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Benaki Museum
138 Pireos St
Athens, Attiki, 11854
Greece

Art of Soul

Art of Soul is a team that tries to bring people together in one force and different kinds of art into one show. Dance, theatre and communication with the audience, are the basic characteristics of this team. With their abilities and the various kinds of art they use, they can bring to life any idea and communicate it with the audience in a special way!

Eleni Zacharopoulou

Eleni Zacharopoulou is a Sociologist with a Master in “Human rights and Education” and in “Art Education”. Since 2008, she has been working as a social scientist, researcher and coordinator of educational programs and cultural activities in collaboration with NGO’s of these particular fields. In 2011 she created a repertory of refugees, immigrants and Greeks, in which she works until now as a coordinator, trainer and director, trying to develop bonds and necessary tools for the empowering and integration of vulnerable groups of people. Since 2015 she has been working as the coordinator of Break the Chain, which is a campaign against human exploitation and trafficking, as well as the project manager of AMKE LOCOMOTIVA.

Fragiska Megaloudi

Fragiska Megaloudi is a reporter and writer. She has worked as a lecturer at the department of Cultural Studies in the University of West Australia, from which she resigned in order to work for humanitarian organizations. She has lived and worked in the Middle East, in Southeastern Asia (Thailand, Laos, Philippines, Myanmar), in Africa (Uganda, Nigeria), while her journalistic researches have been published in Greek and foreign media, like Al Jazeera, Spiegel, Huffington Post, Guardian. She has lived in North Korea for two years and in 2016 she published her book “In The Country Of Kims”, which is now on its 4th publication.

Gautier Velissaris

Gautier Velissaris is a musician, composer, singer and songwriter, He has released 2 personal albums, Pink Cinnamon (2016) and Babylon (2013) while he was also the winner of the “Jumping Fish” competition for his song, “Home”. He has performed in many stages and festivals in Greece (SNFCC, Rockwave, Fuzz Club, Gagarin, Gazarte, Faust Bar) and abroad (London, San Francisco, Switzerland). He has written the music of Shakespeare’s “A Midnight’s Summer Dream” for the Athens Festival (2017) and more. He has also played in Maramis’s “Erotokritos” in the National Opera and Herodus Atticus.

George Evgeniades

George Evgeniades is a Food Technologist with a Master in “Food Quality Assurance” and in “Education of People with Disabilities and Learning Needs. For the last 5 years, he has been working as a teacher in public special schools, teaching food technology by using tools such as cooking, pastry making and of course smiling. At the same time he works as an educator of adults in many public IEK schools and in the Sivitanideios school of Arts and Professions. He is qualified as an adult’s educator and a trainer for the health and security of food operators. He knows the Greek sign language and the Braille system.

George Kounanis

George Kounanis studied Political Science with a specialization in Law at Panteion University. At the University of Oslo, he specialized in the International Law of Human Rights and in the International Penal Law. He owns a Master in Marketing and Communication from the AUEB. Some of the NGO’s and team works he has taken action with for the last 7 years, are: Amnesty International, Colour Youth, LGBTQI+ Employment Support Group, AIESEC, ESN, Red Umbrella Athens, Greek LGBT People with Disability and many more. In December 2015 he created the Seminar “Queering the (hetero)norm”, while since 2016 he has a collaboration with Vice Greeve and LIFO as a freelance contributor. Today he lives in Athens and strives every day for a change in the Greek society.

George Mavridis

George Mavridis was born in Thessaloniki in 1978. He has been drawing since the first day he remembers himself and he has been professionally occupied with tattooing since 1999. He is the owner of the “Tattooligans” studio in Thessaloniki and he is one of the most known tattoo artists with hundreds of distinctions, awards and first places in the biggest events and seminars in Europe and in the USA. He was a part of several television shows, such as “World Party” and “On the Road”. Apart from all this, he is involved in many other activities, like tattoo marathons for activism reasons and actions for the protection of animal rights.

George Moschos

George Moschos is a Greek lawyer and has served as the first Deputy Ombudsman for Children’s Rights in Greece. He served in this position from 2003 until January 2018. He has been dedicated, during his whole career, to the protection of children’s rights and especially those who deal with hardships, such as children with disabilities, of Roma origin, refugees, children housed in institutions and those who live in conditions of extreme poverty, neglect, abuse or exploitation. He strives for the society to respect, consider, support and trust children.

Georgia Kaltsi

Georgia Kaltsi is a graduate of a British University and she has studied in the field of diet. Three years ago, she was in a car accident which led to her being disabled. She makes speeches concerning disabled people and the way our society treats them, the difficulties they face every day, the sports they can take part in and in general the amelioration of their way of life.

Gerasimos Kouvaras

He has an experience of 20 years as executive director, instructor, advisor and volunteer in and for civil society sector at national and international level. Since 2007, he is the General Director of ActionAid Hellas, while previously among others he has been the Director of the Greek Section of Amnesty International and Special Advisor for Youth and Volunteering to the Ministry of Education. He holds an MBA concentrated in nonprofit management from Nottingham Trent University, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki. His artistic background includes Opera Studies, over 150 performances as member of the Greek State Radio Choir and the international distinction of Artist Photographer awarded by FIAP. In 2015, he published his first poetry collection of 24 Greek Haiku.

Giorgos Evgeniades

George Evgeniades is a Food Technologist with a Master in “Food Quality Assurance” and in “Education of People with Disabilities and Learning Needs. For the last 5 years, he has been working as a teacher in public special schools, teaching food technology by using tools such as cooking, pastry making and of course smiling. At the same time he works as an educator of adults in many public IEK schools and in the Sivitanideios school of Arts and Professions. He is qualified as an adult’s educator and a trainer for the health and security of food operators. He knows the Greek sign language and the Braille system.

Irene Skylakaki

Irene Skylakaki is a London-based singer-songwriter with a velvet voice and a gift for building catchy folk-rock songs, teeming with astonishingly beautiful melodies. Irene has released two critically acclaimed albums, Wrong Direction (2012) and Before Dawn (2014), and her third album Matterless is due for release in 2018. Matterless was produced by Danton Supple (Coldplay, U2, Morrissey, Patti Smith, Ed Harcourt), and features musicians such as Richard Jupp (Elbow). Irene's debut single In the Light reached the top of the Greek iTunes charts and her songs have been featured in TV commercials, as well as film soundtracks. Irene has performed as a supporting act for artists such as Macy Gray, Jessie Ware, Beirut, Daughter, Cass McCombs, Toploader and Archive. Her festival performances have included the Rockwave, En Lefko, Swanbourne and Release Festival, and in 2012, she was one of the youngest artists ever to perform at the Athens Concert Hall Garden.

Orestis Seferoglou

Orestis Seferoglou was born in Athens in 1990. Seferoglou started his career as a staff multimedia photojournalist in Eleftherotypia national daily newspaper and EPSILON magazine. Furthermore his photographs have been published in various greek and international magazines such as Die Welt BLAU Magazin, WOZ, K magazine, BHMAga-zino, METRO, Aegean Airlines BLUE, Gastronomos and more. He is working as a freelance photographer for VICE Greece and Kathimerini editions. He is also collaborating on photographic pro-jects with international humanitarian organisations such as CARE, SolidarityNow and Human-Rights360. Seferoglou’s work has been featured in numerous exhibitions. In 2016, he has been nominated for the World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass

Penelope Anastasopoulou

Penelope Anastasopoulou is an actress and a singer. She has graduated from the School of Administration and Economics of the TEI of Athens and later from the Greek Art Theatre Karolos Koun. She has played various roles in many television series, but she became famous with her role as the assistant of “Astinomos Bekas” and later with her role in “Simmathites” on Ant1. Her favorite moments in her theatre career where the two performances, in which she played, in Epidaurus with the Greek Art Theatre. As a singer she has been a member of the band “Mamacita On Fire” for many years.

Timos Platsas

Timos Platsas is the Head of Corporate Community Affairs in Microsoft Central & Eastern Europe Headquarters, working with nonprofits, governments, policy makers and community leaders to ensure that people and organizations have the digital skills and resources they need to thrive in the new economy. He joined Microsoft Hellas in 2010 as Product Marketing Manager in the Consumer & Devices segment and 4 years later he was appointed Head of Corporate Communications in the Marketing & Operations segment. Previously, Timos has held various positions at the marketing and advertising industry. Timos holds a master’s degree in business administration (MBA) from the Alba Graduate Business School. He has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration at Middlesex University of London and a Certificate from INSEAD Business School program on Digital Transformation and Innovation Strategy.

Vasiliki Kobilakou

Vasiliki Kobilakou was born in 1975 in Athens and she has graduated from the department of History and Archaeology of the University of Athens. She has worked for 11 years in the Historical records of the Benaki Museum, where she developed researched concerning the history of the National underground and the Greek civil war. She received her PhD in 2011, which was based on the same historical monograph and it was rewarded by the Β&Ο Stavropoulou foundation. She has participated in scientific historical conferences in Greece and abroad concerning verbal history. She has won two literal competitions and her graphic novel “Ari’s Tale” has been published. She has established and manages the first Forest School “Pefkites” in Greece.

Vasilki Kobilakou

Vasiliki Kobilakou was born in 1975 in Athens and she has graduated from the department of History and Archaeology of the University of Athens. She has worked for 11 years in the Historical records of the Benaki Museum, where she developed researched concerning the history of the National underground and the Greek civil war. She received her PhD in 2011, which was based on the same historical monograph and it was rewarded by the Β&Ο Stavropoulou foundation. She has participated in scientific historical conferences in Greece and abroad concerning verbal history. She has won two literal competitions and her graphic novel “Ari’s Tale” has been published. She has established and manages the first Forest School “Pefkites” in Greece.