The Insider Guide to Cultural Events this September

“Beading, Felting, Weaving, Drawing” at the FokiaNou Art Space

WHAT: Artistic innovators Sofia Archangelou and Aikaterini Koutroubi will debut FokiaNou’s first exhibit of the season with a craft-inspired installation using beads, wool, felt, jewelry and other mediums. FokiaNou’s intimate, apartment space will move you to enjoy Koutroubi’s jewelry collection, which blends painting, weaving and intricate embroidery, and Archangelou’s felting, painting and drawing creations. Take a step into the artists’ worlds at two workshops, “Thread and Color,” led by Koutroubi on September 15 and “Felting,” with Archangelou on September 29.

WHEN: September 14-29

WHERE: FokiaNou Art Space

Mathilde Rosier on “Thinking like Another Earthly Life Form”

WHAT: A contemplative examination of intelligence itself from French artist Mathilde Rosier promises to be a reflective philosophical journey. “Where is intelligence?” Rosier questions, “A new thinking is flourishing at the crossroad of poetry, science and philosophy, questioning the conventional conception we have of intelligence as being located and contained in a human brain.” Contemporary art gallery The Breeder, known for its exciting exhibitions from both established and emerging international and local artists brings Athens another thoughtful and beautiful artistic experience.

WHEN: September 18-October 13

WHERE: The Breeder

Jeffrey Eugenides at the SNFCC

WHAT: Internationally known Pulitzer Laureate Jeffrey Eugenides will talk with author Kallia Papadaki and journalist and book critic Mikela Chartoulari in collaboration with the Athens 2018 World Book Capital Festival. Eugenides brings his unique experience as an American writer of Greek and Irish descent and will discuss these influences on his critically acclaimed works as well as the larger issue of how identity manifests itself in contemporary Western society, in particular his hometown of Detroit. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the United States Embassy sponsor this talented novelist, best known for his bestselling books ‘Middlesex’, ‘The Marriage Plot’, and ‘The Virgin Suicides’.

WHEN: September 27

WHERE: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center

Animasyros International Animation Festival

WHAT: Directorial debuts, innovative filmmaking and global competition – the 11^th edition of the Animasyros Animation Festival is ready to make its mark on the island of Syros. Escape the heat with a visit to the island, where filmmakers from Greece, the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Belgium, the U.S. and more come together to showcase masterful animations. Between February and June, judges whittled down an astounding 2,547 international submissions to the best of the best, in both competitive and noncompetitive categories, and including adult, student and children’s submissions. You don’t want to miss this celebration of creativity and culture. For more information about the programme, visit programme@animasyros.gr.

WHEN: September 26 – 30

WHERE: Syros

Andreas Lolis Showcases “Prosaic Origins”

WHAT: Andreas Lolis, sculptor virtuoso, is a master of transformation. An unorthodox artist, he turns even the most mundane, abandoned objects into impressive statues. Lolis’ exhibit “Prosaic Origins,” curated by Nayia Yiakoumaki, will feature sculptures fashioned from cardboard boxes, ladders and planks of wood as part of NEON’s CITY PROJECT 2018. The historic British School at Athens, known for its classical architecture, will host and complement the exhibit, which draws on the western idealization of classical Greek heritage.

WHEN: September 12 – November 14

WHERE: British School at Athens

“Through the Lens of Nissim Levis: A Family, an Era” Exhibition

WHAT: Dr. Nissim Levis lived during a unique moment in history: the last years of the Ottoman Empire and the following years of turmoil and transition as the world changed forever; including the small Greek town of Ioannina, where Levis lived and photographed his society evolving around him. The Jewish Museum of Greece offers this illuminating photographic exhibition in partnership with Levis’ descendants and generous donations of family heirlooms that create an important glimpse of a pivotal historical moment.

WHEN: Until October 5

WHERE: Jewish Museum of Greece

Joan Leigh Fermor: More than a Muse

WHAT: A compelling exhibition at the Benaki Museum pieces together a powerful portrait of Joan Leigh Fermor, long overshadowed by her singularly talented husband Paddy, as a talented professional photographer. The exhibition curates vivid vignettes from the places and people Joan loved. United by art, Joan and Paddy Leigh Fermor found love in Greece. As they traveled across the country, Joan Leigh Fermor photographed the people and places she discovered before settling with her husband in a Peloponnesian home, in Kardamyli where Bruce Chatwin wrote The Songlines, which was later entrusted to the Benaki Museum. The exhibition, “Joan Leigh Fermor: Artist and Lover”, takes visitors on a photographic journey through the lives of the Fermors and offers a rare insight into the life of a brilliant, brainy beauty, whose reputation as a photographer, tabloid topic, society darling and sexual adventures matched her husband’s own reputation every step of the way.

WHEN: Until October 21

WHERE: Benaki Museum

George Condo at the Museum of Cycladic Art

WHAT: Encounter the fractured portraits and aggressive imagery that has made George Condo one of the most vital figurative sculptors in America at his first major solo exhibition in Greece. The showcase will include paintings, sculptures and drawings spanning his 40-year career, with a catalogue to be published on to mark the occasion. In the 19080s, Condo – who has described his work as “psychological Cubism” – was instrumental in reviving figuration in American art, together with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, and Jeff Koons. Condo’s work is in the permanent collections of (among others): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Citigroup Art Advisory Service Collection, New York; The Broad Collection, Los Angeles; Tate Gallery, London; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Deste Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Athens; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.

WHEN: June 8 – October 14

WHERE: Museum of Cycladic Art

Paul Chan in Athens

WHAT: The New Yorker once described him as a “deep-thinking American making art out of shadows.” Now, Athens audiences can experience head on the cerebral creations of Paul Chan that combine fashion with psychics when he presents a body of new and recent works – Odysseus and the Bathers – at the Museum of Cycladic Art from July 5. Chan’s arresting and visionary art usually concerns itself with liberating moving images from the confines of frames and this latest exhibition, too, will be comprised of kinetic sculptural works that fall under the umbrella of his “breathers” and “bathers” inventions. Each figure is composed of a fabric “body” designed by Chan and attached to specially modified fans. Chan then manipulates how the figures move by composing the internal architecture of the bodies to create different kinds of motion in three dimensions.

WHEN: July 5 – October 14

WHERE: The Museum of Cycladic Art

Costas Varotsos: The Sculpture Poet

WHAT: See the cutting edge steel and glass creations of the globally-hailed sculptor, Costas Varotsos, best known for his Athenian landmark ‘The Runner’. Curated by Takis Mavrotas, “Costas Varotsos: The Sculpture Poet” showcases new work by the acclaimed artist whose emblematic pieces have now taken root all over Europe and America.

Entrance fee: €7, €4 (for students, for students from 12 to 18 years, for people over 65), free (for unemployed, for students up to 12 years old).

WHEN: Until October 21

WHERE:  B&M Theocharakis Foundation

Hadrian’s Legacy

WHAT: “Hadrian and Athens: Conversing with an Ideal World” is an illuminating exhibition about the famous Roman ruler’s immense enduring legacy in Greece, and how Hadrian the Emperor contributed to forging many of the cornerstones of Western culture. The display features 40 exhibits from the National Archeological Museum’s collections and marks 1,900 years since the beginning of Hadrian’s Principate in AD 117.

Admission is €4.

WHEN: Until November

WHERE: National Archeological Museum

“In Paper’s Night: Known and Unknown Drawings” by Nikos Houliaras

WHAT: The Benaki Museum pays tribute to artist Nikos Houliaras, whose oeuvre have rendered onlookers speechless for years. His drawings, which at first seem abstract, burst with soul and read like a personal diary. The exhibit will take you through a journey of memories, landscapes, and nighttime images, compiled from a recent discovery of Houliaras’ unreleased drawings, dating back to his time as a student at the Athens School of Fine Arts.

WHEN: September 19 – November 24

WHERE: The Ghika Gallery

Yiannis Moralis at the Benaki Museum

WHAT: Known as one of the greatest Greek artists of the 20th century, Yiannis Moralis was a wunderkind painter who focused his work on the female body. His paintings wove geometrical figures with a simple colour palette to portray women. With support of Moralis’ family, the Benaki Museum will showcase his work for more than three months.

WHEN: September 20 – January 5

WHERE: Benaki Museum

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