Exhibition & Public Programming
Panel Discussions, Workshops & Performances
When
Exhibition Reception: Friday, June 12, 05:30 pm
Events Launch: Monday, June 15, 11:30 am
Closing Day: Saturday, June 20, 08:00 pm
About
Embodiments: Art, Atmospheres and Sensory Worlds is an exhibition and interdisciplinary program featuring workshops, panel discussions, and performances at Kapnergostasio in Athens from June 12–20.
It explores how access is shaped—and renegotiated—within the built environment. Bringing together artists and cultural practitioners, architects, researchers, advocates, and communities, the initiative creates a shared platform for rethinking how environments are perceived, designed, and lived. Embodiments invites audiences to engage, reflect, and reconsider how spatial experience is constructed through sensory, cognitive, and emotional processes. Centering neurodiverse perspectives, the program proposes a shift away from standardized approaches toward more responsive, plural, and adaptive environments.
At its core, the project examines how perception shapes our experience of space, and how space, in turn, can either celebrate or constrain difference. Embodiments is not only about accessibility; it is about belonging, agency, and collaboration. Rather than positioning access as a fixed goal or technical solution, it frames it as an ongoing cultural and spatial practice—one that emerges through dialogue, experimentation, and collective imagination. It is an invitation to curiosity, care, and creative exchange, engaging citizens, art, technology, and science in meaningful dialogue.
The public is invited to participate and reflect on how spatial experience is shaped through sensory and emotional processes. At the same time, the initiative addresses not only the experiences of neurodivergent individuals but also the broader social and cultural contexts that shape acceptance, knowledge, and public policy around disability.
Kapnergostasio of the Hellenic Parliament is a unique venue for this initiative: it is a landmark building and a historic monument of industrial architecture that houses part of the Hellenic Parliament Library and the Parliament’s Printing Office. Its layered history -as a site of industrial production, labor, social struggles, and today cultural activity- adds a meaningful dimension to the exploration of the relationship between environment and experience, linking past and contemporary forms of knowledge production.
Kapnergostasio, Hellenic Parliament (Former Public Tobacco Factory) at 218 Lenorman Street, Athens 104 43, Greece
Events & Registration
All events are free and open to the public. The events run in parallel to the exhibition Embodiments, Art, Atmospheres, and Sensory Worlds with the panel discussions and keynote talk starting on Monday, June 15th at 11:30 am. The program includes talks, participatory workshops, performances, and guided tours throughout the duration of the exhibition.
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All events take place at Kapnergostasio, Hellenic Parliament, Hall K3.
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Download the full program below.
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For entry into the building, you must carry and present to the security staff an official photo ID, such as a police ID card, passport, or a valid driver’s license.
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Registering for the workshop/s you plan to attend is recommended.
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Please kindly notify us via email (synestheticrdl@gmail.com) at least three days in advance if you will need ASL interpretation for any workshops or panel discussions you are interested in attending.
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All talks on Monday, June 15, and the panel on Wednesday, June 17 at 18:15 will be held in English with simultaneous interpretation into Greek. The rest of the days the events will be in Greek.
The parallel public events' program unfolds as a multi-layered environment for encounter, bringing together diverse disciplines, practices, and ways of sensing the world. Organized around intersectional thematic umbrellas—Practice, Culture, Lived Experience & Advocacy, and Research—it includes talks, discussions, performances, workshops, and educational and research activities focused on the arts and access, inclusive design, technology, education, and policy.
The program aims to create a cultural space that fosters dialogue among citizens, communities, art, culture, technology, and science, building bridges of understanding and supporting systemic change.
Event participants include both independent artists, practitioners, advocates, researchers and professionals as well as contributors from leading organizations, institutions, and collectives in the arts, the built environment, neurodiversity advocacy, and health. The program brings together international and local voices, with participants affiliated with entities such as the American University in Cairo, Benaki Museum, Greek National Opera, Hellenic Parliament, Ionian University, Kyklos Center for Arts and Cultures, Liminal, MoMA: Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museum of Cycladic Art, NEON, Onassis Stegi, Panteion University, Thomas Jefferson University, University College London, and WorkEqual.ie.
Magda Mostafa, creator of the ASPECTSS® Design Index — the world’s first research-based architectural design framework for autism — will deliver the keynote speech, presenting reflections on an architectural ecosystem that is friendly to the neurodivergent mind, based on the premise that when we design for autism, we design for everyone.
Participants in the workshops, talks, and tours include:
Barbara Klinkhammer (Thomas Jefferson University), Stuart Neilson (artist/activist), Chrysa Disli (WorkEqual.ie), Wendy Ross (Jefferson Center for Autism and Neurodiversity), Adam Wolfond, Estée Klar (Dis Assembly), Medie Mega, Manolis Saridakis (Onassis Stegi), Christos Papamichael (Liminal), Severino Alfonso, Loukia Tsafoulia (Synesthetic Research & Design Lab), Ilias Kalisperakis, Spiros Stefanidis (up2metric), Nefeli Georgakopoulou (The Centre for Research and Technologicy, Hellas), Maria-Christina Giannoulatou, Maria Zamenopoulou (Benaki Museum), Michalis Moschoutis, Christina Spanou (Greek National Opera), Fanis Kafantaris (NEON), Evangelos Kotsioris (MoMA: Museum of Modern Art, New York), Christos Karras (Kyklos Center for Arts and Cultures), Magda Mostafa (StudioTM / American University in Cairo), Argyro Vataki (MultiTimeLab, Panteion University), Lydia Liapi (Panteion University), Maria Kamilaki, Maria Vlassopoulou, Peggy Dara (Kapnergostasio, Hellenic Parliament), Sofia Marra (Psychologist, TNA Space), Katerina Tsomi, Ioannis Voskopoulos (Psychologist), Katerina Malakate (writer, activist), Vasileios Giannakopoulos (Metropolitan College of Patras), Maria Vidali (Architect), Filippa Christofalou (Teachers College, Columbia University), Dimitris Ameladiotis (artist, performer), Triantafyllenia Kosmidou (Occupational Therapist S.I., dancer, choreographer, performer), Maria Petasi, Vilelmini Sosoni, Emmanouel Rovithis (Ionian University), Efthymia Lamprou, Ourania Tachmatzidou, Chrysavgi Panagiotou, Katerina Eleftheriadi and Angeliki Ventouri (Panteion University), Antonis Primikyris and Katerina Ntamani (Museum of Cycladic Art).
Exhibition
The exhibition Embodiments: Art, Atmospheres and Sensory Worlds opens on Friday, June 12, with a reception at 5:30 PM at Kapnergostasio, Hall K3. The exhibition will be open to the public daily 11:00 - 20:00 except from Sundays.
Artists, researchers, and collectives participating in the exhibition include Severino Alfonso Dunn & Loukia Tsafoulia - Synesthetic Research & Design Lab // Dimitris Ameladiotis // Yani aviles // Briony Campbell & Georgia Pavlopoulou - Flow Unlocked Collective // Erik Deerly // Michel Gagné // Maria Kamilaki, Vasiliki Papathanasiou & Maria Vlasopoulou - Hellenic Parliament // Triantafyllenia Kosmidou // Magda Mostafa & Mahinour Yasser - StudioTM // NeuroUnapologetic by TNA SPACE & Wenn B. Lawson (Mars Karakosta, Mars M, Sofia Mara, Emmanouela Anna Papadopoulou, Lydia Romanou, Elina Stylianou, Ioannis Voskopoulos) // Stuart Neilson // Athina Papadopoulou - ReMEDiaLab // Lisa Park // Chloe Pascal Crawford // Maria Petasi, Emmanouel Rovithis & Vilelmini Sosoni - Ionian University // Robert Seidel // Adam Wolfond & Estée Klar - Dis Assembly.
The exhibition centers on the multisensory, interactive installation Echoes. An Immersive Exploration of Neurodiverse Spatial Perception and the Documentary Voices. Listeners in the Noise. The works Echoes and Voices were developed by Severino Alfonso Dunn and Loukia Tsafoulia as part of the EU Horizon S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology & Art), ReSilence artistic residency, in collaboration with the Greek computer vision company up2metric and the Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH).
Centered on the relationship between art and sensory experience, atmosphere, and the ways in which the body perceives and inhabits space, the exhibition brings together an interactive environment of light and sound, videoart projections, physical archives, prototypes and artifacts. It follows a participatory curatorial approach while incorporating co-creation processes with neurodivergent communities. The imprint of these participatory actions becomes an integral part of the exhibition, evolving and expanding throughout its duration.
Contact
For inquiries regarding collaborations, partnerships, or sponsorship opportunities, we invite you to get in touch. Whether you represent an institution, a cultural organization, or an independent initiative, we welcome the opportunity to work together to support and expand this initiative's mission and reach. Please use the contact form below to reach out, and a member of the team will respond as soon as possible.
Team & Collaborators
Organization and Exhibition & Program Curation: Severino Alfonso, Loukia Tsafoulia,
Synesthetic Research & Design Lab
Exhibition Design: Severino Alfonso
Organization & Communications Editorial Assistant: Marena Manesi
Exhibition Installation Support: Tsafoulias | Vagioti Architects
Coordination of Works: Evi Karakosta
Engineering Consultant: Karakostas Lefteris
Graphic Design: Heather Grates
Printing: Psimythi ltd Graphic Art
AV: Manos Georgakopoulos
Photography: Χρήστος Στεφάνου
"Echoes" Woodwork: WoodPlan
Special thanks to those who supported the public program with recommendations:
Haris Giakoumakis, Nefeli Georgakopoulou, Daphne Dragona, Fanis Kafantaris, Dimitris Karakostas, Elina Kountouri, Triantafyllenia Kosmidou, Georgia Papadopoulou, Christos Papamichael, Dimitra Stenou, Byron Theodoropoulos.
Embodiments. Art, Atmospheres & Sensory Worlds would like to thank the Hellenic Parliament and its President, Mr. Nikitas Kaklamanis, for providing the space at Kapnergostasio and for the overall collaboration; Vilelmini Sosoni, Stefano Vlachopoulo and the Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting at Ionian University for translation and interpretation; the Iatriki Diagnosi Group for their sponsorship; TheHappyAct for documenting the sensory qualities of the exhibition; UNESCO Piraeus & Islands and its President Ioannis Maronitis; Archisearch.gr and the Attica section of the Association of Architects (SADAS–PEA) for their communication support; and liminal for its overall support at multiple fronts.
With the financial support of Thomas Jefferson University’s 2026-2027 Provost Office Completion Grant and the computer vision company up2metric through the S+T+ARTS (Science, Technology, and Arts) ReSilence EU residency, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101070278.
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