Exposition was carrying the scars of economic crisis together with the depressive atmosphere felt in Greece, being one of the countries, which felt the economical crisis in Europe the most, and inside the city beside the touristic places of Athens.  This year the exposition, which hosted a lot of important galleries in the world such as White Chappel, Gagosian in the past, was realized with relatively young and new galleries. It hosted some important galleries of Athens such as AD Gallery, Kalfayan Gallery from Greece together with a lot of galleries from Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Holland. Acting from my own experience of being the curator of the Collecting the Images of the Sensible in the exposition, we should definitely say that a very professional exposition organization was carried out.  The exposition was offering a lot of events all together with art talks, area separated for collectors, foundations, initiatives, education section for the children as well.

As the director of the exposition Alexis Caniaris and Pantelis Arapinis, who has been the participator since the first exposition and is one of the consultant of it as well as being the owner of AD Gallery that is Athens' one of the most important galleries, states that it is true that the exposition has lost some important names especially when compared to the first ones, yet it is also true that it furthered for better after the crisis. What they have been working on and aiming at in the last few years is to host countries, which are geographically in a middle point such as the Balkans, Middle East and Turkey and to attain reputable, leading position again by reaching to a good spot in this market, rather than trying to be an exposition that is dominant to Europe such as the world's big expositions like Art Basel, Frieze or Fiac.

Coming to the galleries and the events in the exposition: we can be proud that Collecting the Images of the Sensible exhibition, hosting 7 collections from Turkey, has attracted attention. It was an exhibition that was surprising for its spectators with its selection, its collection as well as the conceptual framework, and with its partaking artists Nil Yalter, Nilbar Güreş, Erinç Seymen, Nezaket Ekici, Necla Rüzgar, Sarah Morris, Cindy Sherman, Pınar Yolaçan, Ardan Özmenoğlu, Leyla Gediz, Julian Opie, Canan Şenol. The issues that the spectators spoke in curiosity and questioned were the existing collectors collecting contemporary art in Turkey and so many political work being produced over on the 'female image'. I think the question that I heard the most was  'Can you show these works in Turkey?' The most conspicuous works were Nilbar Güreş's Unknown Spots patterns, Necla Rüzgar's Close Up painting and Nezaket Ekic's National Anthem video.

The video-music arrangement of Pipilotti Rist’s Super Subjective from the collection of Dimitris Daskalopoulos, who is one of the most important collector of Greece, was right next Turkish exhibition. The video, in which the details of technology and natural life are presented in abstract close-up images, 'organic objects' against the cold metal objects such as wire, cable, thread, rope were presented together, yet indiscriminately indicating the dead/alive dilemma. This overall conceptual perspective was creating almost a romantic, restful atmosphere with the music and the lyrics that one can sit in front and watch for minutes.

Another exhibition in Art Athina, which attracted attention with exhibitions and parallel events more than the galleries, was Art Athina Contemporaries realized with the curator Artemis Potamianou: It was a Statement Made exhibition. Artemis Potamianou's selection and arrangement was definitely worth to talk over and was exhibiting a successful attitude.  It was making you live an experimental process on a labyrinth like route that was not connected directly, but was getting you ready for the next art piece. While the exhibition was questioning the economical crisis that is effecting the whole world and felt particularly in Greece, its reasons rooted from the past, the past and the attitude that the other countries developed for this situation, while on the other hand it was also focusing on the migration problem in the past, which came into question again.  In the exhibition, in which each of the artists who is taking part in the exposition, were chosen from the artists that the galleries represent- the works of Harm Weistra, Eleni Mylonas, Aggelos Antonopoulos, Anastassis Stratakis and Vincenzo Todaro were the most conspicuous ones.

There were really exciting initiatives from Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Canada, Sweden, Romania, England, Cyprus, Argentina, Germany as well as Greece, in the section separated for platforms and initiatives. The centre of attention were Parabola from Sweden, which realizes short film festival within the periphery of today's activism, politics, popular culture discussions and organize concert, discussions, exhibitions in their own space, and ABC, who questioned object-body relation in their performance during the exposition by turning their bodies into objects.  Rather than the gallery on the ground floor, there was more a colorful situation with performances, stagings on the platform.

​All these side events, different galleries from various parts of the world, works produced in different mediums form all periods passed from Art Athina and ended. It looks like Art Athina is going to reach its past effect in the up coming years if it concentrates on middle east, Turkey and the Balkans as it aimed in order to gain its energy in the past, and make a programme accordingly.