Summer in Greece is beautiful, but it's not a piece of cake! Here are some useful tips on how to protect yourself from the scorching Greek sun and of course... mosquitoes! 

On July 7th, we celebrate 12 years of connecting the international community with inspiring stories, news and great happenings in Athens and across Greece! We'd like to thank our entire team, our contributors, partners, media sponsorships and especially all of YOU for being part of our incredible journey. Cheers to many more!

Whether an Athenian or new to the city, there's always something fascinating to explore! From the best Sushi places in town to the best beach bars for those who enjoy nightlife and beautiful beaches, this week's newsletter has something for every taste!

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Most of us already know Nikos Vatopoulos as a journalist and as the Chief Editor of Culture at Kathimerini newspaper and not as a book author. Born and bred in Athens, Vatopoulos' path to adulthood was inevitably intertwined with the city's constant development. It is his exploration and experiences of Athens that unravel in his newest book, Walking in Athens.

Published by Metaixmio, Walking in Athens is a collection of articles accompanied by stunning photos through which we will get to know Athens and its fascinating synthesis of urban elements. 

It speaks about an ever-developing society, an evolving civilization, and the history of the city's communities. Walking in Athens discloses hidden urban myths and reveals the fascinating history of an entire century, right before our eyes.

 

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To learn more about this award-winning book, please click here.

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Art Athina 2019 returns for the 24th year in a brand new venue in the heart of Athens. The biggest annual cultural event of Greece will take place between Saturday 14th to Monday 16th of September at Zappeion Mansion.

Art Athina 2019 is organized under the auspices of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mister Prokopios Pavlopoulos, who is set to inaugurate the fair on Friday, 13th September at 19:30.

Art Athina 2019 involves participation from 36 Greek and international galleries. Its new host, Zappeion Mansion, is strongly associated with Culture, Sports and recent Greek History. It constitutes the first building to be erected for the purposes of the modern Olympic Games, while it is also considered a milestone of Greek Neoclassical architecture. One specific section of this year’s fair, VIDEO, will find a home under the Athenian night sky, within the oldest cinema of Athens, Aegli Zappeiou.

One of the oldest art fairs in Europe, Art Athina has been active since its establishment by the Panhellenic Art Galleries Association in 1993 and is organised by the Hellenic Art Gallery Association and produced by Be Best production company.

The program is as follows:

Main: The central section of the exhibition spreads in the main spaces of Zappeion Mansion, where local and international galleries present their booths.

Video: The screening is curated by Art Athina Artistic Director, Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos. It involves video works selected from Daata Editions, a platform that commissions artist videos, sound, poetry and web to a new generation of artists who work with moving image and sound, Deste Foundation as well as independent Greek and international artists. The screening will take place at Aegli open–air cinema on Monday, September 16th at 9pm

Talks: For a second year, independent curator Katerina Nikou, invites significant individuals from the international art community – museum directors, curators, art historians – to join Art Athina 2019’s TALKS program. Central axis of this year’s program is the question “The Future is Now?”.

Live: A performance program by visual artists fueled by the participating galleries of Art Athina 2019 and will take place throughout the duration of the Art Fair in multiple sites at Zappeion Mansion. It is a three-day programming initiative, curated by Sozita Goudouna, that showcases “New Visual Performance” experimentation and liveness and their implications for cultural production. 

Educational Program: The program is addressed to students of the Athens School of Fine Arts, visual artists and theoreticians, and aims to inform, inspire, and prepare their introduction to the art world. Students are invited to meet with the artwork, learning the process from production to exposure. The programme consists of two sections, visits to studios of artists and visits to galleries.

Art Athina Workspace: Art Athina continues for a second year the international two-month artist residency, with the support of the Municipality of Athens and Athens Culture Net. Through Art Athina Workspace two artists, Neil Raitt from the United States and Dale Lewis from Britain were invited to spend four weeks in Athens seeking inspiration in the city and creating the works that were presented at the international program of Art Athina Summer Pop Up.

Art Athina Open Studios: For one Saturday each month, from January to May 2019, Art Athina invites the Young Patrons of the Museum of Cycladic Art to studio visits with artists represented by the participating galleries of the fair. Art Athina Open Studios offers a unique opportunity to the Young Patrons to meet the artists in their working environment and familiarize with their practice.

The galleries participating in the 24th Art Athina:

a. antonopoulou.art (Athens), Agathi Kartalos (Athens), Alibi (Athens), Alma Contemporary Art Gallery (Athens- Trikala), Anna Pappas Gallery (Μελβούρνη), Argo Gallery (Athens), Αrt Appel Gallery (Athens), Arusha Gallery (Scotland), Astrolavos Art Galleries (Athens), Cheapart (Athens), Citronne Gallery (Athens), Crux Gallerie (Athens), Donopoulos International Fine Arts (Thessaloniki), ekfrasi-yianna Grammatopoulou (Athens), Eleftheria Tseliou Gallery (Athens), Eleni Koroneou Gallery (Athens), Epsilon Art Gallery (Loutraki), Evripidis Art Gallery (Athens), Gallery “7” (Athens), Gallery Art Prisma (Pireaus), Gallery d’ Arte (New Jersey) Genesis Gallery (Athens), i-D Projectart (Athens), Ikastikos Kiklos Sianti (Athens), Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Center (Athens), Kalfayan Galleries (Athens-Thessaloniki), kaplanon5 art gallery (Athens), Mihalarias Art (Athens), N, Papatzikou Gallery (Veria), PeriTechnon Karteris (Athens), Renatino Gallery (Cyprus), Skoufa Gallery (Athens), Skoufa Gallery Mykonos (Mykonos), Τechnohoros  Art Gallery (Athens), The Breeder Gallery (Athens), Zina Athanassiadou Gallery (Thessaloniki). 

Tickets are 8€. For unemployed, students and elders it is 5€ and entrance is free for children, people with disabilities, students of the Athens School of Fine Arts.

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“Join Life / Like a Virgin” is a collaborative exhibition showing a one-by-one juxtaposition of the small-format collages of Leto Moustakaki and the photography of Nikos Stamatopoulos, long time family friends. After years of being separated, they were reintroduced to each other’s perspective through their art and discovered many common themes throughout their respective collections, despite the different mediums. Leto feels her work is a commentary on Nikos’ and Nikos feels his work is a commentary on Leto’s, so it is left to the viewer to decide the parallels and messages in each pair. Join us on Tuesday, 10th September at the FokiaNou Art Space for the opening “Join Life / Like a Virgin”, with cocktails served on FokiaNou’s rooftop terrace. The exhibition will run through Wednesday, 25th September.

Leto Moustakaki was born in Athens where she lives and works. She grew up in Sparta, where she was involved with photography and mosaics. She studied painting at the Athens School of Fine Arts, graduating in 2014. She also attended stained glass lessons of Tiffany's method, drawing lessons for a year and sculpting for four years at the Art Workshops of Agia Paraskevi. Sound is now part of her artistic research.

Born in Sparta in 1986, Nikos moved to Athens at the age of 18 to study acting. In 2012, when he left Athens, his artistic focus moved away from acting while still utilising his body and his ability to challenge ideals as he started taking photos. His style evolved as he moved between London, Santorini, Singapore, Bali, and now Malta, with a central theme of pushing boundaries, pulling inspiration from vintage porn. Nikos has gained a large following in the queer community for his provocative snapshots that play on color, spontaneity, and often erotic content in cheeky context. Nikos' art has been published by a number of queer art magazines and has shown at Queer Art Festival: Civil Disobedience 2016- 2018 in Athens, Greece and at He 2017: Questioning and Queering "Masculinity" in Los Angeles, California.

Opening: Tuesday 10 September 2019, 19.00
Duration: 10-25 September Hours: Wednesday to Saturday 17.00-20.00

Good news for the Greek academic community as the National Technical University of Athens (Metsovio Polytechnic) is listed as one of the top universities worldwide, according to the Shanghai Rankings 2019.

Anastasia Gerolymatou doesn't only believe that 'Age is just a number'; she has become living proof of that saying. At 81 years of age, the Greek will have her name in the Guinness Book of Records after windsurfing from Kefalonia to Kyllini in the Peloponnese, last week.

 

The octogenarian athlete has 3 grandchildren, who are her main source of inspiration. 'I did it so my grandchildren can remember me for what I accomplished,' she says with pride.

 

Gerolymatou plans to keep windsurfing for as long as she is strong enough to do so. She watches what she eats and keeps herself busy by doing the things that she loves.

To read this article in full, please visit: Greek Reporter