Athens Design Forum

Katerina Papanikolopoulos is the founder of Athens Design Forum, a non-profit advocating for overlooked and generative design histories interwoven with global labor and migration patterns. ADF’s 2021 inaugural programming shaped 12 events in 7 Athenian neighborhoods – broadening the international recognition of contemporary Athens through a cultural narrative axis. Since 2020, ADF’s programming has been highlighted in over 30 publications including Architectural Digest, Wallpaper*, DOMUS, and Office Magazine. In 2022, ADF launched international collaborations with ROUTE-IN by Tbilisi-based Rooms Studio and CHTHONIC by Peter Speliopoulos during Milan Design Week 2022. As a cultural partner of Collectible Fair 2022, ADF introduced a retrospective of Palestinian designer Dima Srouji in Brussels, Belgium. ADF’s 2023 ‘Anthropos-Topos’ theme informs how humans coexist with labor at the proxy of design. Papanikolopoulos’ curatorial programming envisions photography and film as integral, critical methodologies to decipher design’s social role – bringing Iraqi contemporary video art co-presented with global streaming platform Shasha Movies and the critique of Menelaos Karamaghiolis’ archival film, Gloria Olivae to Athenian audiences. For Milan Design Week 2023 x Cinema Parentesi, ADF premiered the filmography of Mohamed Khan (El Batikha) and Marta Rodríguez (Chircales). In Fall 2023, ADF presented The Potent Image of Yugantar Collective, a double-screening and accompanying interview with director Deepa Dhanraj. For Milan Design Week 2024, ADF x Isabella Barkett present 'THE ECHO OF THE FEAST THAT CALLS ME', a double-screening of Moroccan directors Izza Genini and Hicham Gardaf. In 2023, Athens Design Forum initiated photographic archival investigations to develop publicly accessible knowledge surrounding Greek design and architecture, introducing The Vithoulkas Archive.