Deste Foundation, Art museum in Nea Ionia, Greece
The Deste Foundation is a contemporary art centre in Nea Ionia, a northern suburb of Athens. It occupies a former sock factory built in 1931, later renovated by architect Christos Papoulias in 2006. The building holds the Dakis Joannou collection, a specialist art library and an archive on Greek artists.
Dakis Joannou established the Deste Foundation in 1983, before he had begun collecting art himself. From 1983 to 1996, without a permanent space, its Athens shows were held at the House of Cyprus. In May 1998 it opened a museum in a former paper factory in Neo Psychiko, converted by New York architect Christian Hubert; the building, put up in 1931 as a sock factory, was renovated by Christos Papoulias in 2006.
The name Deste comes from the Greek δέστε, "to see". Since 1999 the foundation awards the Deste Prize every two years, and from 2009 it has co-organized an annual show of shortlisted artists with the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art. It also publishes the photo magazine Toiletpaper with Maurizio Cattelan.
The museum is accessible by public transportation and clearly marked at street level, making it easy to find. Visitors should plan time to explore both the current exhibitions and the building's industrial architecture.
A memorable 2014 exhibition transformed the space into a puppet house with handcrafted figures representing the families of an artist and the founder. This unusual staging demonstrated how art spaces can become theaters for personal narratives.
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