Deste Foundation

We are pleased to announce our upcoming exhibition titled Gen X: Tales from the Forgotten Generation, a survey of Gen X artists from the Dakis Joannou Collection.

The show will be on view at the DESTE Foundation in Athens, starting on June 11th.

✨ More information, will follow soon! ✨

📷 Video still: Douglas Gordon - Monument for X (1998)

The DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce that this year, the Slaughterhouse Project on Hydra will feature an exhibition by Jamaican artist Nari Ward, who is renowned for his sculptural installations composed of discarded material found and collected in his neighbourhood. By re-contextualizing these found objects, Ward creates thought-provoking juxtapositions that address social and political issues surrounding race, poverty, and consumer culture.

The exhibition will be on view at DESTE's Project Space on Hydra island starting on June 23d.

Portrait of Nari Ward
📷 Alex Dupeux

Courtesy of the artist

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.

📣 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

-

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

© Andra Ursuţa
Courtesy the artist; David Zwirner; Ramiken

✨️ 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

✨️ 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

✨️ 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

✨️ Exhibition on view✨️

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

◽️ 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

◽️ Exhibition on view ◽️

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