Athens-Based Curator Turns Residency Model Inside Out With Provocative Project “ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ”

By World Art News on March 11, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

A provocative curatorial project unfolding in Athens is challenging one of the contemporary art world’s most celebrated career rituals: the international residency. Titled “ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ”—a deliberate reference to Berlin—the project is a conceptual and performative curatorial experiment created by art historian and curator Elli Leventaki. Its aim is to confront what she describes as a largely unspoken barrier in the global art ecosystem: class privilege embedded in the structure of artist residencies.

Berlin has long been one of the most sought-after destinations for contemporary art residencies, attracting artists, curators, and researchers from around the world. Participation in such programs often signals professional momentum and prestige. Yet Leventaki argues that the reality behind this cultural mobility frequently masks deep inequalities. Her project turns the model on its head. Instead of traveling abroad for a traditional residency, Leventaki has staged a self-initiated “residency” in Athens—funded and structured entirely by herself. The gesture functions simultaneously as a curatorial project and a long-duration performance meant to spark public debate about labor, privilege, and access within the art world.

According to the curator, the idea emerged from personal experience. Like many cultural workers, she balances a full-time job with independent academic and curatorial projects. That reality, she says, makes it nearly impossible to spend weeks or months abroad in residency programs without risking income or employment. The project is the latest installment in a broader thematic investigation into labor in the art world. It follows the exhibition Cornucopia at Kyan Athens in 2023 and the event Free Time hosted by Okay Initiative Space in 2025.

At the heart of “ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ” is a central question: who can actually afford to participate in residencies? Even when programs cover travel, accommodation, and offer a small daily stipend, participants are typically expected to pause their normal employment for weeks or months. That expectation, Leventaki argues, favors those with financial stability, flexible freelance arrangements, or remote work options. Individuals dependent on steady local employment often cannot afford to leave their jobs—or to maintain their living costs back home while abroad.

The paradox, she suggests, is striking in an art world that frequently positions itself as socially progressive while quietly reproducing elite structures. The critique echoes ideas from philosopher Arthur Danto, who famously described the “Artworld” as a self-defining cultural system in his 1964 essay introducing the concept. Within such systems, Leventaki argues, professional networking, travel, and cultural mobility have become forms of “immaterial labor” that require time and financial resources many cultural workers simply do not have.

In recent years, the residency model itself has also evolved—sometimes controversially. Some programs have shifted online or become self-guided experiences, while others charge participation fees. Critics say such changes risk turning residencies into résumé-building exercises with limited substantive value. Leventaki’s project aims to expose and rethink those dynamics. By hosting a residency that she herself finances, she intentionally reverses the traditional institutional arrangement. The project blurs the boundaries between critique and participation, placing the curator both inside and against the system she examines.

Rather than offering a solution, “ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ” positions itself as a catalyst for debate. Can the residency model adapt to accommodate people with stable jobs and financial responsibilities? Should networking and travel remain central to career advancement in contemporary art? And if the system privileges those already secure, who is left outside the door?

Through a self-staged residency in Athens—standing symbolically in for Berlin—Leventaki’s project suggests that the future of artistic mobility may depend not only on creativity, but on confronting the economic realities shaping who gets to participate in the global art conversation.