakis, and Katzourakis. Other exhibitions have been devoted to Fluxus, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Roberto Matta, Viallat, Joseph Beuys, Uecker, David Hockney, Max Ernst, Barlach, Max Beckmann, Vlassis Kaniaris, Takis, Molfessis, Lazongas, Papadimitriou, Stephen Antonakos, Zongolopoulos, Mytaras, Triandafyllou, Ekonomopoulos, and Alithinos. The collection also includes works by Andy Warhol, Victor Brauner, Chryssa, Niki de Saint Phalle, René Magritte, Eliseo Mattiacci, Xavier Noiret-Thomé, Dennis Oppenheim, Martial Raysse, Jean Tinguely, and Giorgos Zongolopoulos.

The museum is located in the area of the Thessaloniki International Fair, near the old city centre and approximately 500 metres east of the White Tower. It forms part of Thessaloniki's principal museum complex, alongside the Archaeological Museum, the Museum of Byzantine Culture, the War Museum, and other surrounding institutions. The museum occupies buildings within the fairgrounds, having moved there in 1992. The 1999 extension brought the public space to nearly 4,000 square metres, including exhibition halls, a library, a conference room, artists' studios, and a cafeteria. The institution also maintains a branch dedicated to contemporary sculpture at the Alex Mylonas Museum in Athens.

MOMus Contemporary is situated in Thessaloniki Municipality, Greece, with its official website at http://www.mmca.org.gr. The museum is publicly accessible and continues to serve as a centre for contemporary art exhibition, education, and research under the MOMus umbrella. In addition to its exhibitions and educational programmes, the museum hosts lectures, discussions on aesthetics, art history, and museum organisation, book and art project presentations, meetings with artists, happenings, and bazaars. Its art shop sells the museum's own publications, other art publications for adults and children, unique and series-produced works of art, utilitarian objects of artistic nature, artist-designed jewellery, educational CD-ROMs, music CDs, posters, cards, and other items.