NOUCMAS
Kasou 3
11364 ATHENS
Greece
- Arts
Noucmas is an artist-run non-profit cultural organization based in the neighborhood of Kypseli in Athens, Greece. Founded in 2019, Noucmas offers artists studios and an exhibition space for cultural events. The organization has three core members, Katerina Charou, Olga Souri and Vincent Meyrignac and operates on a non-profit basis. In addition to its permanent team, Noucmas collaborates frequently with various artists, cultural managers, curators and researchers on a project basis. The overall yearly budget for 2022 was around 20.000 euros. The organization's budget is mainly derived from self-funding, donations, and project grants from various sources including European private foundations or the Ministry of Culture in Greece. Noucmas mainly implements visual art exhibitions as well as film projections, concerts, talks and workshops. We developed a wide network of independent cultural spaces and collectives in Athens, and all over Greece, as well as in Albania, Hungary, Serbia, Turkey, France and Germany.
Noucmas' three main goals are to empower the young Athenian artistic community, to remain in a constant dialogue with the neighborhood, and to promote international artistic and cultural exchanges . Noucmas is committed to addressing social and political issues, such as gender equality, sustainability of artists, urban transformation, minority issues among other thematics. We believe visual art allows us to treat those thematics more profoundly because it necessitates a step back from the mainstream public discourse. We try to demystify the individualistic function of artists and encourage collaboration with other artists and art spaces. We always organize group shows to promote collaboration as we value the critical conversations that an art event can generate in the public.
Lastly, we try to engage with neighboring countries which are geographically and culturally closer to Greece but there are less artistic connections such as Turkey the Balkan region and Eastern Europe. We value establishing links with those regions and promote a conception of art that is not reduced to Greece and Western Europe.
Noucmas also collaborates frequently with other organizations questioning centralized approaches in contemporary art
Up until now we have produced and presented in our space 12 exhibitions, one concert, two residency, two screenings, numerous workshops for children, talks and roundtables. In 2020 and 2021, we took part in the VAHA program phase 1 where we collaborated with a performance art space (1927) and a bookshop (O Meteoritis) in Kypseli. Together we created the project ‘The Words We Don’t Have’ including three roundtables and a podcast having as a thematic our neighborhood and the independent art spaces. In 2021 and 2022 for VAHA phase 2, we collaborated with independent spaces from Tirana and Diyarbakir for the project 'Concrete Contract’. This phase included traveling to each other's cities and producing exhibitions, talks, discussions, screenings and workshops.
In April 2022, we were invited by U10 art space in Belgrade to organize an exhibition. We curated an exhibition including two Noucmas members and two young artists recently graduated from the Athens School of Fine Art.
A group exhibition of female artists and writers took place in October 2022. Along with the exhibition a publication/visual essay was made. This exhibition was funded by the Ministry of Culture in Greece.
In December our annual ‘Christmas Print Show’ exhibition takes place. Every year we host this exhibition where we invite artists from our neighborhood and around Athens to create prints in any form (digital, silk-screen, etching, stencil etc.) The prints are available to purchase and the benefits go directly to the artists.
In April 2023, London-based sculptor Francis Olvez-Wilshaw will join Noucmas to work with our team and create an exhibition that will highlight the previous function of the space, which was a wood workshop that made furniture. Francis will work with our team to create furniture sculptures.
We have a unique perspective on the cultural landscape of Greece and are able to connect with other cultural organizations all over the country to foster collaboration and exchange. We are really well connected with the young artists here and we can advise artistic partners for different projects. We are also working on creating different ways to connect with the independent cultural scene and civil society organizations. We have extensive connections with organizations in Europe and beyond, which we can leverage to promote ethics we have in common with the Anna Lindh Network and to foster greater understanding and appreciation for the diversity of cultures and perspectives in the Mediterranean region.
We are excited to join the Anna Lindh Network and to contribute to its mission of promoting intercultural dialogue and understanding in the Mediterranean region. As an organization that is committed to promoting cross-cultural exchange and dialogue through the arts, we believe that the values of the network align closely with our own. We are eager to participate in network events and initiatives, and to share our experiences and insights with other member organizations. We also believe that our focus on promoting emerging artists and addressing important social and political issues will make a valuable contribution to the network. We look forward to collaborating with other member organizations. In fact, with Anadolu Kültür, who is also a member of the Anna Lindh network from Turkey, we developed an artistic mobility program for independent art spaces and artists based in Greece and Turkey, and we plan to kick start this project focusing on the Aegean very soon.