2021-25 Overview

ADF’s 2021 inaugural programming shaped 12 events in 7 Athenian neighborhoods – broadening the international recognition of contemporary Athens through a cultural narrative axis. In 2022, ADF launched international collaborations with ROUTE-IN by Tbilisi-based Rooms Studio and acted as a cultural partner of Collectible Fair, introducing a retrospective of Palestinian designer Dima Srouji in Brussels, Belgium. Establishing the theme of ‘ANTHROPOS-TOPOS’ from 2023-24, the core ethos was guided by deciphering how humans coexist with places at the proxy of design, informed by the laboring body. The medium of film acts as a space for re-inscription – design principles are reunited with the sphere of personhood, identity, and collectivity.

For Milan Design Week 2023, ADF partnered with Cinema Parentesi, presenting the films Chircales (Colombia, Marta Rodriguez & Jorge Silva) and El Batikha (Egypt, Mohamed Khan) at BASE Milano. In Fall 2023, ADF premiered The Potent Image of Yugantar Collective, a double-screening and accompanying interview with director Deepa Dhanraj, shared for the first time in Greece, and published The Vithoulkas Archive, a prominent photographic archive of Greek furniture restoration from 1945-1970, enveloping three generations of craftsmen. In April 2024, Athens Design Forum co-curated with Isabella Barkett ‘THE ECHO OF THE FEAST THAT CALLS ME’, a double-screening of Izza Genini’s Aïta (1988, 26’) and Hicham Gardaf’s In Praise of Slowness (2023, 17’) for DOPO? in Milan, investigating sonic landscapes’ relation to space and the inhabitants therein. A feature interview in conversation with Gardaf, The Labyrinth of Sound, followed the screening.

Launching an online editorial in 2024, ADF has since programmed special features and interviews with Dima Srouji (The Land of Glass), Gassia Armenian (The Architecture of Armenian Lace), Yannis Drakoulidis (Portrait of a Space, Kozani), Georges Salameh (Lament of the Absent Waters), Avrilios Karakostas (The Dialectic of Mountains), Museo Casa Mollino (The Skin of River Po, Carlo Mollino), Luna Paiva (The Choreography of Play), Mariam El Gendy (Bridge of Instinct), Francisco Canton (Offset), Ayla Hibri (The Chain: Toys, Metal Welders, Dreamers), and The Sensorial Mass (A photographic archive of Blegen’s Excavations at Prosymna).

The 2025 season was inaugurated with a double-screening of Mexican director Juan Pablo Gonzalez’s The Solitude of Memory and Caballerango hosted by the Cervantes Institute (Athens), accompanied by a feature interview, OF WOUND AND RESISTANCE. For Milan Design Week 2025, Athens Design Forum presented a screening of Tomka dhe shokët e tij (Tomka and His Friends) by director Xhanfise Keko (Albania, 1929–2007), hosted by Dropcity Center for Architecture and Design. A feature interview–The Lantern of Berat, Xhanfise Keko–with Genc Permeti and Ilir Keko, accompanied the release. The film’s enduring language and intentional engagements with architectural discourse are embodied in Keko’s reflection: “It is no coincidence that resistance unfolds in the few places collectively owned by the city's inhabitants.”

ADF is featured in over 24 leading international and regional publications, among them Architectural Digest, e-flux, DOMUS, Wallpaper*, and Office Magazine.

Founder Profile

Athens Design Forum originated from Papanikolopoulos’ creative studio MÁTI GREY, prioritizing literary projections in the design, film, architecture, and photographic cosmos. With a former training in dance and performance, Papanikolopoulos studied the intersection of Art History & Comparative Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2025, she prepares to be an MA candidate at the Architectural Association (History and Critical Thinking in Architecture). Prior to this, Papanikolopoulos builds on engagements with Blum Gallery, Autre Magazine, Assortment Agency, and The Hammer Museum.

Topographic Catalogue

ALBANIA (Xhanfise Keko)
ARGENTINA (01, Francisco Canton) ARGENTINA (02, Luna Paiva)
ARMENIA (Gassia Armenian)
COLOMBIA (Marta Rodríquez y Jorge Silva)
CYPRUS (Marina Xenofontos) ECUADOR (Andrés Altamirano)
EGYPT (Mariam El Gendy)
GEORGIA (Rooms Studio)
KOZANI, GREECE (Yannis Drakoulidis)
INDIA (Deepa Dhanraj of Yugantar Collective)
IRAQ (Shasha Movies) ITALY (Museo Casa Mollino, Fulvio Ferrari) LEBANON (01, Georges Salameh) LEBANON (02, Ayla Hibri)
MEXICO (Juan Pablo Gonzàlez)
MOROCCO (Hicham Gardaf & Izza Genini)
PALESTINE (Dima Srouji)

Partners

INTERNATIONAL: Dropcity Center for Architecture and Design (Milan), Albanian National Film Archive (Tirana), DOPO? Cultural Space (Milan), Artists Support (London), Shasha Movies (Global), Cinema Parentesi x BASE (Milan), The Design Release (New York City, London), Les Ateliers Courbet (New York City), 5VIE Design Week (Milan), COLLECTIBLE (Brussels)

REGIONAL: Alekos Fassianos Estate, Hot Wheels Gallery, The Danish Institute–Athens, Carwan Gallery, The Benaki Museum, The Vorres Museum, The Cervantes Institute–Athens, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center [SNFCC], Kostas Lambridis, Workshop Dionisis Sotovikis, The City of Athens - “Culture is Athens”, Molonglo, Perianth Hotel, Bios, Panas Group.