Athens: a guide to the city's rising arts and culture scene.

A street in Plaka, Athens
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Out of the ruins, Athens has reemerged as a vibrant cultural hotspot.

If any city deserves a break, it’s Athens. We, the Brits, have done a sterling job of justifying our plundering of its heritage by keeping its Elgin Marbles in the British Museum, irreparably damaging them in the process. Austerity brought the country to its knees - few places have felt the tragedy and devastation of the 2008 recession as acutely as Greece, where unemployment is still the highest in the euro zone. It was only last year that eurozone ministers agreed that Athens had carried out enough reforms to leave its bailout programme (or was freed from the EU debtor’s prison, depending on how you view it). Then there’s the impact of the refugee crisis of 2015 - the islands of Lesbos and Chios have borne the brunt of this devastating situation despite having little means to do so, testing the limits of the country’s already fragile ecosystem.

Most travel features don’t start with a political summary of the destination in question, but the political upheaval of Athens is what lies behind its rising arts scene. Good art is fuelled by intense emotion, be it love, anger, frustration or pain – or simply by having a point of view – and the Athenians have found a release through creativity, giving rise to tiny one-room galleries, sprawling creative hubs and an inventive food scene. To understand the last 15 years of Greek adversity is to understand a large part of the emotion behind its cultural renaissance and rumbling energy.

Athens isn’t on the tourist map in the same way the Greek islands are. The Acropolis, and its crown jewel, the Pantheon, naturally attracts huge numbers every year (2.7 million in 2017), and yet, for most of us, Athens is considered a somewhat grubby-looking stopover destination, somewhere to rest your head before taking a ferry or another flight to one of the scenic islands, be it Santorini or Mykonos. In the past few years, the city has been building a reputation as a multi-faceted and lively arts destination. Amid both the figurative and metaphorical ruins of Athens, local artists have developed a stronghold community that deserves to be recognised and explored. It’s been described as the new Berlin, but to say so underplays its ancient architecture and layers of history. It’s the juxtaposition of the ancient with the crackle of modernity that makes it such a unique and beguiling destination.

By Ella Alexander.

Full story at Harpers Bazaar.