Demitri, aka The Krah, is excited. He walks at the speed of an urbanite, having lived and worked in London for 20 years, but faces the scorching July heat like a true Athenian, more alert of his surroundings than the temperature. And he's constantly checking out walls.
“I can see the potential of the area. The more you look into it, the more you will see it too. There are so many creative spaces,” says the urban artist, who opened Delirium Gallery back in 2021 on a quiet residential road in Neos Kosmos (Neos Kosmos means "New World"). Quiet, unless you’re here once a month for the opening of a new exhibit where graffiti artists and the movement’s fans spill onto the street bouncing to the beats of a DJ, drinks in hand.
New beginning in a New World
“I felt like I’d done everything I could in London. It was time to move on.”
But why Neos Kosmos, I ask.
“Well, you can walk to the Acropolis!” he says with the joy of a newcomer, even though he was raised in Athens.
“I believe that art brings rundown neighbourhoods alive,” he continues, as we stand in his gallery checking out the indoor favella that he built with artist Finch of Athens for his latest exhibition. Quite appropriate, since Neos Kosmos actually began as a refugee shantytown in the 1920s. “Come on, let me show you,” he says, and we begin our trek through the hood.
“You know, this place was known as garazoupoli (meaning “garage town”) because of the crazy number of car shops in the area.” His story easily checks out, as I struggle to find a radius larger than two blocks that doesn’t feature a spare parts shop, or a body shop where local blue-collar handymen are working under popped hoods.
The Krah leads me a block up the street from his gallery, and down some stairs through an open door, and it immediately feels like I've journeyed back in time. The sign behind protective metal bars on the ground floor window fittingly reads Chronokapsula, which translates to “time capsule.” I find myself surrounded by vintage items: dolls, Playmobil figures, board games, books, comics, audio cassettes, Nintendo video games, stickers, and stuffed animals. It’s paradise for a toy collector who doesn’t want to spend a fortune and a great place to show today’s kids what life looked like before the internet.
Moving on up
Our next stop is at Symptom, a contemporary art space founded by The Krank, a Greek artist who spent time in Berlin before moving back to Athens at the same time as The Krah. It’s still early morning, so we cradle our faces and stick them to the window, peeking inside to see if anyone’s home. The light in the shape of a red rod in a metal frame outside the studio is off. “You should come back here,” The Krah says before striding further along. Symptom is just one of the area spaces where artistic expression has taken centre stage; ceramic studios and community workshops, and murals on local basketball courts as well as neighbourhood walls, to tagged tram cars resting on the new tram line, the streets of Neos Kosmos are brimming with creative fertility.
He leads me around the rows of public housing in the area known as Dourgouti, which was originally the shanty town occupied by Armenians and then the refugees of the Asia Minor catastrophe of 1922. From the 1950s onwards, housing was gradually erected to provide better conditions for the residents. Small parks of green separate the buildings, while wooden benches provide resting spots and shade from the summer sun.
“You see this?” he asks, pointing to an apartment building wall covered in tags. “I want to ask the owners if they want me to paint over that. To make it beautiful.”
Eat, drink and be merry
Fita is probably the restaurant that first lured foodies from all over the city to Neos Kosmos, bringing this neighbourhood to the culinary forefront. A gastro-tavern next to the tram line, with a view of one of the housing projects, the open kitchen focuses on seafood and the menu changes daily. “My friends say it’s amazing, but I haven’t found the time to go,” The Krah says.
“Oh, and for drinks, we go to Teras. It’s a bit more upscale than others in the area, but they make amazing cocktails. It’s housed in a beautiful neoclassical building, there’s a garden in the back and they host art exhibits upstairs.” The garden is truly an oasis for the area, as tables are set beneath a massive fig tree that seems to embrace an equally large olive tree, their branches slanting towards the sun.
We head towards Kallirois Street, the unofficial border between Koukaki and Neos Kosmos. A neighbourhood that’s ground zero for an underground arts revival would be nothing without a record store. Enter Underflow. Housed in a former motorcycle-repair shop, this cool, dimly-lit store is a haven for those who believe music is best when heard in analogue.
Top of the world
By then the sun is at its peak and it’s too hot to walk, so we drive to our last stop. Up a hill, up some stairs and onto a huge rock on Kynosargous Hill with a dizzying 360 degree view of the entire city from an angle I’d never seen before. The sea glimmers, Philopappou, Acropolis and Lycabettus are perfectly aligned, and the midday sun bleaches buildings stark white, crowned with silver water tanks. The Krah stands on the peak, hands up, like the king of the world, his new world.
“Everyone says art is a passion. I think it’s more of an obsession than anything else. Even if I wasn’t doing this for a living, I’d be doing it anyway,” he says.
He sees potential everywhere; every street a discovery, every wall a canvas. And his chosen neighbourhood has not proved him wrong. For now, Delirium remains the only urban art gallery in Greece, serving as a hub for artists and aficionados alike. In a city which seems to breathe with change, it’s only a matter of time until others follow suit.
Mount Lycabettus, as seen from atop Kynosargous Hill.
Photo: Thomas Gravanis