Berlin

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

Entrance to Elli Leventaki’s ΒΕΡΟλΙΝΟ project space, with two notices and a table of books behind the glass.

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.