The Foundation was established in Geneva in 1983 by collector Dakis Joannou, together with curators Adelina von Fürstenberg and Efi Strousa. Ever since, DESTE has been organizing exhibitions and has been supporting projects and publications internationally. Through an exhibition program that promotes emerging as well as established artists, the DESTE Foundation aims to broaden the audience for con
temporary art, to enhance opportunities for young artists and to explore the connections between contemporary art and culture. The flexibility of DESTE’s exhibition schedule enables the Foundation to respond to what is current in the art world and to embark on interesting projects on short notice. DESTE’s program also extends to curatorial projects and special events that explore the connections between art and fashion, music, film, architecture, design, and contemporary culture. From its inception until 1998, DESTE organized and supported shows in Greece, Cyprus and Switzerland. These shows include Cultural Geometry (1988),
Psychological Abstraction (1989), Artificial Nature (1990), Post Human (1992-1993), and Everything That’s Interesting is New (1996), a series of exhibitions that drew on the holdings of the Dakis Joannou Collection. In 1998 the DESTE Foundation moved to its first permanent space in Neo Psychico, Athens, where an ambitious exhibition program developed, including Global Vision (1999), Jeff Koons’ A Millennium Celebration (1999-2000) and Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s Masters of the Universe (2000). As part of the Athens 2004 Cultural Program, the DESTE Foundation mounted Monument to Now, the Foundation’s most ambitious project to date, a group show with more than 60 participating artists, curated by Dan Cameron, Jeffrey Deitch, Allison Gingeras, Massimiliano Gioni and Nancy Spector. Since January 2006, DESTE has been housed in a renovated former sock factory in Nea Ionia, Athens. The exhibition program of the new space was inaugurated by Panic Room (2006-2007), a group show with works on paper from The Dakis Joannou Collection, and by the Yellow Room Projects Anathena (2006-2007) and Part Time Punks (2007), both of which were selected through an open call. Recent DESTE shows
include Fractured Figure (2007–2008) and A GUEST + A HOST = A GHOST (2009). Apart from the shows that draw on works from the Dakis Joannou Collection, the DESTE Foundation also initiates a number of ongoing projects: the DESTE Prize, awarded biannually to an emerging Greek artist, the Hydra Slaughterhouse Project and the destefashioncollection. To further support its mission, DESTE has also established the Contemporary Greek Artists’ Archive, a helpful resource for curators and researchers, as well as a specialized art library which is open to the public.
