Onassis AiR
An (inter)national artistic research and residency program in Athens
A unique program that fosters artistic research by offering time, resources and a supportive collaborative working environment for the exchange of practices and knowledge.
Onassis AiR is an international artistic research residency program based in Athens, Greece. Founded on the principles of learning and doing with others, Onassis AiR grounds its mission in supporting the artistic process by offering space and time to arts professionals from various backgrounds and disciplines to delve deeper into their practice without any requirement to present a final work. Since we opened our doors in September 2019, we have experimented with various formats of thinking and practising together -from individual research programs to fostering a thematic collective research study- always adapting our programs based on the needs of a growing community of peers.
From September 2022, Onassis AiR embarked on a new chapter, one that now embraces each and every creative practitioner within the Onassis Foundation arts ecosystem. Joining the Onassis AiR Fellows – who are selected to take part in this residency program via a series of Open Calls – are artists commissioned to continue their research journeys and develop new work unimpeded. The Onassis Foundation is investing in individuals, in human relationships, in the process, in unconventional perspectives, and in the potential unleashed by a diverse array of people – curious minds with thought-provoking ideas brought together into an unexpected encounter to spark debate and inquiries.Right next to the Onassis Stegi, in the neighborhood of Neos Kosmos, Οnassis AiR –more open and welcoming than ever– is seeking to become a meeting point for cross-disciplinary thinking and experimentation between local and international artists and researchers.
Pali-Room is a digital platform and a podcast series that functions as a depository of the artistic research that takes place at Οnassis AiR. The site hosts a series of recorded conversations with each of our participants that are presented in the form of an audio recording as well as a text, which is supplemented by a series of highlighted and hyperlinked material that provide more information on the practice, influences, writings or readings of each participant.
Between September 2020-July 2021, our programs brought together an interdisciplinary group of artists and arts practitioners to conduct collective research around two thematics areas we found urgent to explore: identities and ecologies. Our publications aim to document this process by assembling the ideas and inquiries that emerged as part of the collective research.
How does the personal become collective? How does knowledge get practiced and exchanged?
Over the past years, we have experienced different ways of “cohabitation” inside the Οnassis AiR house, through an exchange of practices and methodologies, while also exploring the more-than-human world through city walks and research trips within Greece and beyond. In order to shed light to this process we decided to create a short video documentary that brings together in a non-chronological order some of our collective moments.
