1.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
2.
Cycladic art
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The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from 3300 –1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures, Cycladic art therefore comprises one of the three main branches of Aegean art. Almost all information known regarding Neolithic art of the Cyclades comes from the site of Saliagos off Antiparos. Pottery of this period is similar to that of Crete and the Greek mainland, sinclair Hood writes, A distinctive shape is a bowl on a high foot comparable with a type which occurs in the mainland Late Neolithic. These marble figures are scattered around the Aegean, suggesting that these figures were popular amongst the people of Crete. Perhaps the most famous of these figures are musicians, one a harp-player the other a pipe-player, dating to approximately 2500 BCE, these musicians are sometimes considered “the earliest extant musicians from the Aegean. However, this may be a misconception as there is evidence that the idols were originally brightly painted. A majority of the figurines are female, depicted nude, and with arms folded across the stomach, although some archeologists would agree, this interpretation is not generally agreed on by archeologists, among whom there is no consensus on their significance. They have been interpreted as idols of the gods, images of death, childrens dolls. One authority feels they were more than dolls and probably less than sacrosanct idols, suggestions that these images were idols in the strict sense—cult objects which were the focus of ritual worship—are unsupported by any archeological evidence. What the archeological evidence does suggest is that images were regularly used in funerary practice. Yet at least some of them show signs of having been repaired. Furthermore, larger figures were broken up so that only part of them was buried. The figures apparently were buried equally with men and women. Such figures were not found in every grave, while the idols are most frequently found laid on their backs in graves, larger examples may have been set up in shrines or dwelling places. Early Cycladic art is divided into three periods, the art is by no means confined to one of these periods. The art of EC I is best represented on the islands of Paros, Antiparos, and Amorgos, while EC II is primarily seen on Syros, the most important earliest groups are Pelos, Plastiras and Louros. Pelos figurines are of schematic type, both males and females, in standing position with a head and face, compose the Plastiras type, the rendering is naturalistic but also strangely stylized
3.
Athens Metro
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The Athens Metro is a rapid-transit system in Greece which serves the Athens conurbation and parts of East Attica. It incorporates the former Athens-Piraeus Electric Railways, which opened as a steam railway in 1869. Beginning in 1991, Attiko Metro constructed and extended Lines 2 and 3, the metro network merged in 2011 when the Greek government created the Urban Rail Transport Company, a subsidiary of the Athens Urban Transport Organisation. First Chairman and CEO of the company became Kostas Vassiliadis. The system is noted for being modern and efficient, in its own right and it has drastically changed Athens by providing a much-needed solution to the citys traffic and air pollution problem, as well as revitalising many of the areas it serves. An extension of Line 3 is under construction towards Piraeus and also extensions of existing lines. The Athens Metro is actively connected with the means of public transport, such as buses, trolleys, the Athens Tram. The Athens Metro is hailed for its modernity and many of its stations feature works of art, exhibitions, until 28 January 2000, Line 1 was the only rapid-transit line in Athens and Piraeus. The Athens and Piraeus Railway Company opened the line on 27 February 1869 as a railway between Piraeus and Thiseio. It was electrified in 1904, and extended in stages to Kifisia in 1957, from 1976 to 16 June 2011, the Athens-Piraeus Electric Railway Company operated Line 1 independently from the rest of the metro and tram networks. Unlike Lines 2 and 3, it runs almost entirely above ground, since the current Line 1 opened the government has proposed many expansions to the subway network, including a 1963 plan for a fourteen-line subway network. Construction of Lines 2 and 3 began in November 1992 to decrease traffic congestion, Lines 2 and 3, built by Attiko Metro and operated until 2011 by Attiko Metro Operations Company, are known respectively as the red and blue lines and were inaugurated in January 2000. Line 3 was extended to the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport in summer 2004, the Greek government attempted to absorb ISAP into Attiko Metro under Law 2669/1998 so the latter would be responsible for the whole network, but this initiative failed. Athens Metro operations were consolidated when the Greek government enacted Law 3920/2011, replacing AMEL, ISAP and Athens Tram with Urban Rail Transport, the modern incarnation of Line 1 is 25. 6-kilometre long, and serves 24 stations. Together, Lines 2 and 3 are 58. 9-kilometre long, the three-line Athens Metro network serves 61 stations. It owns and operates 57 of them, and OSE owns the remainder on the airport section, the network has four metro interchanges, enabling the lines to interchange with each other at least once. Line 2 and the Attiko Metro portion of Line 3 is entirely underground, Line 1 is primarily in the open, with a tunnel section in central Athens. The airport section of Line 3, east of the tunnel portal near Doukissis Plakentias, is open, in the tunnel sections up and down lines share a common tunnel, except for approaches to stations with an island platform
4.
Cyclades
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The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around the island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat originated, the largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos. Interest lagged, then picked up in the century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantin Brâncuși. Sites were looted and a trade in forgeries arose. The context for many of these Cycladic figurines has been mostly destroyed, another intriguing and mysterious object is that of the Cycladic frying pans. More accurate archaeology has revealed the outlines of a farming and seafaring culture that had immigrated from Anatolia c.5000 BCE. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between c.3300 –2000 BCE, when it was swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete. The culture of mainland Greece contemporary with Cycladic culture is known as the Helladic period, in recent decades the Cyclades have become popular with European and other tourists, and as a result there have been problems with erosion, pollution, and water shortages. There are also many islands including Donousa, Eschati, Gyaros, Irakleia, Koufonisia, Makronisos. The name Cyclades refers to the forming a circle around the sacred island of Delos. Most of the islands are uninhabited. Ermoupoli on Syros is the town and administrative center of the former prefecture. The islands are peaks of a mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands, Milos and Santorini. The climate is dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile, agricultural produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil. Cooler temperatures are in higher elevations and mainly do not receive wintry weather, the Cyclades are bounded to the south by the Sea of Crete. The Cyclades Prefecture was one of the prefectures of Greece and these have been reorganised at the 2011 Kallikratis reform as well
5.
Stathatos Mansion
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The Stathatos building is a neoclassical villa on the Vasilissis Sophias Avenue. It was built in 1895 by the Saxon-Greek architect Ernst Ziller for the Stathatos Family, the house was donated by the Stathatos family to the Greek state. It was restored and used for several events, the committee for bringing the Olympic Games to Greece, Athens 1996 had its headquarters here. Today it is part of the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, the building is composed of two wings, nearly symmetrical, connected by an impressive entrance and a cylindrical atrium. On the whole, the building has many characteristics, symmetry, geometrical order, use of ancient Greek and Roman orders. The entrance is one of the parts of the building, unifying the two wings and giving a character to the building. The plan is composed of a rectangle and two semicircles on the sides of the rectangle. Four columns of the Tuscan order and four composite ones support the roofing, two columns of the Corinthian order give emphasis to the stairs that lead to the covered part of the entrance
6.
Caravaggio
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Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, in scarcely a year or so’s sojourn in Naples, he rapidly established himself once more as the most prominent painter, exploiting high-ranking connections. It was not long before these connections gave him an opening to travel on in 1607 to Malta, governed by the Order of Knights Hospitallers, Caravaggio probably hoped that the Knights would provide a channel whereby he could obtain a pardon from the Papacy. Once more his talents made an instant impression, along with the support of noble patrons and his hopes dashed, he contrived to escape and flee once, which before the end of 1608 led to his cancellation from the rolls of the Order. He made for Syracuse in Sicily, where he was received as a guest by a friend from his Roman days, the painter’s face was disfigured and rumours started to circulate of his death. Various commentators have formulated opinions about his state from works supposedly executed at this period. In fact, Caravaggio’s end is shrouded in mystery, mystery that is rendered only denser by conflicting hypotheses, some speak of a natural death from a persistent fever, others of an assassination by emissaries of the Knights of Malta. The loss of the paintings put the deal and his future in doubt, there is evidence that dogged by a serious fever, he was tended by a local religious confraternity near Porto Ercole, then in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, but succumbed. His death was certified by them as taking place on 18 July 1610, if the story to this point is exact, it is likely he was buried in a paupers’ common grave. As to the place, though this continues to be contested. Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, despite this, his influence on the new Baroque style that eventually emerged from the ruins of Mannerism was profound. The 20th-century art historian André Berne-Joffroy claimed, What begins in the work of Caravaggio is, quite simply, modern painting. Caravaggio was born in Milan where his father, Fermo, was an administrator and architect-decorator to the Marchese of Caravaggio. His mother, Lucia Aratori, came from a family of the same district. In 1576 the family moved to Caravaggio to escape a plague which ravaged Milan, Caravaggios mother died in 1584, the same year he began his four-year apprenticeship to the Milanese painter Simone Peterzano, described in the contract of apprenticeship as a pupil of Titian. Following his initial training under Simone Peterzano, in 1592 Caravaggio left Milan for Rome, in flight after certain quarrels, in Rome, where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for an alternative to Mannerism in religious art that was tasked to counter the threat of Protestantism. Caravaggios innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close observation with a dramatic, even theatrical
7.
El Greco
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Doménikos Theotokópoulos, most widely known as El Greco, was a painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. El Greco was a nickname, a reference to his Greek origin, El Greco was born in Crete, which was at that time part of the Republic of Venice, and the center of Post-Byzantine art. He trained and became a master within that tradition before traveling at age 26 to Venice, in 1570 he moved to Rome, where he opened a workshop and executed a series of works. During his stay in Italy, El Greco enriched his style elements of Mannerism. In 1577, he moved to Toledo, Spain, where he lived and worked until his death, in Toledo, El Greco received several major commissions and produced his best-known paintings. El Grecos dramatic and expressionistic style was met with puzzlement by his contemporaries, El Greco has been characterized by modern scholars as an artist so individual that he belongs to no conventional school. He is best known for tortuously elongated figures and often fantastic or phantasmagorical pigmentation, El Grecos father, Geórgios Theotokópoulos, was a merchant and tax collector. Nothing is known about his mother or his first wife, also Greek, El Grecos older brother, Manoússos Theotokópoulos, was a wealthy merchant and spent the last years of his life in El Grecos Toledo home. El Greco received his training as an icon painter of the Cretan school. In 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was described in a document as a master, meaning he was already a master of the guild and presumably operating his own workshop. Three years later, in June 1566, as a witness to a contract, most scholars believe that the Theotokópoulos family was almost certainly Greek Orthodox, although some Catholic sources still claim him from birth. One of his uncles was an Orthodox priest, and his name is not mentioned in the Catholic archival baptismal records on Crete, prevelakis goes even further, expressing his doubt that El Greco was ever a practicing Roman Catholic. Important for his biography, El Greco, still in Crete, painted his Dormition of the Virgin near the end of his Cretan period. Three other signed works of Doménicos are attributed to El Greco, in 1563, at the age of twenty-two, El Greco was already an enrolled master of the local guild, presumably in charge of his own workshop. He left for Venice a few later, and never returned to Crete. His Dormition of the Virgin, of before 1567 in tempera, the painting combines post-Byzantine and Italian Mannerist stylistic and iconographic elements, and incorporates stylistic elements of the Cretan School. It was natural for the young El Greco to pursue his career in Venice, though the exact year is not clear, most scholars agree that El Greco went to Venice around 1567. Knowledge of El Grecos years in Italy is limited and this may mean he worked in Titians large studio, or not
8.
Ai Weiwei
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Ai Weiwei is a Chinese Contemporary artist and activist. His fathers original surname was written Jiang, Ai collaborated with Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron as the artistic consultant on the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics. As a political activist, he has been highly and openly critical of the Chinese Governments stance on democracy and he has investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of so-called tofu-dreg schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Ais father was the Chinese poet Ai Qing, who was denounced during the Anti-Rightist Movement, in 1958, the family was sent to a labour camp in Beidahuang, Heilongjiang, when Ai was one year old. They were subsequently exiled to Shihezi, Xinjiang in 1961, where lived for 16 years. Upon Mao Zedongs death and the end of the Cultural Revolution, in 1978, Ai enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy and studied animation. In 1978, he was one of the founders of the avant garde art group the Stars, together with Ma Desheng, Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Li Shuang, Zhong Acheng. The group disbanded in 1983, yet Ai participated in regular Stars group shows, The Stars, Ten Years,1989, from 1981 to 1993, he lived in the United States. For the first few years, Ai lived in Philadelphia and San Francisco, he studied English at the University of Pennsylvania, later, he moved to New York City. He studied briefly at Parsons School of Design, Ai attended the Art Students League of New York from 1983 to 1986, where he studied with Bruce Dorfman, Knox Martin and Richard Pousette-Dart. He later dropped out of school, and made an out of drawing street portraits. During this period, he gained exposure to the works of Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, and Jasper Johns, Ai befriended beat poet Allen Ginsberg while living in New York, following a chance meeting at a poetry reading where Ginsberg read out several poems about China. Ginsberg had travelled to China and met with Ais father, the noted poet Ai Qing, when he was living in the East Village, Ai carried a camera with him all the time and would take pictures of his surroundings wherever he was. The resulting collection of photos were selected and is now known as the New York Photographs. At the same time, Ai became fascinated by blackjack card games and he is still regarded in gambling circles as a top tier professional blackjack player according to an article published on blackjackchamp. com. In 1993, Ai returned to China after his father became ill, in 1999, Ai moved to Caochangdi, in the northeast of Beijing, and built a studio house – his first architectural project. Due to his interest in architecture, he founded the architecture studio FAKE Design, in 2000, he co-curated the art exhibition Fuck Off with curator Feng Boyi in Shanghai, China. Ai is married to artist Lu Qing, and has a son from an extramarital relationship, in 2005, Ai was invited to start blogging by Sina Weibo, the biggest internet platform in China
9.
George Condo
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George Condo is an American contemporary visual artist working in the mediums of painting, drawing, sculpture and printmaking. He currently lives and works in New York City, Condo studied Art History and Music Theory at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. Throughout his early life he studied guitar and composition while pursuing his lifelong interest in painting and drawing and their first and only single, Jeffrey I Hear You/Elephant Man was produced by David 198Thomas of Pere Ubu. In 1979 Condo met Jean-Michel Basquiat for the first time when the Girls opened for Basquiat’s band Gray at the downtown nightclub Tier 3, after this meeting Condo moved to Ludlow Street in New York City to pursue his career as an artist. In 1980 Condo became a member of the Punk/Blues band Hi Sheriffs of Blue. Along with Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, Condo was instrumental in the revival of painting from the 1980s onward. Condo’s work has been influential to many artists of his generation, the first public exhibitions of his work took place in New York City at various East Village galleries from 1981 to 1983. During this period he worked in Andy Warhol’s factory, primarily in the production studio applying diamond dust to Warhol’s Myths series. He moved briefly to Los Angeles and had his first solo exhibition there in 1983 at Ulrike Kantor Gallery, after returning to New York later that year he made his first trip to Europe. Condo moved to Cologne, Germany where he met and worked with artists from the Mulheimer Freiheit group, including Walter Dahn. His first solo exhibition in Europe was in 1984 at Monika Sprüth Gallery, already close friends with Basquiat by this time, Condo met Keith Haring back in New York and the two remained lifelong friends until Haring’s death from AIDS in 1990. Several of Condo’s most significant works from this period, such as Dancing to Miles, between 1985 and 1995 Condo lived and worked mostly in hotels and rented studios between Paris and New York, while continuing to exhibit extensively in the United States and Europe. Condo was introduced by Haring to the American writer and artist Brion Gysin, Condo and Burroughs collaborated on numerous paintings and sculptures between 1988 and 1996. Selected works from their collaborations were exhibited in 1997 at Pat Hearn Gallery, Condo and Burroughs also worked together on a collection of writings and etchings titled Ghost of Chance, which was published by the Whitney Museum in 1991. Guattari wrote extensively on Condo’s work, including an introductory text, of Condo’s paintings Guattari wrote, “There is then a very specific ‘Condo effect’ which separates you from all the painters you seem to reinterpret. In addition to commissions for book covers, such as Jack Kerouac’s Book of Sketches, for which he wrote the introduction. Most notably, in 2010 Condo collaborated with rapper Kanye West and created a series of paintings for Wests album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and various singles. Kanye West uses a Condo painting as his Twitter image and Condo has painted a Hermès Birkin Bag for West that West gave to Kim Kardashian, all variations reflect themes found throughout the West album, and were all considered for the cover
10.
Acropolis Museum
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The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock and on the slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman. It also lies over the ruins of a part of Roman, the museum was founded in 2003, while the Organization of the Museum was established in 2008. It opened to the public on 20 June 2009, nearly 4,000 objects are exhibited over an area of 14,000 square metres. The Organization for the Construction of the new museum is chaired by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, the first museum was on the Acropolis, it was completed in 1874 and underwent a moderate expansion in the 1950s. However, successive excavations on the Acropolis uncovered many new artifacts which significantly exceeded its original capacity, creation of a gallery for the display of the Parthenon Marbles has been key to all recent proposals for the design of a new museum. The first architectural competition to design a new museum was held in 1976 and was limited to participants from Greece, both the 1976 competition and one that followed it in 1979 failed to produce any results mainly because the plots of land selected for the proposed constructions were deemed unsuitable. In 1989, a competition for the design of the new Acropolis Museum was announced that would be international. A choice of three sites was provided. This competition was won by the Italian architects, Manfredi Nicoletti, in retrospect, the location of the new museum was rather straightforward, the large lot of the unused Camp Makrygianni gendarmerie barracks, opposite the Theater of Dionysus. The barracks were built on land and a limited number of expropriations of surrounding private houses were needed to free up the necessary space. The main building of the old barracks, the neoclassical Weiler Building, has been renovated, the fourth competition had made no provision for the preservation of the ancient site. These were met to a degree only after local and international campaigners exposed this oversight, the new plans were adjusted so that the building was elevated above ground, on pillars. Competition was open only to architectural practices by invitation and it was won by New York–based architect, Bernard Tschumi, excavation has revealed two layers of modest, private roadside houses and workshops, one from the early Byzantine era and another from the classical era. Once the layout and stratigraphy of the findings were established, suitable locations for the pillars were identified. These traverse the soil to the bedrock and float on roller bearings able to withstand a Richter scale magnitude 10 earthquake. Greek officials expressed their hope that the new museum will help in the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, the museum is located by the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill, on the ancient road that led up to the sacred rock in classical times. The entrance to the building is on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street and directly adjacent to the Akropoli metro station the red line of the Athens Metro, the design by Bernard Tschumi was selected as the winning project in the fourth competition
11.
Epigraphical Museum
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The Epigraphical Museum of Athens, Greece, is unique in Greece and the largest of its kind in the world. Its collection comprises 14,078, mostly Greek, inscriptions and it is situated in the south wing of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Only the courtyards, lobby and four rooms are open to the public, a full photographic archive of the collection is being assembled for future visitors. Inscriptiones Graecae, Consilio Et Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarium Berolinensis Et Brandenburgensis Editae Ministry of Culture, delphi, The Bellybutton of the Ancient World
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Evangelismos station 
