ALL NEW ATHENS

In the Greek capital, history is everywhere you look. But these days, so too are innovative businesses and boundary-pushing art. Tony Perrottet meets the creative minds behind the city's latest cultural evolution.

- Tony Perrottet

A PASSERBY MIGHT have mistaken it for a wedding feast. In Metaxourgio, a formerly industrial neighbourhood of Athens, a crowd of boisterous Greeks had spilled onto the street and were squeezing around rows of long tables arranged end to end. The air was filled with the scent of lamb being roasted on an open grill. But rather than someone’s nuptials, this was in fact an exhibition opening at a progressive contemporary art gallery, the Breeder (thebreedersystem.com). Housed in a renovated ice cream factory, it was heralded by a sleek (and spotless) white façade. A vast iron portal opened to reveal a regal interior with organic curves.

On the ground floor, the artist Andreas Lolis showed me his striking sculptures. At first glance, they looked like blank canvases that had suffered delicate cuts, but they were actually crafted from that most traditional of Greek materials: marble. “I found inspiration from Henry Moore and Lucio Fontana,” Lolis explained, referring to the British and Argentine-Italian artists. “They both tested the boundaries of what can be achieved within their chosen forms.”