Reflection on the "Urban Details" Initiative

2014, in the middle of the economic crisis, I organised the artistic initiative "Urban Details" for Patission Street: an exhibition and a series of parallel events inside an old Ukrainian restaurant on Mithimnis Street, in the Kypseli neighborhood of Athens, which was temporarily transformed into a pop-up exhibition space with the support of the NEON Organisation.

The central question of that project was whether a city can change if we change the way we look at it. This idea came from two different starting points.

On one hand, from my experience in Berlin — a city which, despite its difficulties after the fall of the Wall, managed to keep a certain creativity and imagination alive, making it a beautiful city in the eyes of those who lived there, even in hard times.

On the other hand, I strongly believed that Patission street and Kypseli neighborhood hold significant social and historical value, a rich architectural fabric, and the potential to express a new image of Athens — an opinion that back then was a minority one, yet shared with people with a strong public voice, such as the now Vice-Mayor of the City of Athens Eleni Zontirou, the journalist and writer Nikos Vatopoulos, active citizens such as Angeliki Tseliou and Babis Stamatakis, and several other active citizen groups.

During the crisis — and even before — Kypseli carried a “bad” reputation. As many said at the time, you simply didn’t go there.

Ten years later, this image seems completely reversed: new cafés, restaurants, younger residents, and the neighborhood’s growing presence in public conversations and social media have turned Kypseli into one of the most vibrant places in Athens.

From “no one goes there” it has become the new “place to be”. And yet, for those of us who grew up there, it is not easy to pinpoint what exactly has changed.

Everyday life remains almost the same: the streets, the pavements, the apartment buildings and the general living conditions have not transformed as much as the neighborhood’s new outward image suggests.

What has changed is not the place itself, but the narrative around it.

And as positive as this shift may be, my experience of Berlin’s transformation through Airbnb and gentrification makes me cautious — because it shows that every solution can create a new problem, often more complex than the one before, and with deep social consequences.

These were the thoughts I shared two weeks ago at the workshop “A Kypseli of Memory”, organised by the incredibly creative Konstantina Markoglou at the renewed Kypseli Municipal Market in Athens, as part of her excellent initiative "HeritAgent".

Her invitation meant a lot to me, and I am truly grateful, because it concerned the neighborhood where I was born, raised, and have lived — a place whose evolution I have followed closely for decades.

And it was a wonderful opportunity to discuss with the participants not only the transformation of Kypseli, but also how a narrative can shape the image of a city long before the city itself changes in substance.