Platforms Project - Independent Art Fair, the international fair of the independent art scene and meeting place for art groups - platforms and artists from 25 countries, will be presented at Tobacco Factory with a multifaceted parallel programme.

Platforms Project 2024 - Independent Art Fair will be presented this year from 10 to 13 October 2024 in the iconic building of the Tobacco Factory (218 Lenorman, 104 43) with workshops, performances, talks and presentations by the participating groups. This year, Platforms Project 2024 will be presented in the historic building of the Tobacco Factory, which has been linked to major art exhibitions and has been transformed into a contemporary cultural and social space open to all, a centre for meeting and exchanging ideas. It is therefore an ideal venue for Platforms Project 2024, which for twelve consecutive years has provided the conditions and space for hundreds of artists and theorists from around the world in the visual arts and beyond to meet and exchange ideas.

The project is directed by Artemis Potamianou and Michalis Argyrou. Artemis Potamianou is the Artistic Director of Platforms Project 2024.

Platforms Project is an international exhibition which aims to present the independent art scene via artists' groups initiatives by Greek and foreign artists working in Greece and abroad. Platforms Project contributes to the search for solutions to contemporary art issues and to the indicative mapping of artistic activity as it is produced today in the framework of artists' group-platforms.

Platforms Project 2024 will feature platforms from 25 countries (Greece, Spain, UK, Sweden, France, Denmark, Netherlands, Cyprus, Poland, Spain, Russia, Slovenia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Austria, Israel, Turkey, USA, Ukraine, Canada, Finland, Armenia, Italy, Latvia, Germany, UK) having received hundreds of applications following the open online call. 

Platforms Project 2024 will feature 62 art platforms with more than 900 artists, expanding the global network built and communicated over the past twelve years. Platforms Project 2024 will present the following platforms-artists' groups:

adARTes (Greece), Affairs (Foreign Affairs Project) (France, UK), art team Συν (Greece), Artágora (Spain), ArtCode (Greece), Artplatform | elsewhere / museum of forgetting (Netherlands, Sweden), ArtUnitas (Greece), Athens Street Art Festival (Greece, Cyprus, France, USA), AVARTS (Greece), Baza (Greece), CosmiKnot (UK), CUBE ART EDITIONS (Greece),  CultivationCultivation (Greece, Denmark), Daily Temporary (Sweden, Greece), Darling Pearls & Co (UK), Dipola (Greece), Distortion Art (Sweden), Encounters (Greece), EsäLab | Research with ASFA LAB12 (France, Greece), EX-MÊKH (Netherlands), Farfalla (Greece), FESTIVART// TILT PLATFORM//FOCUS//MUSEUM OF FORGETING//MAMA CONTEMPORARY (Greece, Cyprus, Sweden), Foreign (Foreign Affairs Project) (Germany, UK), Free Bloop Group (Poland), Gi-Nekyia (Greece), GO Game Project (Greece, Spain, Russia, Bulgaria, Austria, Slovenia, Kazakhstan), IDI Galleri (Sweden), IGNORABLE (Greece), Jointventura Association IME & Æther Sofia (Bulgaria), Kairos kai Chronos (France, UK), Kapa26art team (Greece), Kunsthalle Graz (Austria), Le Bureau d'Art et de Recherche, Roubaix (France), META-FRASTES (Greece), Metapolis (Greece), Mistake Labs (Greece), Molekyl gallery (Sweden), Nulobaz Cooperative Art Space (Israel),

oxymoron (Greece), Events Horizon (Greece), PASAJ (Turkey), POEMAKA (Greece, Germany), Postcards from home (Greece), POW WOW (Greece), Prospect Art (USA), Return2ithaca (Greece), Rhythm Section (Germany, UK, Ukraine), Straße der kollektiven Kunst (Netherlands), Studio 22 (UK), Studio44 (Sweden), The Art Coalition - International (Canada, Sweden, UK), THE MUESUM (Sweden, Germany), The Red Boat Projects (Greece), The Shampon Two (UK), Théâtre Dionysos et Apollon et Les Apaches de Patission (Greece, France), Topp & Dubio (Netherlands), Tupajumi foundation (Netherlands), WEDO (Greece), What about Eve? (Greece, Germany, Finland, USA, Armenia, Italy, UK, Austria, Cyprus, Latvia), When You're Calmer (Germany), Φart (Greece). 

During the exhibition of the Platforms Project 2024 at the Tobacco Factory, there will be workshops, talks, performances and activities. Platforms Project is not an impersonal event, but an artistic community full of energy and freshness, giving time and space to an alternative art that could not be expressed elsewhere.

Platforms Project 2024 will present 52 performances from the participating platforms in the exhibition space during the days and hours of the exhibition.

A very important part of the Platforms project is the KIDS LAB educational programme for children aged 4-16. The educational programme is designed by the platform "Mistake Labs", which invites children and teenagers to participate in an artistic activity which makes use of the supposed mistake in the creative process. Participants draw invisibly, following a subversive process of creating the drawing. They play by chance with imaginative materials, trusting the decisions of their hands and eyes. Their idea is born unexpectedly and appears in front of them, taking advantage of "mistakes". Their own creations will be transformed into personal works to take home.

An experiential workshop for parents and children will take place at the same time.

"Words that hurt, words that smile…artfully": Artistic workshop (for children 9+) on verbal bullying» 

Under our "linguistic microscope", six (6) thematic areas of diversity (appearance, intelligence/school performance, gender, national/ethnic origin, socio-economic status, illness/disability) will be examined, with the aim of raising metalinguistic awareness and empowering children, parents, and educators on issues related to verbal abuse and discrimination, as well as overcoming them through artistic creation.

(Art Workshop Facilitators: Roumpini Davilla, Maria Dekoulakou, Olympiada Isaia). 

An integral part of the Platforms Project is the parallel programme Open Studios programme, which for the seventh consecutive year will showcase student work and specially designed projects from the workshops of the Athens School of Fine Arts. 

The Platforms Project is the only fair to offer a programme of guided tours to bring contemporary art closer to the public and to meet the artists. The meeting point for the tours is at the entrance of the Tobacco Factory (Tour dates and times: Friday 11, Saturday 12 & Sunday 13 October 2024: 2pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm).

In this year's edition, the parallel programme is even more extensive, with four parallel solo exhibitions by artists from platforms participating in the main programme: Jackie Berridge - Flights of Fancy, Bella Easton – Τα πάντα ρει | Everything flows, Guillaume Krick - Oil Paintings Revisited and Alison Whitmore - Killed Women at ENIA Gallery (55 Messologiou, Piraeus T: +30 210 4619700, www.eniagallery.com).

There will be a DJ set at the opening of the exhibition.

Platforms Project Schedule 2024:
Exhibition Opening: Thursday October 10; 2024 from 18:00 - 22:30
Exhibition duration: From Friday October 11, 2024 to Sunday October 13, 2024
Hours of operation:
Thursday October 10, 18.00 - 22.30
Friday October 11 to Sunday October 13, 12:00 – 21:00

Free entrance upon presentation of an identity card