Juergen Teller to launch ‘You Are Invited’ at Onassis Ready, athens
Juergen Teller opens a new chapter in his career, and in Athens’s cultural infrastructure, with ‘you are invited’, the inaugural exhibition at Onassis Ready, a recently transformed former plastics factory in the industrial district of Agios Ioannis Rentis, Athens. The new venue, developed by the Onassis Foundation and designed by 6a architects under Tom Emerson, spans over 3,700 square meters and positions itself as a raw yet adaptive space for experimentation at the intersections of art, performance, and post-digital practice. Teller’s exhibition, the artist’s most comprehensive solo presentation in Greece, set to run from October 19th to December 30th, 2025, and marks a turning point for the institution, expanding its footprint from Athens to New York and into new modes of artistic production.
all images courtesy of Juergen Teller
mid-career survey explores intimacy, celebrity, and the political
Teller’s retrospective is a mid-career survey of interconnected personal and public narratives. ‘you are invited’ brings together works from the 1990s to today – iconic images of Iggy Pop, Kate Moss, and Charlotte Rampling alongside still lifes, family portraits, and lesser-known videos. The exhibition also includes new and previously unseen images, many shaped by recent commissions that signal a shift in the artist’s practice. Among them are his photographs of Pope Francis visiting a women’s prison during the 2024 Venice Biennale and his deeply intimate documentation of Auschwitz for the 80th anniversary of its liberation. These projects, together with collaborative works created alongside his partner Dovile Drizyte, reflect Teller’s interest for subjects that are at once political, spiritual, and deeply personal.
Housed in the former KOCH plastics plant, Onassis Ready is already familiar to Athens’s experimental scene. Before its official opening, the space hosted performances by directors Vassilis Bisbikis and Nikos Karathanos, as well as research for Xiromero/Dryland, the project that represented Greece at the 60th Venice Biennale. With an industrial shell preserved but reimagined for creative flexibility, the building has since become a site of rehearsals, installations, and performances. The exhibition architecture, developed in dialogue with Teller by his studio and Onassis Culture, embraces the unfinished materiality of the venue, allowing works to appear within an environment that feels lived-in rather than staged. Among the first works to activate the space were the kinetic sculptures of Takis (Panayiotis Vassilakis), drawn from the Onassis Collection.
Iggy Pop No.23, Miami, 2022
a New Era of Art and Experimentation in the greek city
Teller’s images often mix the grotesque with tenderness, which Afroditi Panagiotakou, Artistic Director of the Onassis Foundation, describes as ‘where the political clashes with the intimate, where raw, unfiltered emotion meets the quiet strength and vulnerability of family.’ The works on view are part of a constellation of lived experiences, moments of vulnerability and provocation that invite viewers into a space of friction and reflection. Teller’s recent output, including photographs exploring fertility, fatherhood, and the everyday routines of domestic life, makes visible a turn toward embodied storytelling.
By situating ‘you are invited’ within Onassis Ready, a venue intentionally placed outside central Athens, the Onassis Foundation is making a statement about where and how art should circulate, expanding the notion of accessibility, and investing in long-term support for artists through its ONX program, which is based in both Athens and New York.
Guten Morgen Sonnenschein No.5, 2025
Pope Francis in Venice, 2024
Dovile Pregnant, London, 2023
Why Trump, New York, 2017
Men, Alexander Skarsgärd And Juergen Teller, Lulea, 2023
The Myth No.50, Grand Hotel Villa Serbelloni, Bellagio, 2022
project info:
name: you are invited
artist: Juergen Teller
location: Onassis Ready, Strati Tsirka 2, Agios Ioannis Rentis, Athens, Greece
curators: Juergen Teller & Dovile Drizyte
dates: October 19th – December 30th, 2025
exhibition manager: Josselin Merazguia (Juergen Teller Studio)
commissioned & produced by: Onassis Culture
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