The Neapolis neighborhood is reimagined as a hub for the exchange of ideas and people through a complex artistic and historical narrative
The Hellenic American Union, pursuing its ongoing mission to highlight historic neighborhoods of Athens, presents, in collaboration with the Club of Athenians, a historical and artistic exhibition on the Neapolis district, curated by journalist Nikos Vatopoulos and art historian Iris Kritikou. By deepening the research and approaching the legacy of this historic neighborhood with a contemporary perspective—part of which includes the Hellenic American Union itself—the exhibition Neapolis: “Cradle of Carefreeness and Youth” opens on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at 19:30, in the Union’s galleries.
Drawing inspiration from the characterization of Neapolis by writer Kostas Athanatos (1896–1966), the exhibition presents two complementary perspectives: a photographic archive from the 19th and 20th centuries, alongside contemporary Greek artists’ visual interpretations of the area’s heritage. Neapolis emerges as the cradle of the “new” city, located behind the Trilogy toward Lycabettus and Strefi, a neighborhood that began as a 19th-century suburb and evolved into a center of intellectual activity, attracting artists, scholars, and students. This unique fusion of ideas and people remains one of Neapolis’ most captivating aspects, marking it as the oldest of Athens’ “new” neighborhoods. According to the curators, Neapolis is presented “as an intellectual cradle, pulsing with life in all its forms. By reconstructing the atmosphere of cafés and salons, the daily life of ordinary residents, and the anonymous protagonists of the neighborhood, along with its neoclassical houses, courtyards, bookstores, and bookbinding shops, as well as its students and workers, the exhibition highlights the area’s intellectual figures—from Georgios Drosinis to Kostis Palamas, and from Yiannoulis Chalepas to Grigorios Xenopoulos and Georgios Souris.”
This exhibition revisits the exploration of Neapolis’ facets seven years after the 2017 exhibition #NeapolisAthina: And Now, Then and Now, also organized by the Hellenic American Union, curated by Louiza Karapidaki.
