‘BACK TO ATHENS’ strikes again, at Isaiah Mansion on 65 Patission street. This is the 11^th in a series of annual exhibitions which outline the dynamics of the contemporary art scene, and each year tackle a different theme. This year, this multidisciplinary art platform is about ‘Crossroads – knowledge and worldly pleasures – a review’, and presents 20 curated exhibitions, plus a whole host of other independent artists’ installations, performances, and screenings, totting up to more than 190 Greek and international artists. From June 26 to June 30, cutting-edge artists and personalities, artworks and ideas find themselves all under the roof of the Isaiah Mansion, which is a stunning building in itself, and certainly adds a lot of character to this highly contemporary art experience. The exhibition runs June 26-30 and is definitely worth a visit for those who want to explore the many facets of contemporary art, whilst also exploring the many nooks and crannies of an old stately mansion.

‘Back to Athens’ is an annual review, an outlook on the recent trends and projects collected from the past year. It profiles the critical issues and current social and artistic transformations that shape our contemporary, everyday culture, functioning as a vital tool for the development of dialogue and interaction between artists, the public and locals.

Since 2012, ‘Back to Athens’ has created a cultural mapping of Athens by re-opening and revisiting important Athenian buildings and distinctive landmarks that are defined by their own cultural and historical heritage. In this context, each year Back to Athens International Art Meeting chooses to visit locations within the Athenian heart that are characterized by a diversity of backgrounds and cultures.

This year, the theme ‘Crossroads – knowledge and worldly pleasures – a review’, explores the unsatisfied nature of man, which is both a blessing and a curse that leads to acts of recklessness. While it might open the door to innovation and discovery, at the same time it may lead one to experience the depths of their own passions. Like a contemporary Faust, cultured and successful yet dissatisfied with his life, he seeks the impossible: unlimited knowledge, but at the same time, worldly pleasures.

So, what’s in store for visitors of ‘Back to Athens 11’? From the abstract and the figurative to the most intriguing incorporation of a whole host of materials into the art-making process: from the skins that snakes have shed, to old pomegranates. Among the 20 curated exhibitions, you will find ‘Dreaming of the Blue Flower and the Decay of the Aura’, curated by Filippos Tsitsopoulos, which includes Chris Hawtin’s impressive large canvases of futuristic warrior-like figures. ‘Read the Room’ is another interesting exhibition, curated by Antigoni Kapsali, and includes works by artist Panagiotis Voulgaris, and which explores the future of books, as relics of the past. But apart from the 20 exceptionally curated group exhibitions, there were many independent presentations by artists and curators that were also of interest. For example: the philosophical ‘Discourse’ installation of Olga Economou Constantinides, where Lacan and Hamlet unite with the artist’s own personal memories and probe the meaning of life and death. Evgenia Efstathiou’s ‘Dowry’ installation on the other hand incorporates traditional crafts such as weaving and embroidering into a contemporary female perspective, while Katerina Botsari’s ‘Nike’ re-interprets the form of the world-famous ancient sculpture via the use of black insulating pipes and other construction materials.

Emotion, sentimentality, nostalgia, destructive but also constructive passions, are all part-and-parcel of this year’s ‘Back to Athens 11’, where human nature is put under the microscope of art and where creativity becomes the gateway to progressive theoretization.

• ‘Back to Athens’ is at Isaiah Mansion, 65 Patission, 104 33 Athens. Opening date: Wednesday, June 26, 2024, 16:00 – 22:00. Duration: June 26 – 30, 2024. Hours: Wednesday – Friday 16:00 – 22:00, Saturday – Sunday 12:00 – 22:00.
• Back to Athens 2024 Curators: Georg Georgakopoulos, Fotini Kapiris, Christian Rupp.

• Organised by: APART Art Research and Applications. Under the Auspices of the City of Athens.
• Back to Athens 2024 is supported by: Hellenic Ministry of Culture; Bundesministerium für Kunst, Kultur, öffentlichen Dienst und Sport; Ministry of Culture of Austria; Austrian Embassy Athens; Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; akbild; ZOIA; Czech Centre Athens in the frame of “Franz Kafka’s memorial year 2024”;

• Coordinated by: CHEAPART

• For more info on Back to Athens 11 and the list of participating artists, click here

‘Art Scene Athens’ is written/run by artist/journalist Stella Sevastopoulos. Dedicated to presenting what is happening on the Greek art scene (but not only), and also to giving Greek artists an international voice on the internet. For more on Stella Sevastopoulos’s art, click here If you would like to be featured in Art Scene Athens, please send email (stelsevas@yahoo.com).