INCEPTION is the artist's first solo exhibition.

The artist presents 21 artworks, in transparent film on Plexiglas, related to the inner journey, memories, dreams and in the forgotten inner self.

Ultimate purpose is, the spark of a thought, the activation of an integrated human existence.

The title is a reference point of the script by the well-known director C.Nolan, where in the new millennium our imagination travels through into spacetime, turning body into matter and thought into energy.

Ioannis Kountouris was born in Athens in 1988. He studied Direction, Creative Writing and Photography. From 2007 until 2011, Ioannis worked as a radio producer and participated in numerous video clips as a director, lighting director, photography director and scenography director at Boston University.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday: 11:00 – 15:00


The Gallery will not be open on Tuesday, June 5 and on Thursday, June 7.

An original cultural festival for kids in the Athens Concert Hall Garden!

Bobos Arts Festival is a cultural festival designed for children from 3 to 12 years old, which is organized yearly in Athens and which is for the first time being presented in the beautiful garden of the Athens Concert Hall on Sunday the 10th of June.

Music, theater, visual arts and creative play in a big celebration for the children, culture and the arts!Its program runs throughout the day and presents a wide variety of carefully selected cultural shows, which aim to familiarize children with the arts and offer quality entertainment to the entire family. 

Wear your hats, pick up your picnic rugs and come spend exciting moments full of play in the Athens Concert Hall’s green garden.

The festival’s program includes:

- Burger Project "A Crazy Concert": The band’s new interactive play-concert for children and imaginative adults.
- “Agisilagos”: A musical puppet tale by Dimitris Baslam.  A story for a rabbit cook and his adventures, who is interpreted and animated with lots of imagination and humor, accompanied by live music.
- “The Much Feared Enemy and The Chained Elephant”: Two stories by Jorge Bucay, interpreted by the award-winning Topi theatrical team. A play about the values of life, made with a great deal of humor and interaction.
- “Isol’s stories”: An interactive narrative, played by the awarded theatrical team Kopernikos, based on the work of the renowned Argentine writer and illustrator Isol (Martis Editions), on her first visit to Greece.
- A series of imaginative shows by La Petite Marguerite (bubble show), Alex de Paris (pantomime) and Motus Terrae (interactive happening).

Along with the main program, a series of parallel workshops and events will be taking place throughout the day:

- British Council Kid’s corner “Playing with words”: Through various educational games, children will come into contact with some of the world's languages, highlighting the importance of learning foreign languages while sharpening their memory and linguistic skills.
- “Little archaeologists, great discoveries” by Archaeolab: An original workshop that resembles the process of an archaeological excavation. 
- “Melodist” by Peripatos Cultural Company: A workshop inspired by the sounds of summer. 
- “Isol’s arts workshop” by Martis Editions: A workshop inspired by the work of the renowned writer and illustrator Isol. 
- “Prints of color” by Me Ligi Fantasia Company: A colorful creative workshop in which children create their own unique designs on fabric, using colorful …potato prints.

The festival is presented by the actor Yannis Sarakatsanis

Greece is the ultimate summer holiday destination, with stunning beaches, Mediterranean cuisine, unique shopping, and incredible experiences. Some places might be more popular than others, from Mykonos to Antiparos to Athens, but below are secret spots where the locals go. Forbes gets the inside scoop on where to go, stay, eat, and what to do in some of the most well-known destinations of Greece.

"Just a hike down Philopappou Hill, Ano Petralona is the neighborhood to be if you want to feel like a local Athenian. The tavernas, bars and restaurants do not only offer some of best affordable menus, but the cocktails and music also make this area a popular destination."

Ilias Lalounis Jewelry Museum

"While the most iconic jewelry house in Greece might be globally praised, the museum — which is housed in the old workshop of the master Ilias Lalounis — is often overlooked when visiting Athens. Under the shadows of the Acropolis, the incredible space is run by Lalaounis’s daughter Ioanna, who is launching a number of initiatives to help cultivate new talent. Call ahead and organize a private tour."

"Lake Vouliagmenis is located along the coast and is the starting point for the stunning drive known as “Limanakia” meaning small ports. Because of its constant warm water temperature and its rich content in hydrogen sulphide, the lake functions as a spa since the end of the 19th century."

For many more recommendations and to read this article in full, please visit: Forbes

Operating under a new ecological program titled 'Sea Change,' the Municipality of Sikinos, along with the Sea Change ecology organization and the Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation, will be the first in the Greek islands to ban the use of plastic straws, replacing them with biodegradable ones. These will be donated by the foundation.

The Municipality of Sikinos is the first to invite all businesses and residents of the island to commit to changing their habits and helping reduce global pollution. The goal of the Sea Change program is to ultimately protect the marine environment.

 

Over the next couple of months, the Sea Change program will begin on other islands in the Cyclades.

Source: Greek Reporter

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

FokiaNou Art Space is pleased to welcome and host Video Art Miden in a four-day video art event that takes place on June 2018. Sophia Grigoriadou, Margarita Stavraki and Panagiotis Voulgaris, curate a screening program of 25 selected video, submitted at the recent open call that was held by Video Art Miden

.Sofia Grigoriadou presents a series of videos focusing on in between situations and spaces. Some of them are concerned with what is promoted and what is silenced in public urban space, while others suggest transitions that reflect on and disrupt  both polarities and boundaries between private and public, familiar and unfamiliar, monumental and the anti-monument.

Participants: Aurèle Ferrier, Di Hu, Wojciech Gilewicz, François Roux, Przemek Wegrzyn.

The selection by Margarita Stavraki explores the autonomy of narrative elements and their reconnection in a video art selection. In these videos the object, the gesture and the space become art works on their own. Sometimes they deny their narrative role, sometimes they just insinuate it, and at others they serve it poetically.

Participants: Mircea Bobina, Eleonora Roaro, Hanna Schaich, Irini Folerou, Anna Macdonald, Hamza Kırbas, John C. Kelley, Cat Del Buono, Mauricio Sanhueza, François Roux, Collin Bradford, François Roux & Mathieu Bouillod, Marcia Beatriz Granero. 

Panagiotis Voulgaris selects and places a series of videos that focus on everyone's special sound. A sequence of intense mechanical sounds and silences, seductive murmurs and war cries, exotic songs and electro-acoustic music decrypts the notion of place as paradise, dystopia, fragment and poetry, leading the viewer into an exciting audio-visual endeavour.

Participants: Di Hu, Randomproject300, Hana Ben-Haim Yulzeri, Jack Williams, Luca Ferri, Susanne Wiegner, Nenad Nedeljkov.

Miden is an independent organization for the exploration and promotion of video art. Founded by an independent group of Greek artists in 2005, it has been one of the earliest specialized video-art festivals in Greece and created an international festival identity, presenting an annual video art festival for a decade. Since 2015, Miden continues its work changing its form to a more flexible and broadened event programming, setting as basic aims to stimulate the creation of original video art, to help spread it and develop relevant research. Art direction: Gioula Papadopoulou and Margarita Stavraki.

FoKiaNou Art Space is an artist-run project space in the intimacy of a small apartment in an old building in the center of Athens.  The apartment has been transformed into an open space that encourages collaborative creative efforts between Greek and foreign artists, thereby promoting and supporting the local art community.  The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris.  

Closing  Party: Saturday 9th of June 2018 at 20.00.

Greece isn't just for the adults or small children. Greece can be a great destination for your teenagers, too! There are plenty of activities suitable for families with teens, including outdoor sports, cultural attractions, and the beach. From Kids Love Greece, here are some of the top activities to do with your teenagers!

Admire The Colorful Street Art

Athens is known for its vibrant street art scene, and many travel from far to discover this unique form of art that young people have used for years as a way to express themselves in a climate of economic turmoil. As the art is constantly changing, you will get to see fascinating and politically-charged graffiti and colorful designs that will surely interest your kids (and maybe end up on your teen’s phone as a screen saver).

Explore The Greek Outdoors

Get Active With An Array Of Sports

Kids and teenagers have a lot of energy, and being in the country where the Olympic Games were born is an excellent excuse to tap into that overabundance of energy to put it to good use! Most of the popular destinations in Greece have tennis courts, swimming pools, water parks, surf centers, windsurfing, and more!

To read this article in full, please visit: Kids Love Greece

According to the most recent Expat Insider Survey, Greece is listed as the number one country for those looking for a sunny escape. Expats who are searching for an outdoor lifestyle in prime weather conditions should also consider Portugal, Spain, Costa Rica, Uganda, South Africa, and a few others.

The expats who are living in the top 10 countries ideal for sun moved for a variety of reasons, including to search for a better quality of life, love, a partner's job or education, or being sent abroad by an employer. According to the survey, at least 3/4 of expats felt that the climate and weather in these countries was a potential benefit before they made the move.

Greek City Times notes, "Almost all expats (96%) rate the climate and weather in Greece positively. Sunny skies appear to brighten expats’ spirits, as 15% state that the main reason why they moved to Greece was for a better quality of life. On average, only 8% worldwide have moved abroad for this reason.

Article source: Greek City Times

There’s so much more to Athens than what meets the eye and travel writer Rebecca Hall, who has lived in Athens for 10 years, shares her inside scoop for visiting the city!

Acropolis and Parthenon

We all know the Acropolis and Parthenon are two very famous places to visit in Athens.  One of my insider’s tips, though, is to actually go to just below the entrance of the Acropolis, where you’ll see some metal steps, as well as rough, slippery steps carved out of the rocks.  Ascend either (only a short climb, but wear trainers if you’re going up the rock steps as they really are slippery, even in dry weather due to being cut out of marble), and join others to sit and admire the 360 degree of Athens and all the way down to the port of Piraeus and further still, the nearby islands.  At sunset it’s spectacular.  Best of all, it’s free.

Not everybody’s into archeology, and I respect that.  It’s pretty hard to come to Greece, especially Athens – however, and not be confronted with archeology at almost every turn. It’s just there, which is kind of wonderful if you think about it, in this day and age.This insider tip for visiting Athens is clever in that you don’t actually have to pay to go to a museum…and it’s unique in that it’s located actually inside a Metro/Underground station – in the ticket hall! For more information on the underground exhibitions, click HERE.

To read this article in full, please visit: Life Beyond Borders

TripAdvisor recently named Aegean Airlines 'Best Airline in Europe for 2018,' but it's their new 'Gastronomics' initiative that caught the eye of popular news source, Forbes. 

As part of the new initiative, the airline's wine consultant, Konstantinos Lazarakis, is teaming up with three notable Greek chefs, Lefteris Lazarou, Christoforos Peskias, and Stelios Parliaros, to create more than 40 dishes showcasing local flavors from Crete, Naxos, the Peloponnese, and more.

While Aegean Airlines have offered Greek flavors in-flight for years (since 2010, more than 450,000 bottles of wine from 85 Greek wineries and various local products from 50 Greek producers have been offered), it's the addition of the renowned chefs that will give Aegean some "serious Hellenic gastronomic muscle."

As Forbes states, "Lazarou was awarded a Michelin star for his gourmet restaurant Varoulko Seaside in Piraeus. Parliaros is Greece's leading pastry chef. Stepping into his Sweet Alchemy establishment in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens is a feast for the senses. Cypriot-born Peskias trained under Ferran Adrià and Mark Menaux. Lazarakis, for whom 'Greek wines, for at least a decade, are among the best of the planet' curates the onboard wine list."

To read this article in full, please visit: Forbes

 

Photo source: Wikipedia

For the 6th consecutive year, Athens Cultural Network and City of Athens Cultural, Sports and Youth Organization welcome musicophile residents and visitors of the city to the well-established Athens Gardens Festival at the National Garden.

8th, 9th and 10th June the National Garden turns into an open stage with 8 special concerts for adults and children to enjoy cool music evenings until sunset, with free admission

National Garden Festival Schedule:

Friday 8 June 2018

Opening at 18:30 (central stage - Asteri place, entrance from Vassilisis Amalias Ave)

19:00 City of Athens Choir 

20:00 Hellenic Musica Viva Orchestra - Ludmila Limorova

Saturday 9 June
(2nd stage – Beside the playground, from Irodou Attikou St)

18:00 DILEMMA in cinema sounds(central stage - Asteri place, entrance from Vassilisis Amalias Ave)

19:00 City of Athens Philharmonic Orchestra

20:00 Encardia

Sunday 10 June 2018
(2nd stage – Beside the playground, from Irodou Attikou St)

18:00 Athens Music High School Choir(central stage - Asteri place, entrance from Vassilisis Amalias Ave)

19:00 Childre and  Youth Symphony Orchestra - Nina Patrikidou

20:00 City of Athens Symphony Orchestra