Exploring the Boundaries and Future Needs of Culture in Athens

PLEX Open Pilot 1: Athens’ New Cultural Experiment Begins in Kerameikos

Do you want to be part of the future of culture in Athens?

Do you want to explore how we can reshape everyday life in Kerameikos through creativity and community?

Do you want to witness the birth of a new cultural centre and have a say in how it grows?

Do you want to hear how AI, virtual reality, and digital worlds are transforming our sense of space and presence?

Do you want to step into the real-life struggles and resilience of sex workers and marginalised communities in Athens?

Or maybe you simply want to connect, dance, and celebrate?

If yes, then PLEX OPEN PILOT 1 is where you need to be.

Kerameikos has always been a neighbourhood of thresholds. Ancient burial ground and potters’ quarter, industrial district of weavers and factory workers, and today a patchwork of realities: abandoned neoclassical houses, migrant families squeezed into small apartments, short-term rentals pushing residents out, sex workers operating in neglected streets, and artists transforming vacant spaces into temporary stages and studios. It is messy, fragile, and contradictory.

This living contradiction is where BIOS, one of Athens’ most restless cultural organisations, has decided to launch its boldest experiment yet. On Friday, 26 September, BIOS opens the doors of PLEX Open Pilot 1, the first in a series of events that will shape PLEX, a new cultural space that unfolds across two neighbouring buildings on Kerameikou Street.

●       At Kerameikou 28, a historic weaving factory complex, PLEX will create its main cultural centre: a space for exhibitions, performances, workshops, and community gatherings.

●       At Kerameikou 30, the adjacent hotel building will become the Kerameikos Hotel: a social housing and artists’ residency unit, providing affordable living for creators while rooting them in the life of the neighbourhood.

We imagine PLEX not just as a venue but a cultural and social infrastructure for Athens, designed to support artistic experimentation, community engagement, and inclusive urban regeneration.

From theory to reality

The PLEX project draws directly on years of research into the needs of artists and the dynamics of Kerameikos itself. The CreatorsClass survey with more than 300 artists, mapping of abandoned buildings, interviews with residents, and participatory workshops with community groups all fed into the design of PLEX as a support structure for both artists and the neighbourhood.

The vision is to combine:

●          A cultural centre at Kerameikou 28 where artistic work can be created, shown, and debated.

●       A social housing and residency unit at Kerameikou 30, ensuring stability for artists while connecting them to the community.

●       An open-air designers’ market to reactivate the district’s legacy of crafts.

●       A network of community gardens to provide green and shared public space.

Together, these infrastructures form a superstructure that anchors artists in the area, creates space for residents, and generates cultural and economic activity without displacing local life. PLEX Open Pilot 1 is the public’s first chance to step into this vision.

The program

The program begins with presentations on commons-based cultural practices. The GLAMMONS project introduces approaches to sustainability and participation, while La Friche la Belle de Mai from Marseille presents practical lessons from citizen-led collective ownership.

This is followed by a lecture from cultural theorist Thanasis Moutsopoulos on “The End of the Real,” examining how cyberpunk, artificial intelligence, digital nomadism, and new technologies are reshaping concepts of presence and space.

Architectural contributions come from Athens- and Milan-based practitioners, who propose participatory and unfinished design approaches for Kerameikou 28, aimed at keeping the building adaptable and integrated into the life of the neighborhood.

The program then turns to the screening of Raffaela, a docufiction by Ilias Maroutsis. The film tells the story of Rafaela Mouzakiti, a transgender woman and sex worker in her 60s, whose experiences connect directly to the realities of Kerameikos.

The evening concludes with music. The courtyard of the former weaving factory will be activated as a social space with DJ sets by Adamantios, Supermario, Fagdoll & Lovecat and Bekha Mujiri.

Why Kerameikos, why now?

Athens is at a critical point. Housing prices have risen over 50 percent in recent years, and nearly 80 percent of renters are considered overburdened. Artists, who have long sought out Kerameikos for its affordability and community, now face precarity and displacement. Residents experience daily the contradictions of development: new bars and Airbnb's alongside abandoned plots and buildings in decay.

Kerameikos, with its layered history of crafts, industry, and working-class life, is more than a backdrop. It is a mirror of Athens’ struggles and possibilities. What happens here could signal what kind of city Athens wants to become: a playground for investors or a place that values culture, solidarity, and diversity.

A beginning, not an ending

PLEX Open Pilot 1 wants to ask the important questions: What kind of infrastructures can make artists and residents stay? How can cultural centres avoid becoming islands of gentrification? Can art, housing, and community projects coexist with nightlife, migrants, and marginalised groups?

PLEX Open Pilot 1
Kerameikou 28 & Kerameikou 30, Athens
Friday 26 September 2025
Starts at 5.00 PM

PROGRAM