ViZ Laboratory for Visual Culture
An Athens School of Fine Arts initiative supported by the Onassis Foundation and the City of Athens
A constantly evolving institute in the heart of Athens, for experimenting with the fluid borders between artistic production, the public realm, urban experience, and contemporary arts education.
Photo: Pinelopi Gerasimou
ViZ was founded as a research center for the study of phenomena relating to visual culture in the prevailing digital and post-digital condition, drawing materials from the ways in which new generations of Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA) students experience the Internet, digital culture, computational megastructures, apps, and communications and social media platforms. The ViZ Laboratory for Visual Culture is a hybrid-use environment that reflects the fresh educational models adopted by the newly-founded ASFA Workshops 11 and 12. This ASFA initiative is supported by the Onassis Foundation, and the Athens Development and Destination Management Agency (run by the City of Athens).
A hybrid arts space
Under the artistic direction of Kostis Stafylakis, ViZ has curated a complex program of events from its very first months of operation, inviting artists from Greece and around the world to participate. The former Bar Guru Bar on Theatrou Square has been transformed into a hybrid-use venue that organizes and hosts seminars and workshops, experimental exhibitions by students drawn from the breadth of the Athens School of Fine Arts’ workshops, public talks and exhibitions by international artists, and performances and screenings, all of which cover a wide range of issues stretching from arts activism to gaming culture. During the pandemic, ViZ is hosting online seminars with international artists, and building new digital channels for connecting with the public.
