At night, a museum under the stars. In a park, between a golden car, an owl and light installations

At night, The park that lives on lights, sounds, fantastic creatures, spirits that appear. And the people who, even taking their dogs for a walk, walk among the trees in search of the 25 works of contemporary art, scattered here and there, in a sort of treasure hunt, between nature and art. Athens with The Pedion Tou Aeros park shows that even in the evening a garden can live and become a space to shareespecially when you are looking for a nocturnal refreshment. Plásma3 (from the Greek, creatures) is an engaging event that takes place for the third time in the Greek capital (until June 15, from 18 to 23), Promoted by Onassis Stegi and curated by Afrodito Panagiotakou. The park that now appears to us today as an accattivating botanical scenography for the works, was not so only a few years ago, was treated, reclaimed by the drug dealing, and the great statue that stands out at the entry of King Constantine I, reminds us of a chapter of the history of Greece (which, with the coup of 1967, also suffered the dictatorship of the colonels).

« All the invited artists were able to choose the place of the park that they considered more suitable to highlight their work, » says Afroditi Panagiotakou. « Plásma is a public event, designed especially for the neighborhood, Onassis Stegi did not arrive here by imposing himself, but agreeing all the interventions concerning the park ». Thus acting as a social and cultural activator. In the path, installations, video, we witnessed the inaugural performance of the Yann Bourgeois Art Company. And ancient Greece is evoked in several works, according to different canons. Both with a surreal version of the Parthenon (title of the work is in fact Punkthenonthe work of the duo The Callas) on the point of collapsing but unwavering, which with soft archaeological ruins (or political) – think like puffs where you can lie down – of the well -known artist Angelidakis (in Bologna in 2022 he had a personal one). Then the reference to mythology and to the ancestral rites (officiated in Crete and having the subject as the Taurus), emerges in the movie of Efi Gousi who stumbles an all -female dance to speak to Mother Earth and awaken the telluric forces for a rebirth. The artist says: « I thought of a ritual ceremony for Poseidone, the god of the sea and earthquakes, thus finding a way to talk about climate change and female power. The place where I shot the film is the artificial lake of Mornos which, with drought, revealed the ghost village of Kalios, re -emerged by the waters ».

The statue of Athena, protector of the city, wakes up on the owl of Bob Wilson (one of his famous video works, which is part of the Onassis Collection), which on the Datsun pick-up covered with gold leaf, which releases a divine aura but the question that the author of the work is made (name of art Dionysus …) is what is basically sacred and what else instead paradoxical. Even the ravines of the park are inhabited by the works, a small cave Alberga a video of David Lachapelle In which lights are projected on water vapor, the course of a small artificial channel is instead dotted with an installation created by the artist Moritz Simon Geist With rotating shells filled with ACqUA, activated by a silent scooter Which thus allows you to auscultate, a slight sound produced by the water, as if it were the living beat of those creatures.

Onassis Stegi is the cultural heart of the Onassis Foundation, Born 50 years ago at the behest of the Greek magnate Aristotle Onassis, with its headquarters in Vaduz in the Principality of Liechtenstein and consists of two separate branches, one that makes business and the other that has social purposes also in the education and health sector. Onassis Stegi And very articulated in its cultural activity focused on contemporary creation in all its forms (also with artist residences and soon with a new large space for digital art, immersive and generated with AI). Foundation that owes its name to Famous owner Aristotle Socrates Omero Onassiswhose personal office was transferred from Montecarlo to Athens to a beautiful period building, with his 1300 volume bookshop, his desk where the photos of the children who died tragically, Christina and Alexander, stand out. But above all in the reconstructed studio sthe photos of the legendary soprano Maria Callas are kept who had a troubled relationship with him as well as the photos of his wife Jackie Kennedy. Especially at night, traveling the Syngrou Avenue that leads to Piraeus, the ONASSIS Stegi building with its enlightened colored windows is clearly visible, which inside has a large space with two theaters and on the works plans of the collection (which consists of about 2 thousand works including icons and a beautiful El Greco). In 2012 the Foundation acquired the personal archive of the poet Costantino Kavafis (which also includes furnishings and which has its own location), Author of the famous Italian poetrywhose verses tell of a long peregrin rich in experiences: You always have to have Itaca in mind/ reach it both constant thought. Above all, do not rush the journey. Also published several articles, among these one in which The repatriation of the partners of the Parthenon. But, to date, the British Museum in London, although negotiations are underway, denies the return.