THE GREEK COSMOS
The Greek word cosmos means jewelry and universe. Cosmos also means to manage, order, organize, develop a strategy, and prepare for battle. The making of weapons, coins and adornment experienced a simultaneous expansion in Iron Age Greece. This growth had been triggered by the import of iron through the Aegean Sea considered as the cradle of Greek civilization.
Greece’s jewelry traditions date back to the Neolithic era. Athens hosts the world's top collections of ancient, medieval and modern jewelry, and is home to enthusiastic jewelry wearers.
Jewelry fulfills important social functions and reflects spiritual beliefs. It mirrors a vibrant heritage that has been long forgotten in the West. Jewelry’s resilient symbols and multi-layered visual language, echoes faith, love, cosmic unity and the divine in Greece.
CONNECTED THROUGH JEWELRY
The intricate project THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS explores jewelry as a means to make contact with collective memory. It connects teachings of the past with the vision of a peaceful tomorrow.
Intrepid navigators, heroic myths, and the struggle for knowing oneself are reflected in THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS. The project offers artists and visitors content, inspiration, meaning, insight, exposure, networking, and documentation.
THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS presents the latest trends in international, collectible contemporary jewelry. The artists’ works - videos and jewelry - form a conceptual mosaic that highlights the maker’s vision through cultural references and interdisciplinary dialectics. Associating jewelry, topography and mythology establishes visual synapses that open new perspectives into understanding the artists’ works.
THE PROGRAM
The THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS program from 8 to 30 May 2026 includes three weeks of jewelry related events in Athens: video screenings and award, exhibitions and jewelry residencies, as well as curated museum visits, jewelry related city walks, experts talks, and jewelry workshops.
Goethe-Institut Athens, a major German cultural organization, hosts the video screenings, which serve as an introduction to the events that follow.
The myths of Orestes, Theseus, and Oedipus lie at the heart of the THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS project. The three myths are connected to Athens’ topography and the city’s self-image; their narrative stands for love and hate, destiny and defiance, hubris and justice, heroism and defeat, loss and sacrifice, prophecy and truth.
THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS connects jewelry, mythology and the genius loci through a step-by-step revelation of the myths’ meaning through seeing, observing, narrating, discussing, walking, evaluating, voting.
A movie titled Three Myths For Athens, shot during the month of events, including experts and artists interviews, and presentation of works, will be screened in a major institution in Germany and/or Greece in Fall 2026/Winter 2027. The movie aims to set an example for the documentation of jewelry events as an art form in its own right, while expanding the radius of THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS in time and space and adding depth to the project’s communication.
Artists and designers working in the field of contemporary jewelry, applied arts and design are welcome to apply for the THREE MYTHS FOR ATHENS programs.
See more details below!
