LAURIE SIMMONS courtesy NEW Hotel
Sometimes, humans need a degree of crisis and disorientation in their lives in order to cultivate art that brims with palpable emotion. Ernest Hemingway mused that one should “write hard and clear about what hurts”, for that very reason. There is often a confrontational directness in art that has been cultivated out of difficult surroundings: frequently bearing a tone of greater honesty, critique and self-awareness.
The tumultuous economic and political conditions in Athens have been well documented over the last decade. As jobs have been lost, businesses have shuttered, Athenians have been displaced and house prices have dropped off a cliff into the Aegean Sea. Amidst all these cruel difficulties, there is one positive: Athens is full of vacant space, and crucially it is affordable. This vacant space has proved to be an incubator for artists’, both native and international, who flock to Athens for studio space they can realistically afford. Against the backdrop of Athens’ incomparable historical contributions to art, a new creative verve has been established.
The art doesn’t stop at the studio spaces either. Much of the city is now being treated as a canvas, with expansive street art installations appearing organically. This has led some to hastily declare Athens as ‘the new Berlin’. Whilst the native Athenians are reluctant to associate themselves with such comparisons given the German government’s perceived role in Greece’s recent financial history, the fact remains that genuine parallels do exist.
As any art scene grows, key figures and galleries will emerge establishing themselves as cornerstones of the local art economy. Dakis Joannou is one of the biggest collectors of Contemporary Art in the world and stands to play a crucial role in the growth of Athens’ art economy. The Cypriot-Greek art collector boasts a globally acclaimed assemblage of work from likes of Laurie Simons, Barbara Kruger and Jeff Koons alongside domestic artists including Sophia Paraskevopoulou, Tassos Vrettos and Kostas Sahpazis.
Part of the trickle-down effect of Athens’ artistic resurgence is likely to be seen in how its tourism adapts to this newfound growth. Whilst Athens’ popularity as a tourist destination has waned in comparison to many of Greece’s islands in recent times, it’s art will certainly serve as a further pull factor.
In an attempt to encourage motivations of art tourism into Athens, Joannou has unveiled a new hotel, punnily titled, NEW Hotel. Forming part of his Yes! Hotels group, Joannou has not only included a portion of his art collection to feature in the hotel’s interior but he also commissioned Brazilian designers, Humberto and Fernando Campana to complete their first ever interior design project for the hotel. The duo’s eco-sensitive signature is visible throughout the hotel’s reception and restaurant, and takes visual and structural design cues from their acclaimed ‘Favela Chairs’. By centring the hotel’s experience around art, Joannou’s stance of the future of the Greek capital’s art future, emerges proudly from the city’s ruins.
View artwork from the likes of Laurie Simons, Barbara Kruger and Jeff Koons at Dakis Joannou’s NEW Hotel.