Onassis
InitiativesInitiativesArt in Public Space
Photo: Dimitris Michalakis

A series of restorations in the city, by the Onassis Foundation and the City of Athens.

We are constantly seeking the points where the city meets its people. The Onassis Foundation is renovating six sports courts, rebuilding a playground, and creating two murals in Palaio Faliro, investing in a more open, participatory, and vibrant public space.

Culture begins with play. As part of the OnAthens initiative, the Onassis Foundation aims to transform young people’s everyday experience in public space through a series of interventions across the city. This time, it moves slightly beyond central Athens and collaborates with the Municipality of Palaio Faliro to renovate and rebuild a playground, a basketball court, a volleyball court, and a small football pitch on Zephyrou Street. More greenery is added to the area with new plants at the park’s western entrance. In addition, three tennis courts are being created on Aiolou Street.

Urban development

Unexpected corners of the neighborhood come alive with color, weaving art into everyday life. Two contemporary artists bring color to courts and walls in Palaio Faliro, embracing the urban landscape in unique ways. Twenty Three Artist transforms the basketball court on Zephyrou Street into a “Compass,” inspired by the geographic and historical identity of Palaio Faliro as an ancient Athenian port, a place of arrivals, departures, and transformations. Within the rhythm of the game, the “Compass” suggests a new orientation not only on the map but also through time, relationships, and personal journeys. A living artwork for those who play, watch, leave, or return.

At the crossing near Faliro Bay, Kostas Theocharis sets up a “Feast” as a pause in the flow of daily life and constant street movement. This “Feast” is not an event or celebration but a state of mind, honoring spontaneous gatherings among friends, small moments of togetherness where community comes alive without the need to be invited or directed to.

The Onassis Foundation aligns itself with the city, redefines notions such as wandering and encounter, and turns its gaze toward the future and the new generation.

Athens, our city.

In a city where television aerials, concrete, apartment blocks, sports courts, and graffiti are an animating part of life, culture as a concept reaches out from Onassis Stegi and into the urban fabric, descending on the city center and championing Athens as a time-honored place still very much alive – as a space of great contrasts and ferment where ideas are exchanged.

Athens is our city, and we see it for what it is: a living organism brimming with fascinating encounters, filled with people transforming streets and neighborhoods through their own hard work, each in their own way. A place in a constant state of development and renewal as it seeks answers to its most enduring questions. This is why we continue to explore the city, day after day.

Each year – through a series of commissions, co-productions, and in situ art installations presented at public institutions, and in private and open spaces across the city center – the Onassis Foundation seeks out places where art can intertwine with daily life, and treats both the neighborhood around Onassis Stegi and the broader city as a dynamic space for co-existence. Particular love and care is reserved for the Neos Kosmos area of Athens, and for its prominence – ensuring not only its place on the map, but also that it stays vibrant, and accessible for all.

Onassis Stegi Murals

Neos Kosmos, our neighborhood.

The neighborhood of Neos Kosmos might be defined by its inhabitants as the area whose makeshift buildings were replaced by refugee and working-class tenement blocks before the end of the 1960s, but for us it will always be that part of the city where a new world can emerge.

Onassis Stegi engages with its surrounding area in numerous and varied ways, without idealizing it unnecessarily and without any nostalgia, but always with a respect for its past. With the aim of generating everyday relationships and unexpected meetings – a vibrant community bustling with people through the day and night – Onassis Stegi involves itself in the neighborhood, embracing it in ways that highlight everything it has to offer, both to local residents and to people passing through.

Our neighborhood is our home. As part of a more green and eco-friendly approach to urban identity and to Neos Kosmos, the Onassis Foundation is undertaking the complete renovation of sports courts, playgrounds, and changing rooms. And this is just the start of a new start.

The Onassis Foundation is working with the City of Athens and two street artists – SAME84 and ATH1281 – to bring color to the basketball courts at the 39th Youth Center (on the corner of Sarkounidou Street and Kasomouli Street in Neos Kosmos) and the 60th Youth Center (on Heldreich Street, in Dourgouti Park) so as to give each and every child and adult the chance, whether they live in Neos Kosmos or are just visiting, to unleash their potential and be reborn, just like these spaces. Bright and vibrant colors, cutting-edge equipment, and the complete renovation of two points in Dourgouti of great importance for our neighbors, all enriching the urban character of the area with everyday works of art.

Alongside these works, the basketball courts, changing rooms and playground at the 39th Youth Center have been completely overhauled and renovated, as have a volleyball and basketball court and playground at the 60th Youth Center.