“Hippodamia In Context”, is Victoria Square Project’s residency program for emerging artists that took place, in two consecutive cycles, in 2021. The residency program explored the common ground that emerges when identities come to be viewed as ever-evolving and dynamic and to strengthen community through cross-cultural exchange and artistic production. 

The artists-in-residence worked in small teams, for three months, under the mentorship of Columbia University faculty, collaborating artists and curators, and Victoria Square Project’s team to engage in a series of “contextualizations” of Johannes Pfuhl’s sculpture in Victoria Square, Athens. Through their projects, resident artists engaged the Square as a potential locus for intercultural exchange and community building and explored methodologies for using contentious monuments and public art to facilitate consideration and conversation across diverse communities about history, identity, and belonging.

Gülşah Aykaç, Thomas Diafas, Konstanza Kapsali and Maria Louizou, resident artists of the first cycle, presented their work on September 10-12, 2021. The second group of resident artists, Collectif MASI, Georges Salameh, Melissanthi Spei, presented their artworks on November 26 and December 1-3, 2021. Both groups explored facets of the Athenian contemporary art scene, reflected on the nature of public art in the capital city, and collaborated with Victoria Square neighbors to develop elements of their works. 

Curators: Dimitris Antoniou, Niovi Zarampouka-Chatzimanou

Production Coordinator: Dorothea Kritikou

Residency Coordination: Manon Ceyssel, Dafni Crema, Aggelos Kostamparis

Communication Coordinator: Ioanna Ntali

Community Outreach: Dafni Crema, Marina Naki

Administration: Iro Ziozia

Production assistants: Rinio Balkou-Papadopoulou, Naomi Christophe, Effie Rama, Sotiria Stathatou

Documentation: Naomi Christophe, Ioannis Kampanis, Alexandra Masmanidou

Hippodamia in Context is a collaboration between Victoria Square Project and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Public Humanities Initiative (SNFPHI) at Columbia University, being the first edition of Station One AIR. Focusing on socially engaged artistic practices, Station One AIR for emerging artists wishes to promote the dialogue amongst the Greek artistic scene on a wide range of community engaged practices, aiming at creating a platform of exchange, experimentation, collaboration and collectivity, under VSP’s curatorial research question “Who is the Contemporary Athenian?”. The residency issupported by Counterpoints Arts and Outset Contemporary Art Fund Greece. Victoria Square Project’s Major Donor is the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), in cooperation with Kulturstiftung Allianz.