The Nóema craft prize exhibition brings together 15 emerging makers
The inaugural Nóema Craft Award report is located inside the former Public Tobacco Factory of the Hellenic Parliament in Athens, presenting an emerging cultural platform that places contemporary craftsmanship at the center of discussions around design, architecture, art and emerging technologies. The presentation frames art as an evolving discipline through the work of 15 finalists who reinterpret inherited techniques to address issues of identity, ecology, material experimentation and social change.
The exhibition also marks the announcement of the first winner of the Nóema Craft Prize, with the jury awarding Costas Lampridis for It’s Not Enough, a large-scale project that combines marble, granite, ceramics, minerals, steel, aluminium, brass, copper, wood and plastic in a deliberately exposed material that evokes antiquity. The jury also awarded special mentions to Dimitra Konstantinidis for Mother’s Hug, 5+1 Stories Spoken Through the Caryatids and Shekine Naidi for Meteorite.
Nóema is positioned as an interdisciplinary platform connecting artisans, designers, artists, architects and researchers. The first edition of the award attracted hundreds of submissions from all over Greece, reflecting a renewed interest in practices rooted in regional knowledge while engaging contemporary concerns. Throughout the exhibition, traditional materials, incl marble, wool, clay, weaveand woodcombined with recycled industrial waste, biomaterialsand experimental manufacturing processes that expand conventional vessel definitions.
all images from Stathis Mamalakis
Sculpture and crafts address contemporary issues
Several projects use familiar material to address pressing social issues. Argyris Rallia’s Dowry transforms marble and a domestic nightstand into a monument dedicated to the victims of femicide, revising the historical tradition of dowry through sculpture. Recipient of Special Mention Dimitra Konstantinidis’ large-scale textile installation Mother’s Hug, 5+1 Stories Spoken Through the Caryatids redefines the Caryatid as a contemporary figure who carries narratives of displacement and collective responsibility through embroidery and soft architecture. Alexia Psaradeli Mīres’ ceramic installation draws on a Balkan myth surrounding the production of roof tiles to examine femininity and work.
Material experimentation forms another recurring thread throughout multidisciplinary cultural platform report. Ariadni Strophylla assembles a four-meter ceramic centipede from dozens of individually baked lithoptera enriched with forage minerals, while Giorgos Vavatsis incorporates raw clays collected from Mount Hortiati to create sculptural landscapes. Award winner Kostas Lampridis continues his long-standing research into material hierarchies with It’s Not Enough, combining stone, wood, metals and plastics in an intentionally exposed construction that showcases the process.
finalists’ works occupy historic industrial interiors
A new generation is redefining Greek craftsmanship
Many of the selected projects also directly address issues of sustainability through their choice of materials. Iphigenia Pappa develops Litany from orange peel powder, agave fibers, coffee grounds and beeswax, turning food scraps into a ritual installation activated through light and scent. Nikos Podias repurposes discarded fishing nets and used tea bags into a suspended woven work that evokes archaeological textiles and marine ecosystems, while Special Mention recipient Shekine Naidi’s felted wool installation, Meteorite, connects ancestral wool conflicts and environmental traditions in Greece.
Textile practices have a particularly strong place in the exhibition, revealing how weaving evolves beyond functional production. Valia Kapeletzi manipulates cotton and linen through thread removal to create translucent surfaces that shift with changing light, Maria Stavropoulou uses layered hand-made structures to incorporate movement directly into the fabric, and Maro Fasouli combines vernacular architecture with weaving to challenge longstanding divisions between domestic space, work and gender.
The finalists show how a new generation of Greek makers are reworking traditional techniques to address contemporary questions. Throughout ceramics, textiles, biomaterials and sculpture, inherited knowledge becomes a starting point for new forms of material and cultural exploration.
the exhibition brings together 15 finalists working in sculpture, textiles, ceramics and biomaterials
The exhibition takes place in the former Public Tobacco Factory of the Hellenic Parliament in Athens
