iLiana Fokianaki is writer and curator based in Athens and Rotterdam. In 2013 she founded State of Concept Athens, the first of this format non-profit institution in Athens, which promotes Greek and international artists through solo exhibitions, but also invites international curators to create exhibitions that comment on the current socio-political landscape of Greece. State of Concept has collaborated with artists like Laure Prouvost, Hito Steyerl and Keren Cytter among others. State of Concept is also focusing on a pedagogical programme that enables Greek art students and artists through free consultations, to further their studies and develop their projects. It has also been operating as an open platform that hosts fellow curators and artists for talks, events and presentations. In 2016, Fokianaki together with Antonia Alampi founded Future Climates, a platform that aims to propose viable futures for small-scale organizations of contemporary art and culture, which will firstly manifest in Athens in March 2017 with a three-month school. Since March 2017 she is curator at Kunsthal Extra City in Antwerp, Belgium.
She has taught and has lectured on art in local institutions and abroad whilst taking part in panel discussions in various independent spaces worldwide. She is a contributing author of the book The International Art Markets published by Kogan Page (London, New York, 2009) and the book “Visions: Art as Transference” (Plethron, Athens, 2005) and has written for magazines such as Frieze, LEAP, Metropolis M, Art Papers and Monopol whilst extensively writing as a journalist on Greek contemporary culture and current affairs in the local media from 2005-2016. She holds an MA in Art Criticism from City University London under the supervision of Juliet Steyn and Judith Williamson. She is currently on her PhD research on identity and politics at Panteion University Athens with Athena Athanasiou. She is a member of IKT, the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art.
iLiana Fokianaki /Ηλιάνα Φωκιανάκη