Art Athina 2024: 9-23 September at the Zappeion Palace

Enlarged by one day, multi-collective and content-rich, this year’s 2024 has another surprise for its visitors: It will not only be confined to the well-known sites of Zappeion, which have been its permanent headquarters since 2019. It will activate invisible corners of the building and expand both to the wider area surrounding the Palace and to the neighbouring summer cinema “Eiglis”. As the organizers say, larger by one day, involving 71 art halls from Greece and 10 other countries and an expanded parallel program, Art Athina 2024 is preparing to welcome the art audience in the historical exhibition area of Zappeios Megaros from 19 to 23 September 2024. The largest annual visual event in Greece and one of the oldest foirs in Europe, organized by the Panhellenic Association of Art Halls, has been placed, for another year, under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. With a central axis of contemporary art, enhanced the presence of design, emphasis on inclusion and sustainability, Art Athina 2024 and this year’s event will give the art audience the opportunity to attend the most recent proposals of the galleries, to see historical works and to contact the trends of art halls from abroad. The general director of the event for the second consecutive year is Antonis Koukoulos. A new member of Art Athina’s nuclear team is Marilena Koutsuku, who took the newly created position of director of the development of foir and is responsible for the strategic partnerships of Art Athena 2024. Individual sectors, such as each year, are assigned to young people, mostly curators. Constantly present in the last eight years Stavros Papagiannis with Stage Design Office in the architectural design of the exhibition and the multi-awarded creative G Design Studio office, which shaped the new visual identity of the foir consisting of two capitals A in different compositions and colors. For the second consecutive year, BlueCycle transforms the garden of Zappeios Megaros with a project, specially designed for this year’s Art Athina event, combining design with sustainability and sustainable development. With its raw material the fishing equipment it collects from all over Greece and combining robotic 3D printing with handmade creations, it gives a different breath to the logo of the exhibition. Art Athina’s 2024 program has been developed as follows: * Main : art rooms from Greece and abroad present their proposals. Below is the list of participants*. * Design : galleries and designers that perfectly combine the beauty of traditional Greek techniques with the most modern, imaginative and innovative design creating objects that have a wide range of aesthetics, will compose the section edited by Manthos Kalomenos and Tina Daskalantakis (Mare Studio). * Projects : independent art spaces, non-profit cultural organizations, rooms run by artists, studio and small new galleries are the section edited by Lucia Thomopoulou under the title “Exodus”. The parallel programme of the foir consists of the following sections: * Talks : the main theme of the discussions curated by Olympia Georgie is the relationship of galleries and artists, highlighting the response of challenges without rivalry and the search for solutions based on what is in place at international level. * Video : the social and political dimensions of environmental issues, sexuality and emotion deal with the works that Panos Giannikopoulos has chosen to present in this year’s program under the title “Expulsion from the Garden: The soil as a lens to be-in-the-world”. The screenings will take place in the garden of Zappeios. * Performance : “Happy me, happy we” is the title chosen by Nicholas Vambucles, who is curating this year’s program in collaboration with and with the support of Flux Laboratory Athens after an open invitation to all participating art halls at Art Athina 2024. The themes of the projects concern, among other things, the freedom and expression of identities, the dynamics of the community, the (non) human relationships and concepts such as care, ecology and sustainability, crises and emergencies. * Kids’ Educational Program: creative workshops of painting, architecture, collage, mixed technical and theatrical play includes, among others, the educational program for children “Planet Art” designed this year for Art Athina by the non-profit international social body of Contemporary Art and Culture, KROMA, with an environmental awareness centre. For the first time this year Art Athina and Kroma work with the group of the urban non-profit company Life is For All, so that the educational workshops include children and adolescents with learning difficulties and neurodevelopmental specificities. For the third year the institution of Art Athina’s award for a new artist, which aims to strengthen artistic creation, in collaboration with the MOMus-Museum Alex Mylonas, one of the five Museums of the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus). Participation is possible up to 45 years old, who live and work in Greece and are proposed by the gallery that represents them, where they have held at least one solo exhibition. During the period of Art Athina 2024 the solo exhibition – prize of last year’s winner, Stefania Struza (gallery a.antonopoulos.art), will already be open, at the MOmus-Museum ‘Alex Mylonas (12 September to 13 October). The Art Athina Educational Program was held for the sixth year during the previous months with the participation of students of the School of Fine Arts in the design of Chrysanthe Koumianakis and Kosmas Nikolaos by the artistic organization 3 137. The aim of the workshop was to meet students with art professionals, to understand the Athenian scene and familiarize themselves with their future professional field of activity. Art Athina is organized by the Panhellenic Association of Art Halls, produced by BeBest. The event has joined the Regional Programme “Attiki 2021-2027”. Art GalleryAfriaganos, Art Athina, Art Afrika, Art Afrikaans, Art GalleryAfrikaans, Art Gallery (Athina 2024: Main a.antonopoulos.art, agathi kartalos, Alibi, Allouche Benias Gallery, Alma Gallery, Argo Gallery, Art Zone 42, Art Tower Agora, Artshot – Sofia Gaitani, Artworx, Arusha Gallery (UK), ASTROLAVOS art galleries, Bernier/Eliades Gallery, Callirroë, Citronne Gallery, Crex Gallerie, Depo Darm, Dio Horia, ekfrasi – yianna grammatopoulou, Eleftheria Tsiliou Gallery, Elen Korone Gallery, Enari Gallery (Netherlands), EPsilon Art Gallery, Françoscher Project spaces Alkinois, Apodec, igni, keramikos 23 artspace, MISC, Sealed Earth Ceramic Studio and Gallery, The Office of Hydrocommons x ATOPOS cvc, Thermia Project. Design ANTIQUA Gallery, Bombyx, Mare Studio, Stefanidou Tsoukala Gallery, Taxidi Tinos, Temporary Showroom.