ATHINA GARDEN CITY 

ARTIST
Catriona Gallagher and Fanis Kafantaris
with participating artists and workshop attendants


DATES 
29 - 30th April 2017 | Part 1: Propagation Workshop

17th September 2017 | Part 2: Opening of the new garden ”Hello! I brought you a plant!!”


It has been said that ‘Athens is not a green city’. It may be truer that ‘Athens was always a dry city’. But yet, its streets, parks and squares are lined with flowering, fruiting trees and plants continuously growing. Balconies hang heavy with potted plants while weeds run riot amongst quiet and forgotten places. Athens is in fact a very green city. So why do we fail to see the green at our feet?

Athina Garden City is a project initiated by Catriona Gallagher and Fanis Kafantaris to establish a new garden in the backyard of A – DASH, in Athens. It was instigated as an ongoing project to found a working garden as a host-site for responses to the life of plants in the city of Athens and further afield. The founding of the garden is a conceptual exercise in horticulture, botany and design, creating both a testing ground for ideas and a place in which to meet. The garden will grow and develop, with further interactions and plants introduced over time.

Part 1 of Athina Garden City took place in April 2017 as a Spring workshop on propagating plants by taking cuttings. Participants were invited on a walk up to the nearby Lycabettus hill from A - DASH to take cuttings and help us begin a collection of a wide variety of plants from around the city. The cuttings were planted and those that took root are now growing as the first plants of the garden.

Part 2 of Athina Garden City took place in September 2017, after the heat of summer, celebrating the initial opening of the new garden with ”Hello! I brought you a plant!!”. Artists have been invited to select a plant for the garden and consider its poetic significance to them or their practices and its presence in Athens. The plant collection will be expanded with these artists’ plants, alongside donations and contributions from friends and garden visitors.

As a busy project space and studio, the garden at A - DASH has been designed for flexible usage, able to readjust according to the needs of the project space and the artists’ practices. Part 2 will also therefore present the first constructed elements of the garden’s design.

The opening of the garden involves many collaborators’ inputs, from donators, propagaters and growers, artists and non-artists, who have selected plants for the collection and will be involved in the project in the future.


Participating artists:
Eleni Bagaki, Christos Bourantas, Becky Campbell, Bryony Dunne, Catriona Gallagher, The Artist Gardner, Zoe Giabouldaki, Maelle Gross, Zoe Hatziyanaki, Thomas Hutton, Eva Isleifs, Fanis Kafantaris, Alexia Karavela, Chrysanthi Koumianaki, Daisy Lafarge, Aristeidis Lappas, Susan Laverick, Maro Michalakakos, Dimitris Mitropoulos, Kosmas Nikolaou, Noemi Niederhauser, Vasilis Papageorgeiou, Andreas Sell, Sofia Stevi, Stefania Strouza, Serra Tansel, Jan Uprichard, Paky Vlassopoulou

Catriona Gallagher – https://catrionagallagher.com/

Fanis Kafantaris – http://faniskafantaris.com/

Instagram – @catrigallagher & @faniskaff
#AthinaGardenCity #PlantsinAthens