Vassos Kapantaïs, Valinia Svoronou, Zafos Xagoraris, Larissa Araz, Vartan Avakian, Cevdet Erek, Angela Melitopoulos & Kerstin Schroedinger, Marina Papazyan, Didem Pekün

Curated by Maria-Thalia Karra and Eirini Fountedaki

The AMAN AMAN exhibition is the Athens chapter of the international art project of the same name, which opens on October 8 at the TAVROS exhibition space and on October 9 at the Nikaias Cultural Center, two locations in Athens with a strong refugee and immigrant presence.

Through exhibitions, new artistic commissions, performances, concerts, screenings, and discussions, AMAN AMAN brings to the forefront stories that connect places and people across national borders, shedding light on lesser-known paths of migration, exile, labor, music, solidarity, and everyday life.

AMAN AMAN shifts the focus from borders to the relationships forged through movement. Stories, sounds, and images traverse geographical boundaries, intersect, and are reimagined in different places and times. From the amanes and türküs to the forms of solidarity that developed among Greek and Turkish workers in Germany, from the post-Ottoman Café Aman in New York to contemporary artistic voices from the shores of the Aegean and Anatolia, the project traces the paths of people, ideas, sounds, and cultures, mapping connections that extend far beyond any single geographical boundary.

The exhibition takes place in two neighborhoods that have been shaped by successive waves of refugee and immigrant settlement. In Tavros and Nikaia, the works of the participating artists engage with musical traditions, oral testimonies, cinematic archives, and collective memories, bringing to light micro-stories that rarely find a place in dominant historical narratives.

Through new commissions by TAVROS, created specifically for the exhibition, the artists explore the micro-stories of people and communities, as well as the cultural exchanges that arise from migration—from the Aegean and Anatolia to the cities of Germany and the diaspora communities formed as a result of these migrations.

The exhibition does not view migration merely as a movement from one place to another. It also focuses on what is created along the way and continues to connect people and places across borders. By tracing these paths, the exhibition offers a different way of interpreting the past and the present, through the movements that have shaped—and continue to shape—our lives.

AMAN AMAN is an international artistic project by the Goethe-Institut Athens, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, and TAVROS, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Izmir, the Goethe-Institut Thessaloniki, the Münchner Kammerspiele, İç İçe – Festival für neue anatolische Musik, the Kulturakademie Tarabya, the Piraeus Municipal Theater, and the DFF–Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum Frankfurt.

The program kicked off in June 2026 with an opening event curated by Habibi Kiosk in the garden of the Goethe-Institut Athens, followed by the festival at SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA in Berlin, featuring a multi-day program of screenings, performances, workshops, music, and culinary events. In July, the project’s concert series kicked off in Munich and will continue this fall in Thessaloniki and Izmir. AMAN AMAN’s upcoming stops also include the theatrical productionArtist Unknown* Η Ήβη ήταν εδώ at the Piraeus Municipal Theater, a film program in Frankfurt in collaboration with the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, as well as the next phases of the project in Istanbul.

Exhibition opening at the TAVROS venue and at the Tavros Solidarity School (24 Chrysostomou Smyrnis St., Tavros 17778): October 8, 2026, 7:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.

Exhibition opening at the Nikaia Cultural Center (45 Karakoulouxi St., Nikaia, 18450): October 9, 2026, 4:00–7:00 p.m., with additional events at the Armenian Evangelical Church of Nikaia (see the detailed schedule of the Public Program below)

Exhibition Duration: 8 October 2026 – 30 January 2027

Opening Hours: Wednesday-Thursday-Friday 16:00-20:00, Saturday 12:00-17:00 

TAVROS: 1st floor, 33 Anaxagora Street, 177 78 Athens, Tavros neighborhood

Accessibility: The venue is accessible by elevator, and there is parking at the building’s entrance.

Admission Free