The Onassis Foundation gives life back to Logginou Grove at Mets

In collaboration with the Municipality of Athens

In an ever-evolving town which takes constantly new shape, the Onassis Foundation reconstructs sport courts and playgrounds enriching the urban character of the most historic neighborhoods of Athens with everyday artworks, as part of the OnAthens initiative.

A park, a playground, and a basketball court are about to upgrade the urban landscape of Athens. Next stop, the neighborhood of Mets. The Onassis Foundation breathes new life to an abandoned park in the Athenian center, while at the same time supporting young artists. One year after the creative intervention at Neos Kosmos neighborhood, as well as the renovation of Moschato Senior High School court, the Onassis Foundation renovates the playground and ‘gives life’ to Logginou Grove, in collaboration with the Municipality of Athens.

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An urban park gets a new life

In one of the much-talked-about parks at the heart of Athens, Logginou Grove is born again, with more than 2,500 new plantings in an area of 750 square meters. Adhering to the ecological identity of the Onassis Foundation and the need of the neighborhood’s residents for more green spaces, the new plantings are about to contribute significantly to the grove’s biodiversity and enhance its ecosystem balance. Intersection of pathways in a total area of 2,200 square meters, with natural, earthen fixed floor, aquatic interventions ensuring an environmentally friendly maintenance, fencing and benches invite both the residents of Mets and the passers-by to pause and enjoy this forgotten Athenian park.

The project takes into consideration the special features of Logginou Grove, where many diverse activities are combined.

– Marios Markatis and Iasonas Koutsouris, U can't stop Us

Photo: Andreas Simopoulos

The artists, Iasonas Koutsouris and Marios Markatis

The neighborhood’s baskets turned into art

Two young visual artists, Marios Markatis and Iasonas Koutsouris, members of U can't stop Us, make an intervention at Logginou Grove, Mets, with two colorful graffities that transform the open-air basketball court and an adjacent wall. The two artists treated the rectangular space of the court as if it were a painting frame. The rules of the game, reflected in the lines and the boundaries of the court,

are intertwined with abstract visual gestures. The required lining is still there, but subverted: the center circle, the sidelines and the baselines, the free throw and three-point lines, the semicircles and the outline of the backboard with the rim remain distinct but integrated into a painting composition. A game in such a court thus becomes more vivid and enjoyable both for the players and the spectators. And looking the court from up above, with a bird’s eye view, one can see a living painting at the heart of the city unfolding before their very eyes. The ‘neighborhood’s baskets’ become universal, a whole world.

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“The project takes into consideration the special features of Logginou Grove, where many diverse activities are combined. So, we decided to create a design that uses shapes starting independently and ending up merging at the center. A vanishing point is created in that way, which reflects the capacity of the park to unite all those shapes and activities enacting a small community of its own. Then, following the same idea, we created a similar pattern on the wall surface, adding the notion of time through a transition from day to night.” – Marios Markatis and Iasonas Koutsouris

The playground of Logginou Grove comes back to life

For the Onassis Foundation, Athens is a city-living organism, full of interesting encounters and people who interact with their city, their district, and their neighborhood. And that’s why the Onassis Foundation explores the city daily. Recognizing the importance of play, but also of culture in our everyday lives, it sets in action the OnAthens initiative with works by contemporary Greek artists in sport courts across the city. Aiming at a more ecological, ‘green’ approach to the urban identity of the Mets neighborhood, it takes upon full renovations of the basketball court and the playground of Logginou Grove, in collaboration with the Municipality of Athens. Bright, vibrant colors, new modern equipment, and full renovation of a historic but forgotten park at Mets.

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Photo: Dimitris Michalakis

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