In Where It’s At, Phin Jennings walks you down the world’s less-trodden cultural paths, consulting with some of the most plugged-in locals to guide you through a world of beautiful, moving, delicious and enriching experiences. Eating, drinking, gallery-hopping, shopping, swimming, staring at the sky: nothing is off the table as he explores the outer reaches of our cultural world to find out where it’s really at.
London is a spoiling place to live. Its many cultural enclaves make it feel like there’s little reason to leave the city. There isn’t much that I can’t get my hands on here. I can watch French films and eat croissants in Kensington, fill my cheeks with Turkish gözleme in Haringey or, if I’m feeling adventurous, head out to Southall or New Malden for some Punjabi and Korean food and culture.
Our gallery landscape is the same: though it certainly has its blind spots, it brings us a rarely-rivalled range of contemporary art — something that I tend to notice most when I go somewhere else.
In this global city, one thing evades me: the freddo espresso. This cloudlike Greek delicacy, cousin of the more voluminous freddo cappuccino, is a shot of coffee, poured over ice and somehow whipped into a foam, nay, a mousse, that defies culinary physics. Whatever you do, don’t call it an iced coffee, for it is so much more than that. So far, I haven’t been able to find a passable answer to it in London.
There’s one thing for it. With help from some of Athens’ most knowledgeable locals, I have come up with an art-focussed itinerary that I hope just about covers up the true intention behind my trip.
Wednesday, 18th September
Finding the right place to stay in Athens can be tricky. I like Exarcheia, a central neighbourhood with a distinctly leftist vibe. The problem is that Exarcheia mostly hates tourists. Just to the north, Kypseli is a good option and home to many of the city’s best emerging galleries.
We’re beginning on a Wednesday night, as this is the last day of the summer that Cine Lila, an outdoor cinema that has hardly changed since it opened in the 1960s, will be open. Arrive for the 10.30 screening of Anatomy of a Fall and relish the feeling of freedom only attainable by smoking a cigarette in front of a big-screen blockbuster under the stars. Welcome home.
Thursday, 19th September
You can be sure that last night’s experience will have reawakened your love for film and attunement to the beauty of life. Fittingly, Athens-born artist David Sampethai has a morning recommendation that sounds certain to give you a main-character moment of your own. It starts with ekmek kataifi, a traditional dessert involving pastry, syrup, custard and cream from Chara. He recommends walking through the interlocking courtyards of the apartment building next door as you eat: a romantic start to the day.
From here, you can walk down to Hot Wheels — a commercial gallery with spaces in London and Athens, the latter of which contains work of Greek painter Konstantinos Giotis — and P.E.T. projects, a space run by local artist Angelo Plessas. For lunch, Plessas recommends visiting nearby cafe Allios. Don’t walk away if, like me, the phrase ‘small plates to share’ brings to mind images of paying £17 for five anchovies. It’s how they serve food here, far more liberally and cheaply than the influencer-chefs that we’re used to.
Full-bellied, our next stop is the impressive National Museum of Contemporary Art Athens (ΕΜΣΤ). Here, there seem to be more than a dozen exhibitions happening at once, all part of a programme titled ‘What if Women Ruled the World?’. For the sake of range (and quality) I’d recommend beelining for viscerally crude painter Tala Madani’s show ‘Shitty Disco’ and the installation of the late industrial sculptor and Slade professor Phyllida Barlow’s workRig: Untitled; Blocks.
For dinner and drinks, Neal Rock, who runs the nearby residency and itinerant gallery Cynefin, recommends heading to Fokianos Negri, a street where you’ll find plenty of pavement tables replete with gigantes, dolmades and, rarest but most delicious, kolokithokeftedes. You can end your night at Galaxy, a nondescript-looking bar on a narrow side street that was recommended to me by almost everyone I spoke to about Athens. Apparently it’s a historical hotspot for the city’s cultural elite and, according to Hugo Wheeler, who co-runs Hot Wheels, serves the best martini in Athens.
Friday, 20th September
Today’s a big day, but we’re starting slowly. Hyper Hypo is a beautiful and well-stocked book and magazine shop, recommended by local artist James Fuller for some weekend reading material. Nearby, Moka is a great place to stop for a leisurely coffee — one frequented by locals and often thick with the kind of cigarette smoke that reminds you that you’re away from home, and is therefore really quite pleasant. I won’t tell you what you should order.
When you begin to feel peckish, head down the road for a lunch of vegan souvlaki. If you’re a metal fan, I highly recommend stopping on the way at Eat Metal Records, a shop with an in-house record label stocking cuts as heavy as they are esoteric. Either way, be sure to order something large from Cookoomèla; you’re lining your stomach for a possibly-arduous art fair visit.
Art Athina, running for more than 30 years, has grown to host close to 60 galleries and a handful of project spaces. It takes place in the historical Zappeion Mansion and the vast majority of its participants are Greek, so it won’t be the culturally nondescript and slightly boring greatest-hits exhibition that big art fairs often are. That being said, I never recommend spending too long at a fair; it’s always best to get outdoors again before your eyelids start drooping.
The Breeder is one of the city’s best-established contemporary art galleries, operating an impressive programme from an ex-ice cream factory in central Athens. The space alone is well worth a visit, as I’m sure are the three concurrent solo exhibitions that they’re hosting. While you’re in the area, the gallery’s director Nadia Gerazouni recommends stopping for some meatballs from Arta, a small traditional cafe across the road.
Now, you’re at a crossroads. You might find that, tired from two days of art, you’d rather have a night in. However, if you’re up for a weird night, I have a plan. First, a drink or two sitting outside Louis Cafe. Then, a heavy recommendation from David Sampethai. In the northwestern area of Peristeri, well off the beaten track, I’m promised that Dark Sun Club will be playing the best selection of gothic-leaning tunes in the city. “Just walking into the place feels like a portal to somewhere else,” he tells me.
Saturday, 21st September
You rise in the afternoon, the industrial sounds of Dark Sun Club still ringing in your ears. It’s been a big weekend, and now you feel it in your every bone. You’ve experienced kilometres of art, various hard-edged genres of music, small plates that restore your faith in small plates and a truly visionary coffee preparation. It’s been a lot, and now it’s time to relax.
Today’s the perfect day to experience Hugo Wheeler’s favourite Acropolis view. Head to Heteroclito for a bottle of wine and carry it up Areopagus Hill. Find a good spot to enjoy the sunset over the ancient citadel, reflect on the rich culture and history and of the city you’re in and take a moment to ask yourself: how do they get it so foamy?
Words by Phin Jennings
