Between 1983 and 1996, when the DESTE Foundation did not yet have a permanent exhibition space, the shows that took place in Athens were hosted at the House of Cyprus. Such shows include Cultural Geometry (1988), Psychological Abstraction (1989), Artificial Nature (1990), and Post Human (1992–1993), a series of groundbreaking shows curated by Jeffrey Deitch. During this time, DESTE also collaborated with a number of young Greek curators to organize shows that focused on emerging Greek artists.
The mid-90s marked one of the very first comprehensive presentations of the Dakis Joannou Collection in a show entitled Everything That’s Interesting Is New (1996). Presented at the Athens School of Fine Arts, “The Factory,” and taking its title from Jenny Holzer’s Truisms, Everything That’s Interesting Is New explored the interplay between art and popular culture. Providing a focused overview of international contemporary art from 1985 to 1995, the show also included the work of an earlier generation of artists, including Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, and Man Ray, whose work was influential for artists working in the 80s and 90s.
In 1998 the DESTE Foundation moved to its first permanent space, a former paper factory in Neo Psychico redesigned by American architect Christian Hubert. In these newly restored premises, an ambitious exhibition program developed with shows that focused primarily on the Dakis Joannou Collection, such as Global Vision (1998–1999), a three-part examination of art from the 1990s; Jeff Koons’ A Millennium Celebration (1999–2000), a solo show that featured all of the artist’s works in the Dakis Joannou Collection; Tim Noble and Sue Webster’s Masters of the Universe (2000), one of the very first exhibitions of the British duo outside the United Kingdom; and Holdfast (2001–2002), an impressive collaborative painting installation by Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen which took up the Foundation’s entire space. DESTE’s novel examination of and focus on the Dakis Joannou Collection further facilitated the Foundation’s mission to explore international contemporary art and to introduce iconic artworks to the Greek public for the first time. This new era was also marked by a number of group shows organized in collaboration with various organizations such as the British Council and the Nicosia Municipal Arts Center.
In 2004, the DESTE Foundation organized Monument to Now, its most ambitious project to date. The show, which was part of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Cultural Program, featured the work of more than sixty artists from the Dakis Joannou Collection and was curated by Dan Cameron, Jeffrey Deitch, Alison Gingeras, Massimiliano Gioni, and Nancy Spector.
