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.
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An urban park gets a new life
The project takes into consideration the special features of Logginou Grove, where many diverse activities are combined.
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
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Photo: Dimitris Michalakis
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Photo: Dimitris Michalakis
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Photo: Dimitris Michalakis
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Photo: Dimitris Michalakis
