THE SYMBOL Exemplifying our philosophy of design, the common iron boot scraper that is found in the city of Athens is a testament to the history of design within the urban metropolis. The simple, evocative form, outlines the depth to which design makes itself manifest in the most humble of transitional spaces.

THE MOVEMENT Founded by Katerina Papanikolopoulos in 2021, the non-profit Athens Design Forum (ADF) advocates for overlooked and generative design histories interwoven with global labor and migration patterns.

ADF 2021 inaugural programming involved 12 physical events in 7 neighborhoods and drew on its five pillars – providing access to culturally significant residences and studios, curated exhibitions, seminars, workshops, and initiating archival studies. Participants included The Benaki Museum Shop, Kostas Lambridis, Theodore Psychoyos, Zoë Paul, The Alekos Fassianos Estate, The Delta Restaurant at The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, Carwan Gallery, The Vorres Museum, Workshop Dionisis Sotovikis, and more.

Following the inaugural events, ADF 2022 developed diasporic collaborations in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, and Odessa, Ukraine. Invited to be a cultural partner of COLLECTIBLE in Brussels, BE, Athens Design Forum spearheaded a collaboration with Palestinian designer Dima Srouji, revealing the collective histories of glass-making in the Mediterranean region. For 5VIE Design Week in Milan, ADF unveiled two new exhibitions – ROUTE-IN by Tbilisi-based Rooms Studio and CHTHONIC by Peter Speliopoulos in collaboration with New York-based design gallery Les Ateliers Courbet.

The 2023-24 season provides an evolution of the aforementioned through the ‘ANTHROPOS-TOPOS’ theme, dissecting how humans and places coexist at the proxy of design with an emphasis on the act of labor. ADF inaugurated the theme in December 2022 by unearthing Menelaos Karamaghiolis' film archives, including a rare screening of Gloria Olivae (1987). In March 2022, ADF organized the first Athens satellite of the global platform for SWANA cinema, Shasha Movies, presenting contemporary Iraqi video artists in conversation with Cypriot artist Marina Xenofontos’ film, 'Sunlight Vandalism'.

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 presented 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 encapsulating 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, follows the screening.

ADF is featured in over 24 leading international and regional publications, among them Architectural Digest, DOMUS, Wallpaper* and Office Magazine, while ADF’s digital presence engages audiences from over ninety-six countries.

“Athens, ‘Athina’ – in Greek, the word is full of air when spoken – it embodies a certain lightness. I moved to Athens to encounter the enigma I had seen as a child. The ointments of the church, the chants of the markets…. a city of built structures amongst monolithic hills. A city of migratory power – all is done in the act of passing, in the movement of ideas the city embodies”

–– Katerina Papanikolopoulos for IDEAT, September/October 2022