eikastiko

is the initiative of a group of artists, curators and cultural agents, building an infrastructure and a network to foster the presentation of Greek contemporary art internationally, with focus on the exchange between Greece and Germany.

PROJECTS

  • {The} Time is NOW - Exhibition at Kunstverein Neukölln, Mainzer Str 42, 12053 Berlin, Sept 2-24, 2023

    Eric Meier, Hara Piperidou, curated by Katja Ehrhardt
    Exhibition in the framework of the program Wunderkammer of Neuköllner Oper Berlin

  • AthenSYN II: GOING VIRAL Exhibition and Symposium for Contemporary Greek Art in Berlin, 21 Jan-3 March 2022

    14 artistic positions of generation Y at STEINZEIT Galerie, Kottbusser Str. 11, 10999 Berlin

  • Room to Bloom: Ecofeminist Artist Workshops, 25-30 June, 2021



    At Akadimia Platonos, Villa Araucaria, Athens, and Online

  • Athen SYN I: Festival & Exhbition of Contemporary Greek Art in Berlin, Nov 15, 2019 - Feb 1, 2020

    HOMEMADE EXOTICA, 16 contemporary Greek artists curated by Sotirios Bahtsetzis at FREIRAUM in der Box, Berlin

  • Co-Creating Urban Future, A project on the Athens-Berlin axis, April 11-13, 2019

    With microgeorgraphies, SOMA (Scattered Open Museums Athens) with film projections by Matthias Coers and Eleni Tzirtzilaki

  • What makes us European? Writers from Greece, France, Germany in dialogue, May 3, 2018

    With Mathieu Larnaudie, Christos Oikonomou, Julia Schoch, Danai Sioziou, and Giannis Skaragas

  • Universitas at Museum of World Cultures, Gothenburg, Nov 11, 2017

    Exhibition of selected works from Universitas by Manaf Halbouni, Kalliopi Vagiannaki, Joulia Strauss, Yorgos Maraziotis and Ahmad Alkhatieb

  • Presentation of Krytyka Polityczna Athens at Kyiv Biennale, Nov 1, 2017

    The Athenian edition of Krytyka Polityzcna, edited by Joulia Strauss, on issues of migration and education

  • Exhibition at Transeuropa Festival in Matadero Centre for Contemporary Art Madrid, Oct 25-29, 2017

    UNIVERSITAS group show on visions towards a transnational Europe

  • The School of Everything with documenta14 Kassel June 11-13, 2017

    A Symposion bringing together artists, theoreticians and reformers who act within and invent new educational formats, understood as research-based activist works of art..

  • UNIVERSITAS group exhibition Apr 7 - May 7, 2017

    A group exhibition on the subject of migration and learning with artists from Syria, Greece, and Germany, curated by Sotirios Bahtsetzis, based on artistic workshops curated by Katja Ehrhardt.

  • Universitas workshops, Feb 16-28, 20017

    Artists from Syria, Greece and Germany offer creative storytelling workshops to migrants and Athenians to develop a vision of our common future.

  • Art as Remedy? Cultural work and the refugee 'criisis', Oct 24, 2016

    Avtonomi Akadimia, AthenSYN, and Athens Biennale organize an evening of presentations and a moderated public discussion on the role of art in the so-called "Refugee Crisis".

  • Now: How artists interpret the contemporary, June 17-19, 2016

    A gathering in Piraeus, the harbor of Athens, a focal point for the events currently unfolding in Europe, to discuss literature and its role in understanding, interpreting and resisting certain “dystopian” social and political conditions..

  • Re-Volt Athens – Neukoellner Oper Berlin, November 6/7, 2016

    A musical performance with new media by Elli Papakonstantinou. REVOLT Athens - an impressionistic journey through the sociopolitical problems of Athens today, in a crisis which is pan-european.

  • SCALE #1:100 @ sixrono theatro, April 16–19 & 23–26, 2016
     

    A dance festival where the arts meet with the body as their center focus. Thoughts on dance and its social organization. A current discussion that was developed in the last 15 years in San Francisco, California.

  • Saloniki - Reinventing Diversity, Thessaloniki town hall, June 3–5, 2015

    A literary conference on the issue of emigration organized by the Municipality of Thessaloniki, literary magazine Entevktirion, Allianz Cultural Foundation, Literary Colloquium Berlin & Goethe Institute.

  • athensyn studio exchange programme icon go

    AthenSYN artists’ studio exchange program

    Interested to swap your studio with another artist for a set duration of time? Join the AthenSYN artists’ exchange program.

  • Thoughts meet space Athens by Claudia Bosse / theatercombinat, Oct 21-25, 2014

    The German artist Claudia Bosse is temporarily based in Athens with her project “Some Democratic Fictions” which is constantly being enriched along the way.

  • AthenSYN festival of Contemporary Greek art

    A festival of Contemporary Greek Art with theater, dance, fine art, and music in Athens, Thessaloniki and Berlin.

EVENTS

  • 16 APR

    SCALE #1:100 opening event: Out of scale

    A unique collaboration of creators in performance especially designed for SCALE #1:100. A microcosm that has its own anarchy but it does not collapse, it keeps always “on”.

  • 10 JAN

    Reinterpreting ancient traditions @ bhive

    We invite you to an evening of performances with Prumsodun Ok, Stavros Apostolatos, Yannis Adoniou and DJ Spy-K.

  • 7 DEC

    AthenSYN Open House
    @ bhive

    We invite you to the inauguration party for the launch of AthenSYN, where we’ll be offering you an appetizer of artistic co-creation and the opportunity to participate in the initiative.

OPEN CALLS

We publish open calls for projects in Greece and internationally.

Current calls
Mediterranean Bodies Exhibition

Open call for collaborative artistic works for the exhibition Mediterranean Bodies, relating (public) space, body, digital arts and new media. The exhibition is a parallel action of The Underwater Heart of the Mediterranean, a European cultural, educational and environmental project about the Mediterranean and performance arts. Application deadline 15 July 2015! Find out more

Neon Curatorial Exchange

The Curatorial Exchange Program for Young Curators is an initiative of Neon in partnership with Whitechapel Gallery, and offers the opportunity to young curators based in Greece and the UK to be introduced to the diverse Athens and London art scene respectively, to connect with colleagues abroad, exchange ideas and experience. Find out more

Lubomirov-Easton Limited Editions

Lubomirov-Easton are looking to select a large number of new works for their Limited Editions Collection, future shows and art fairs. No digital selection – all works viewed in situ. Application deadline 26 February 2015! Application form

Dance Research NRW 2015

The NRW KULTURsekretariat is offering 6–12 week performing arts residencies for dancers, choreographers and performers. These are to be used for thematic research projects, which should not be focused on a production. The research period runs from August to November 2015. The findings of each project will be presented at public events. Application ends 15 February 2015! Find out more

Tanzquartier Wien
Werkstueck 2015: Reality Check

Project for the development and presentation of young choreographic works at the Tanzquartier Wien. This season the Vienna-based director Yosi Wanunu will be mentoring the development process up until the performances in June 2015. Application ends October 27! Application form

IMPACT14

IMPACT14 is aimed at artists, advanced students, academics and journalists working in the fields of dance, theatre, art, media art, film and music. Applications can be sent in till the 23rd of October, limited number of 35 participants. Find out more

ABOUT

Through the curation, organisation, and support of festivals, exhibitions, dance and theater performances of Greek contemporary art, we want to facilitate a wider understanding and knowledge of Greek contemporary art abroad and intensify the network with international partners. Our focus is especially on new developments in theater, dance, performance art, visual art, video art, digital art and mixed forms.

We support international artist collaboration with Greece, offering information, networking and project coordination as needed. We establish contacts between institutions and individual cultural agents while creating joint projects, which benefit audiences in the participating countries. In Greece, we introduce platforms for presentation of contemporary art in order to reach wider audiences and strengthen networks within the country. The aim is to jointly devise ideas and ways to implement them, create joint cultural exchange policies, enhance long-lasting cooperations between cultural and educational institutions, and foster art students’ and art instructors’ mobility and mutual training.

The contact and closer knowledge will establish the basis of an exchange, which will not only promote the collaboration between artists and institutions, but create the foundations for mutual understanding and friendship. We intend to raise awareness to old and new audiences towards the context of contemporary art as a forum for dialogue, mutual exchange between actors and audiences from different cultural backgrounds, long-lasting international cooperation, and room for critical discussion of the cultural evolution of Europe.

FOUNDERS
Sotirios Bahtsetzis
Katja Ehrhardt

Sotirios Bahtsetzis holds a PhD on Art History (Technical University of Berlin): He teaches history of art at the European Culture Program of the Hellenic Open University and at the Frances Rich School of Fine and Performing Arts of the Deree - The American College of Greece. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar at the Columbia University, N.Y., taught at Patras University, University of Thessalia (Greece), at London Metropolitan University (UK) and did research at the Athens School of Fine Arts, Greece. Curatorial work includes “SelfConscious” (2014) an exhibition on the impact of new media, “Roaming Images” (2011), an exhibition on image in contemporary Arab culture, “Paint-id” (2009), an exhibition on contemporay painting in Greece, “Women Only” (2008), the first survey exhibition on post-feminism in Greece, “Open Plan 2007”, the first international curatorial project of the Athens Art fair and the exhibition “An Outing” (2006), the first major exhibition on Greek art in the 21st century.

Born and raised in Germany, Katja Ehrhardt completed an M.A. specializing in Performance Theory in Anthropology and Modern and Classical Indology at the University of Heidelberg. She lived, studied, and worked in the United States, Japan, India, Bermuda, Thailand, Nepal, Malaysia, Israel, and Hong Kong. In Germany, she worked in arts management, international project coordination and research i.a. at the University of Heidelberg, at Pruess & Ochs Gallery Berlin (Asian Fine Arts), at the German Academic Exchange (DAAD), at the House of World Cultures Berlin, and at the Goethe Institute. In Athens, she built up, organized, and managed the cultural program at the Athens Centre for University programs from abroad, working together with cultural institutions and embassies in Athens. Before working with Athens, Greece, she coordinated and co-curated the cultural program of the Asia-Pacific Weeks at the Senate Chancellery Berlin and the House of World Cultures Berlin.

BOARD
Yannis Adoniou
Tzeni Argyriou
Joulia Strauss
Yorgos Maraziotis

Born in Athens, Greece, Yannis Adoniou, a Goldie Award winning art maker, is the co-founder and the Artistic director of the critically acclaimed dance company KUNST-STOFF. A renowned choreographer and a master teacher, he choreographs and conducts classes/workshops across the United States and Europe. In 2010 Adoniou founded KUNST-STOFF arts, a studio/art space located in downtown San Francisco U.S.A.. Yannis Adoniou curates and organizes the performances and artistic teams for Stoffwechsel – Metabolism Festival, Berlin. www.kunst-stoff.org

Tzeni Argyriou is a choreographer and performance/media artist, focusing on the dialogue between performance art and new media. A graduate of the State School of Dance, Athens, she collaborated with international group companies in New York. In 2003, she co-founded the non profit company amorphy.org as an collaborative platform for innovative performances and hybrid installations. Her work has been supported by Stadsdeel Zuid, Greek Ministry of Culture, European Union ‘Culture 2000’, Goethe Institut, British Council, Virtual Museum – Amsterdam, Athens Festival, Benaki Museum, CAMP- Athens, Kalamata Dance Festival, PACT Zollverein Essen-Germany, InteractionsLabor Media Lab-Germany, Lugar Comum-Portugal, Try Angle Marseilles-France, Fringe Festival-N.Y.C etc.. She is the co founder of ‘DoBeDo‘ a mobile platform of artistic meetings on stage and ‘Silent Moves’ a mobile platform of silent films and live music/sound interaction.www.amorphy.org

Joulia Strauss stands for adisciplinary art and for the unity of technology, science, activism and art in Berlin and Athens. She creates sculptural systems as political models based on ancient structures of knowledge, but anarchically further develops those with the simulation technologies. Strauss studied at the New Academy of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg and University of Fine Arts, Georg Baselitz class, in Berlin (Master, President’s Prize). Her sculptures, paintings, performances, drawings, videos, were presented at solo exhibitions such as: “Modulating Politics“, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Switzerland, 2011, “Welcome to the Mediterranean Basin“, Beton7 Gallery, Athens, 2010, “Cat-Notation“, COMA Gallery, Berlin, 2008, “Medienspiritismus. Videokabinet“, Guelman Gallery, Moscow, 2003, “Virtual Kingdom of Beauty“, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, 2000, and were shown in group exhibitions, among others, and multiple times in-part, at Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, NY, Tirana Biennale, Oostende Museum of Modern Art, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Esther M. Klein Art Gallery, Philadelphia, Wolfsburger, Fraknfurter, Hamburger Kunstvereins, 2nd Athens Biennale, Fourth Moscow Biennale, Tate Modern, London, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe. In collaboration with Peter Weibel and Friedrich Kittler †, Joulia Strauss currently works on a book “Gods and Writing around the Mediterranean“, Wilhelm Fink Publishing. Together with Daniel Mützel she has recently edited a special issue “Global Activism“ of the magazine Krytyka Polityczna.

Born in 1984, in Athens (GR), Yorgos Maraziotis is an MA graduate of the Royal Academy in Antwerp. He studied Silkscreen at the School Of Visual Arts in New York City and holds a First Class degree in Visual Arts from the Wolverhampton University. As an artist, he uses various media such as sculpture, installation, painting and publications and often works in thematic series. Since 2008, he has been a member of the participatory-art group November.His work has been exhibited in group and solo shows internationally, in galleries, art institutions and museums such as Marres House for Contemporary Culture in Maastricht, Museum Tinguely, AC Institute New York City, 7th Thessaloniki Biennale, School Of Visual Arts NY, Royal Academy Antwerp, CICA Museum South Korea, Benaki Museum Athens, Matadero Madrid, Box Freiraum Berlin, The American College in Greece and Santorini Arts Factory, among others.He was a resident artist at MASS MoCA (MA, USA), at Isadora Duncan Dance Research Center (Greece) and at the Centre des Arts de La Rue (France). He currently lives and works in Antwerp.

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