Deste Foundation

The Foundation was established in Geneva in 1983 by collector Dakis Joannou, together with curators Adelina von Fürstenberg and Efi Strousa. Ever since, DESTE has been organizing exhibitions and has been supporting projects and publications internationally. Through an exhibition program that promotes emerging as well as established artists, the DESTE Foundation aims to broaden the audience for con

temporary art, to enhance opportunities for young artists and to explore the connections between contemporary art and culture. The flexibility of DESTE’s exhibition schedule enables the Foundation to respond to what is current in the art world and to embark on interesting projects on short notice. DESTE’s program also extends to curatorial projects and special events that explore the connections between art and fashion, music, film, architecture, design, and contemporary culture. From its inception until 1998, DESTE organized and supported shows in Greece, Cyprus and Switzerland. These shows include Cultural Geometry (1988),

Psychological Abstraction (1989), Artificial Nature (1990), Post Human (1992-1993), and Everything That’s Interesting is New (1996), a series of exhibitions that drew on the holdings of the Dakis Joannou Collection. In 1998 the DESTE Foundation moved to its first permanent space in Neo Psychico, Athens, where an ambitious exhibition program developed, including Global Vision (1999), Jeff Koons’ A Millennium Celebration (1999-2000) and Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s Masters of the Universe (2000). As part of the Athens 2004 Cultural Program, the DESTE Foundation mounted Monument to Now, the Foundation’s most ambitious project to date, a group show with more than 60 participating artists, curated by Dan Cameron, Jeffrey Deitch, Allison Gingeras, Massimiliano Gioni and Nancy Spector. Since January 2006, DESTE has been housed in a renovated former sock factory in Nea Ionia, Athens. The exhibition program of the new space was inaugurated by Panic Room (2006-2007), a group show with works on paper from The Dakis Joannou Collection, and by the Yellow Room Projects Anathena (2006-2007) and Part Time Punks (2007), both of which were selected through an open call. Recent DESTE shows

include Fractured Figure (2007–2008) and A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST (2009). Apart from the shows that draw on works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, the DESTE Foundation also initiates a number of ongoing projects: the DESTE Prize, awarded biannually to an emerging Greek artist, the Hydra Slaughterhouse Project and the destefashioncollection. To further support its mission, DESTE has also established the Contemporary Greek Artists’ Archive, a helpful resource for curators and researchers, as well as a specialized art library which is open to the public.

08/01/2026

The DESTE Foundation was honored by the Academy of Athens during a Ceremonial Session held at the Academy’s iconic building on Thursday, December 18th, 2025. The Foundation was awarded a Prize of the Order of Humanities and Fine Arts,

“for its long-standing, extensive, and distinguished exhibition, research, and publishing program, both in Greece and internationally“.

The Award was presented to the Founder and President of the DESTE Foundation, Mr. Dakis Joannou, by the President of the Academy of Athens, Dr. Michalis Tiverios.

📸 1
The iconic building of the Academy of Athens.
Photo© C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
📸 2
The Main Hall of the Academy of Athens.
Photo© C messier, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
📸 3
View from the Award Ceremony.
Photo: Eleni Papadaki/PHOTOPRESS T&Α Anagnostopoulos
📸 4
Dakis Joannou accepting the Award from Dr. Michalis Tiverios.
Photo: Thodoris Anagnostopoulos/PHOTOPRESS T&Α Anagnostopoulos
📸 5
View following the Award Ceremony.
Pictured from left to right: Regina Alivisatos, Yorgos Tzirtzilakis, Dakis Joannou, Lietta Joannou, Aliossa Grissin, Maria Joannou.
Photo: Yorgos Chatzivasileiou/PHOTOPRESS T&Α Anagnostopoulos
📸 6
The award presented to the DESTE by the Academy of Athens.

31/10/2025

📣 LAST DAY OF THE EXHIBITION 🎉

✨️ It's the last day to visit the exhibition "Apocalypse Now and Then" by Andra Ursuţa ✨️

This exhibition continued the DESTE Foundation’s tradition of commissioning bold, site-specific installations that reimagine the boundaries of contemporary art and marks Ursuţa’s first major exhibition in Greece.

Installed both inside and outside the Slaughterhouse, the show transforms the space into a notional museum. The DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse - a former abattoir perched above the sea - becomes a stage for Ursuţa’s monumental yet spectral figures. "Apocalypse Now and Then " is not about a single moment of collapse but about the recursive fantasy of endings - the ancient world looking toward the abyss and our own time mythologizing ruins that never were.

📍At the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

🕛 Opening Hours:
11:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00

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Installation view, "Atrophy Room," 2015
📷 Dario Lasagni

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

29/10/2025

✨️ LAST DAYS TO VISIT THE EXHIBITION✨️

📣 On view until Friday, October 31st, 2025.

Andra Ursuţa, "Apocalypse Now and Then"

Ursuţa draws from the visual language and displays strategies of archaeological museums to invent faux-historicist artefacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. "Apocalypse Now and Then" plunges viewers into a truncated historiography where passingly familiar ancient tropes, grotesque votives, and scarred bronze figures hover between archaeology and fiction. The DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse—a former abattoir perched above the sea—becomes a stage for Ursuţa’s monumental yet spectral figures. Installed both inside and outside the Slaughterhouse, the show transforms the space into a notional museum.

📍At the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

🗓 Duration: June 24, 2025 - October 31, 2025

🕛 Opening Hours:
Daily 11:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00

-

Installation view
📷 Dario Lasagni

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

27/10/2025

✨️ LAST WEEK TO VISIT THE EXHIBITION✨️

📣 On view until Friday, October 31st, 2025.

Andra Ursuţa, "Apocalypse Now and Then"

Ursuţa draws from the visual language and displays strategies of archaeological museums to invent faux-historicist artefacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. "Apocalypse Now and Then" plunges viewers into a truncated historiography where passingly familiar ancient tropes, grotesque votives, and scarred bronze figures hover between archaeology and fiction. The DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse—a former abattoir perched above the sea—becomes a stage for Ursuţa’s monumental yet spectral figures. Installed both inside and outside the Slaughterhouse, the show transforms the space into a notional museum.

📍At the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

🗓 Duration: June 24, 2025 - October 31, 2025

🕛 Opening Hours:
Daily 11:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00
Tuesday closed

-

Installation view
📷 Dario Lasagni

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

25/10/2025

✨️ EXHIBITION ON VIEW UNTIL OCTOBER 31st ✨️

Andra Ursuţa, "Apocalypse Now and Then"

Ursuţa draws from the visual language and displays strategies of archaeological museums to invent faux-historicist artefacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. "Apocalypse Now and Then" plunges viewers into a truncated historiography where passingly familiar ancient tropes, grotesque votives, and scarred bronze figures hover between archaeology and fiction. The DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse—a former abattoir perched above the sea—becomes a stage for Ursuţa’s monumental yet spectral figures. Installed both inside and outside the Slaughterhouse, the show transforms the space into a notional museum.

📍At the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

🗓 Duration: June 24, 2025 - October 31, 2025

🕛 Opening Hours:
Daily 11:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00
Tuesday closed

-

Installation view
📷 Dario Lasagni

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

20/10/2025

◽️ Exhibition on view ◽️

✨️LAST TWO WEEKS TO VISIT THE EXHIBITION✨️

Andra Ursuţa, "Apocalypse Now and Then"

Ursuţa draws from the visual language and displays strategies of archaeological museums to invent faux-historicist artefacts belonging to a defunct civilization whose relics seem to speak to the anxieties of our present. "Apocalypse Now and Then" plunges viewers into a truncated historiography where passingly familiar ancient tropes, grotesque votives, and scarred bronze figures hover between archaeology and fiction. The DESTE Foundation’s Slaughterhouse—a former abattoir perched above the sea—becomes a stage for Ursuţa’s monumental yet spectral figures. Installed both inside and outside the Slaughterhouse, the show transforms the space into a notional museum.

📍At the DESTE Foundation Project Space, Slaughterhouse, Hydra

🗓 Duration: June 24, 2025 - October 31, 2025

🕛 Opening Hours:
Daily 11:00-13:00 & 18:00-21:00
Tuesday closed

-

Installation view
📷 Dario Lasagni

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

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Telephone

+302102758490

Website

http://www.deste.gr/

Address

11 Filellinon & Em. Pappa Street, N. Ionia
Athens
14234

Deste Foundation

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