XpatAthens
Friday, 28 April 2017 11:06
The Uncomfortable Project By Greek Designer Katerina Kamprani
Katerina Kamprani is a young talented designer from Greece. Her 'Uncomfortable Project,' which started as a study of everyday objects and what makes them useful, went viral and has become a big success. The 'Uncomfortable' objects have been exhibited in Greece and abroad and few of them were used in an ad campaign for SMART.
Greek TV: What is the idea behind the Uncomfortables?
KK: The idea is to redesign everyday objects so they are uncomfortable to use, but not completely useless. The challenge is to make minor changes to the object so the user will recognize it, simulate the steps he needs to make in order to use it and then be surprised from the faulty design.
Greek TV: How did you come up with the idea of the Uncomfortable Project?
KK: First of all, I am a design enthusiast so I was always following blogs that showcase creative design or art projects with all sorts of unusual objects and I always wanted to do something of my own one day. After working a few years as an architect, I decided to begin a master’s degree on design. There I got familiar with the terms User Interaction and User Experience. I found out that the design process of an architect is quite different from that of an industrial designer which is very user-oriented. I never got to finish my studies and some months later I found myself drawing a sketch of an uncomfortable toilet room in a piece of paper while I was at work. I thought it would be hilarious to make uncomfortable objects and I tried to think of some more until I realized it was actually a challenge to break the established images I had for everyday objects. And then I got stuck. I had to think and design more!
To read this interview in full, please visit: Greek TV
To read this interview in full, please visit: Greek TV
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Monday, 08 May 2017 10:44
Meet Culture - When Greece Meets China
Meet Culture, the culture company founded in Athens, was invited by the Consulate General of Greece in Shanghai to attend the Reception of Greek National Day. Miao Bin – the Founder and CEO, Chang Jing – the Artistic Director and Zhang Di – the Music Director met with the Consul General Mr Vassilis Xiros in Yuyuan, Shanghai.
In August 2016, Meet Culture organized the Aegean Music Tour in China, including several cities such as Lishui, Chengdu, Nanjing, Wuxi and Shanghai. In the concert in Shanghai, Meet Culture invited Mr Vassilis Xiros to join the Chinese and Greek musicians with his bouzouki to perform the Greek traditional music. Since then, Meet Culture has kept close relationship with the Consulate on the culture projects.
Based on the great contribution to the culture exchange between Greece and China, Chang Jing was awarded the Cultural Ambassador by the Consulate General of Greece in Shanghai.
As said by Mr. Consul General, Music unites the two civilizations. Chang Jing has been contributing to the culture exchange between China and Thailand as the teacher of the Princess of Thailand, and now she devote her efforts to the relationship of Greece and China.
Chang Jing invited Miao Bin, the founder of Meet Culture, to the stage to present the gift from Meet Culture to the Consulate General. This is gift is the calligraphy from Mr Xie Qianhong, the calligrapher in Chengdu.
To read this article in full, please visit: Meet Culture
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Monday, 12 June 2017 22:47
Fulbright Greece Celebrates 70 Years Of Educational & Cultural Exchanges With US
Fulbright Greece is celebrating 70 years of educational and cultural exchanges between the Unites States and Greece!
The Fulbright Program is the premier international educational exchange program in the world. It was established in the United States in 1946 by Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. The Fulbright Foundation in Greece offers scholarships to Greek and American citizens – students, teachers, scholars, and artists – to pursue a wide variety of educational projects. Since 1948, more than 5,000 Greek and American citizens have received scholarships from the Fulbright Foundation in Greece to participate in US-Greece educational and cultural exchanges.
The Foundation awards grants to Greek and US citizens to study, teach, lecture, or conduct research in the United States and Greece respectively. Fulbright Greece collaborated with filmmaker, alumna Eirini Steirou and cinematographer Antonis Katrakazis to produce a series of portraits of US and Greek scholars, who share their Fulbright experience.
Breiana Pledger, English Teaching Fellow
“Education is life-changing, I‘ve seen it change lives. It changed my own”.
Breiana, with a background in psychology and experience in incarcerated youth education came to teach English in Greece, out of her love for Greek mythology. She believes that education has the power to change lives.
Elizabeth Duclos Orsello, Fulbright Scholar, Salem State University Professor
“Education is about opening your heart, opening your eyes, going into places, into thoughts, into experiences that are new”.
Elizabeth came to Greece with her teenage son, to teach American Studies in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and research on how the humanities and academy can deal with real issues people are facing today. She believes education has the power to make people and the world better.
To read this article in full and to watch the videos, please visit: Greek TV
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Tuesday, 11 July 2017 10:53
A Little Taste Of Home - Meet Ahmad Alssaleh
Meet Ahmad Alssaleh from Palmyra, Syria. Although he is only 31 and the youngest of ten children, he is not only unstoppable, he is about to celebrate the first anniversary of one of the most imaginative and best restaurants Culinary Backstreets has ever been to anywhere – not just Athens. His restaurant is called A Little Taste Of Home.
It all started back in 2009 when Alssaleh met Magda, a Greek girl who’d gone to Syria as a tourist. In those days he had been working in tourism himself, organizing “camping safaris” into the desert around the ruins of Palmyra on camelback and horseback and cooking traditional food for his groups. He was extremely successful and is even mentioned in foreign blogs about those happier days.
But happy as they were to be together, finding a job proved impossible in those early years of the “crisis,” and it took 18 months to get a residence permit.
“By now I had a little money, and I went to Poland, where a friend had a hostel for sale, but that didn’t work out. So instead I bought a five-room apartment near Omonia and rented it to refugees. This was when the border with Macedonia closed, and there was a housing shortage. All this time I wanted to open a café with Syrian snacks. Monastiraki was too expensive, but this place [in Gazi] was empty and affordable. Again it took many months to get the permit, and I needed more money to fix it up. My brother had an idea. He was among the refugees stuck at Idomeni, and he said, ‘Why don’t you bring up some bread from Athens? We can’t eat what they give us.’
To read the rest of Alssaleh’s inspiring story, please visit: Culinary Backstreets
Photo Credit: Manteau Stam for Culinary Backstreets
Photo Credit: Manteau Stam for Culinary Backstreets
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Monday, 18 September 2017 20:37
From-Hand-to-Hand - Greek Artisans & Craftsmen Rediscovered
There are professions that we thought were lost for long and totally replaced by industry. How many times did you have the chance to meet a saddler, a basket weaver, a sandal maker or a luthier? However, they survive away from the spotlight, because there are still people dedicated to craftsmanship either because they “inherited” it from their ancestors or because they have discovered it and developed it themselves.
Cultural worker and artist curator Laura Bernhardt and photographer Benjamin Tafel have created a project called from-hand-to-hand where they search, they document and they present to us still active craft workshops in Greece and the stories of their protagonists. According to their mission statement “the project examines their situation, their emotional relationship with their profession and their prospects. The result is a series of portraits that show the artisan in relation to his or her profession and the current situation of upheaval”. Here, Greek TV interviews Laura and Benjamin in order to learn what motivated them to initiate this project.
How did from-hand-to-hand start? What gave you the idea to begin?
Benjamin: The initial idea for this project was driven by our personal relationship to Greece. Both of us have been closely linked to Greece since our childhood. Over the last few years we have observed that craft workshops seem to be gradually disappearing. With this project we wanted to draw attention to something that is only sparsely visible.
Laura: And, also the ongoing economic crisis, the negative news about Greece have moved Benjamin and I to take a different perspective. We wanted to focus on the makers. Together we wanted to search for traces of still active craft workshops in Greece. Through dialogues with the craftspeople we wanted to examine their situation and their emotional relationship to their profession, their prospects and desires.
To read this article in full, please visit: Greek TV
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Tuesday, 20 February 2018 17:02
Echoes of Athens - A Taste Of Home In America
At the age of 16, Vivian Economy came to the U.S. from Kalamata. Her adopted country offered many more opportunities than her beloved Greece. The young woman missed ‘home’ and came up with an idea to bring some of her old home to her new home. In 1949, at the tender age of 18, she launched the very first Greek radio show in the Southeast.
‘Echoes of Athens was broadcast on WATL in Atlanta, GA for 50 years. Vivian’s daughter, Vickie Henson, the show’s current host, recalled those days. “The entire Atlanta Greek Community would rush home after church each Sunday to tune in. Imagine, my mother, the young woman, a trailblazer! Her listeners would find out the latest in the world of Greek news, politics, music, concerts, local community events. From marriages to deaths — she covered it all.”
When Vivian retired in the 1990s, there was a void in the community. Vickie took up the torch in recent years, armed with a new technology her mother would never know — the internet — which now allows ‘Echoes of Athens’ to be broadcast all over the world.
To read this article in full, please visit: Windy City Greek
Please click HERE to listen to Echoes Of Athens!
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Wednesday, 23 May 2018 17:06
How The Lost Art Of Traditional Cretan Weaving Is Making A Comeback
Alexandra Theohari, owner of KLOTHO, is reviving a traditional art of weaving in Crete by creating clothes, bags, and other objects using these techniques. Theohari and her team's designs are all handmade, with displays of motifs and patterns that symbolize classical Greece. Why Athens delves further into this lost art form and how Theohari is bringing it back.
"The entire production process occurs in Klotho’s studio which was set up in Rethymno to support the local economy. To be true to this ancient practice, products are handmade, producing short run collections or on demand."
Alexandra says, “The process is done in the traditional weaving method. It’s not a motorised process at all. The pattern is chosen and woven on the traditional wooden looms as we remembered them from our grandmothers.”
To read this article in full, please visit: Why Athens
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Sunday, 16 September 2018 12:31
Dimitris - From Law student In The UK To Multi-Entrepreneur And Founder Of TEDxAthens
Dimitris was born and raised in Athens, studied in the UK and decided to come back to Greece to try-out entrepreneurship. He now is a successful multi-entrepreneur with a plethora of start-ups in the tech world all with the underlying passion of uniting people.
5 Things About Dimitris
- Easily bored
- Tech lover
- People person
- Decisions made on gut feel
- Thrives on content creation
I was born and raised in Athens in a family of lawyers. At the age of 11, I had built my first website with technology and gaming news. This was back in 1998, pre the dot.com boom. I was in love with technology from a very young age.
I was sure I belonged in the tech world but a law degree felt like the best choice as I believed that law would be a good basis for anything entrepreneurial I would want to pursuit. I guess that was partly a belief that I got from my parents of course.
“I love meeting new people and exchanging views; social interaction is vital to a live a fulfilling life for me.”
In my final year of my Bachelor’s degree I came across the announcement of TED opening up the TEDx-licenses. I immediately applied for a license and got it. I was a 21-year-old student at the time with no prior experience in anything to do with events. I organized my first TEDx-event in Athens a few months later for about a 100 people. I had no clue what I was doing and I can honestly say it was quite a failure. When I finished my Master’s degree a year later I felt that somehow, I had to save my reputation. I came back to Greece to do my second TEDx-event and had given myself 6 to 9 months to pursuit either law or do something entrepreneurial. I never left Greece.
“The financial crisis is a big excuse for all of us. We like to say “It’s not me. It’s the situation.”
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Sunday, 16 September 2018 12:41
Sophie Ravier – From PR Girl In France To Yoga Mama In Greece
Sophie left her high-flying PR career in Paris to settle on her paradise island Sifnos from where she set up The Yoga Mama Club – a boutique event company organizing yoga retreats in Greece and across Europe.
5 Things To Know About Sophie Ravier
- Relentlessly optimistic
- Spiritual junkie
- Happy Gypsy
- Yoga Mama
- Endless wonderer about life
Back in 2013 though, something changed. On paper my life was perfect; glamorous meetings across the globe, beautiful events, great money, a rewarding boss and company, cool friends and living in Paris! Inside me however, I was bored and felt totally empty. Was this my life for the rest of my life?
The process was about a full year of endless boredom and feeling pretty depressed until I decided to follow the Eat-Pray-Love plan, wondering if indeed, you can follow your guts? The question left for me was "where do I go?". I was supposed to head to Buenos Aires but as life has its own way of leading you, my plans got re-arranged and I ended up visiting Sifnos. As I stayed for some time on the island and started chatting away with locals there, I had to embrace the fact this was where I really belonged.
It didn't make any sense and it was very irrational. People around me questioned my choice, as I truly had no idea what I was going to do on a tiny Greek island, disconnected from all.
GET €100 discount on Sophie’s Yoga Mama Retreat 30 Sept – 6 Oct 2018 in Sifnos.
Use the discount code: XPATATHENS. For more info and bookings – click here.
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Tuesday, 30 June 2020 14:02
Avgi – The Girl That Turned A Butchery Shop Into The Hippest Vegan Athenian Hotspot
Avgi grew up in Athens, studied Linguistics on Rhodes island and Bucharest. When she was a little girl, she had two passions; foreign languages and coffee. Her dad bought an espresso coffee machine for our home with a book full of coffee recipes, which triggered her curiosity and passion for preparing coffee for others.
As Avgi got older, she started working in coffee businesses, learning more about the world and the art of coffee. As much as she loved her studies, Avgi didn't see herself pursuing a career in linguistics, so she moved to London to work in hospitality and specifically in, of course, coffee.
5 Things To Know About Avgi
• Optimistic
• Communicative
• Honest (literally she cannot lie for a damn thing)
• Patient
• Sleepaholic
• Communicative
• Honest (literally she cannot lie for a damn thing)
• Patient
• Sleepaholic
I did thorough research in London to learn the craft of coffee from the best in the city, which led me to Campbell & Syme. They offered me a job, and I was lucky to learn from such knowledgeable, passionate, professional, and kind-hearted people. They taught me the art of coffee, but they also allowed me to taste entrepreneurship by giving me a manager position after some time. They have been my biggest mentors and the catalysts for me to start my own business. We are still great friends with the guys. After two and a half years working in London, my boyfriend and I decided it was time to leave the big city and travel. Simon and I went with just a one-way ticket to Bangkok and were dedicated to explore and follow the flow of life. We traveled around, organized chef's tables, worked here and there in hospitality, and generally allowed our minds to wander. While in London, we actually daydreamed of our own business. We had the name already and had turned Vegan. Since we thought that a vegan business wouldn't work in Greece at that point in time, we let the idea ripen in our heads and went on with our lives. Then the day came when we started imagining, creating images in our minds of what this place could look like and be…
Avgi runs AVIT, one of the hippest vegan cafes in town!
Read Avgi's full inspiring story on Guts & Tales.
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