Deste Foundation, Centre for Contemporary Art is an arts
foundation in
Nea Ionia, a northern suburb of
Athens,
Greece. Housing the art collection of Greek businessman
Dakis Joannou
Dakis Joannou (Leonidas Ioannou; el, Δάκης Ιωάννου; born December 30, 1939) is a Greek Cypriot industrialist and art collector. He is considered to be one of the leading collectors of contemporary art in the world and is famous for a ...
, it organizes exhibitions with the collection and commissions new work by emerging and established international contemporary artists.
Origin
The Deste Foundation was established in 1983 by
Dakis Joannou
Dakis Joannou (Leonidas Ioannou; el, Δάκης Ιωάννου; born December 30, 1939) is a Greek Cypriot industrialist and art collector. He is considered to be one of the leading collectors of contemporary art in the world and is famous for a ...
, with the purpose of exploring the relationship between contemporary art and contemporary culture.
Deste means "to see" (δέστε) in the
Greek language. Between 1983 and 1996, when the foundation did not yet have a permanent exhibition space, the shows that took place in Athens were hosted at the House of Cyprus. In 1998 the Deste Foundation moved to its first permanent space, a former paper factory in
Neo Psychiko redesigned by American architect Christian Hubert. Built as a sock factory in 1931, the foundation's current building was renovated by architect Christos Papoulias in 2006.
Activities
At the Deste Foundation, overviews of the Dakis Collection have been presented by curators like
Massimiliano Gioni and
Jeffrey Deitch
Jeffrey Deitch (pronounced ''DIE-tch'';Mike Boehm (January 12, 2010)L.A.'s MOCA picks art dealer Jeffrey Deitch as director'' Los Angeles Times''. born 1952) is an American art dealer and curator. He is best known for his gallery Deitch Projec ...
. Since the 1980s, every summer the foundation organizes a series of contemporary art exhibitions on the island of
Hydra (island), with works on show there in a former slaughterhouse. In 2014,
Pawel Althamer turned the exhibition space into a toy house, with puppets resembling his and his patron’s family members, down to hair styles and tattoos. The puppets of Joannou and his wife, Lietta, sat in a red mini armchair.
For the
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...
in Athens, the foundation organized a show that featured the work of more than 60 artists from Joannou’s collection. He chartered a plane from
Art Basel that year for collectors, curators, dealers and artists as part of the cultural program around the Olympics.
Beginning in 2009, the foundation has collaborated with the Athens-based
Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, co-organizing an annual exhibition of works by artists shortlisted for the biannual Deste contemporary art prize. In 2010, the
New Museum of Contemporary Art
The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
History
The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Scho ...
in New York showcased the foundation's collection in a three-story exhibition, with
Jeff Koons as the guest curator. In 2014, the foundation launched a series of contemporary art shows under a new partnership with the
Benaki Museum in Athens, known for its collection of ancient Greek and Roman art.
[Gareth Harris (January 9, 2014)]
Athens institutions partner up to show international contemporary art
'' The Art Newspaper''. Most exhibitions have publications to support the learning remit of the foundation.
References
External links
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{{Authority control
Art museums and galleries in Greece
Arts foundations based in Greece
1983 establishments in Greece
Art galleries established in 1983
Museums in Athens