Never mind the ballots

Democracy comes under scrutiny in its birthplace, Athens, in a show that looks at despotism and resistance, from spies lurking in the Parthenon to pop art shootings

- Philip Oltermann

No place on Earth should have more authority to speak about the enduring appeal of democracy than the place that first came up with it. But a new art exhibition in Athens seems reluctant to shout about its credentials. You have to walk right to the end of the National Gallery of Greece's show, past 137 works by 54 artists, before you come across anything like a claim to authority - and even then it is far from triumphant.

Rika Pana's paintings of the Parthenon accentuate not the steadfastness of the ultimate symbol of Athenian democracy, but its eventual ruin. In three paintings, from the series The Erosion of Civilisation, the pillars of the temple look like plumes of black smoke, the uncertainty of its iconic outline emphasising its own perishability.