Athens Conservatory Basement Transformed into Contemporary Art Space by NEON

After 40 years of disuse, the 1,800-square-meter basement of the Athens Conservatory—where Maria Callas once trained—has been restored into a contemporary art center. The building, designed in 1959 by Ioannis Despotopoulos (a student of Walter Gropius), underwent a €180,000 renovation led by Dimitris Daskalopoulos, founder of the non-profit NEON. Daskalopoulos, a Greek entrepreneur and CEO of Vivartia, has amassed a collection of 500 works by artists including Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, and Bruce Nauman, and serves on the boards of Tate, New Museum, and Guggenheim. The space launched with IdeasCity, a New Museum format that brought 40 artists and thinkers to Athens for participatory strategy sessions, culminating in a public event on September 24. The inaugural exhibition, Flying over the Abyss, featuring Marina Abramović and Jenny Holzer, opens November 16, having previously been shown in Crete and Thessaloniki. The project is part of Athens' cultural renewal following the opening of the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre by Renzo Piano.