The iconic photographer Juergen Teller inaugurates Onassis Ready, the new cultural space of the Onassis Foundation. From Iggy Pop to Iggy’s daughter, from Kate Moss to Pope Francis, Teller comes to Athens with the most extensive solo exhibition ever presented in Greece.

“you are invited.” This could only be the title of Juergen Teller’s exhibition, which opens Onassis Ready, the Foundation’s new venue in Agios Ioannis Rentis. Running from October 19 to December 30, 2025, you are invited marks a new milestone on Athens’ cultural map while also signaling a pivotal moment in Teller’s artistic journey. This retrospective—rich with defining events and encounters from his remarkable career—presents multiple series, individual works, and numerous videos. It combines selections from previous exhibitions with new, unpublished images spanning from the 1990s to the present day. A celebration of his art, it opens a living dialogue on the constantly shifting pathways of inspiration and creative exploration, in the most extensive solo show Teller has mounted in Greece to date.

Though Teller has always produced deeply personal work, this exhibition coincides with a period in which he has found renewed meaning as an artist. On view are striking works featuring legendary figures from Iggy Pop to Alexander Skarsgård, Kate Moss to Charlotte Rampling; images of Pope Francis in a women’s prison during the 2024 Venice Biennale; photographs of Auschwitz on the 80th anniversary of its liberation; as well as still lifes and landscapes.

For the past eight years, Teller has also collaborated with his wife, Dovile Drizyte, creating works that reflect aspects of their relationship and the birth of their daughter. These works are marked by a characteristic mix of the serious, the intimate, and the often humorous, with an aesthetic that veers toward the grotesque.

These defining life experiences have infused Teller’s practice with an undercurrent of tension in the way he responds to the world around him—creating spontaneous connections that evolve into deeply meaningful narratives. His photographic and video works, born of these connections, explore both personal and universal stories of love, family, trust, hope, fertility, environment, politics, and religion. As such, his heightened emotional bond with his subject matter embodies positivity, spiritual awareness, and a renewed outlook on life.

The exhibition you are invited will be presented in Athens as the opening act of Onassis Ready, the new Onassis Foundation venue housed in a former factory in the city’s once-industrial district. Designed to host experimental works that push the boundaries of contemporary creation, Onassis Ready serves as a platform for bold artistic voices from around the globe. The venue also houses the Athens hub of Onassis ONX—an international program, with a base in New York, supporting artists working with emerging technologies. With a dual focus on contemporary art and innovation, Onassis Ready launches its program with this major exhibition as part of the Onassis Stegi’s 2025–26 artistic season.

This collaboration between Juergen Teller and Onassis Stegi reflects a shared belief that art can be both intimate and political, raw and poetic, personal and collective. Through this partnership, you are invited creates a space for dialogue between Teller’s emotionally charged universe and the contemporary realities of Greece, fostering a meaningful encounter between the local and the global.

Juergen Teller

Born in Erlangen, Germany in 1964, Teller studied at the Bavarian State School of Photography in Munich before moving to London in 1986. With a career spanning multiple genres of photographic art, he has shot fashion campaigns for leading brands and editorials for top art and fashion magazines. In 2003, he received the Citibank Prize for Photography from The Photographers’ Gallery, London, and in 2018, the Special Presentation Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography, New York. His work has been exhibited worldwide, with solo shows at Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris (2006); Dallas Contemporary, Texas (2011); Daelim Museum, Seoul (2011); Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), London (2013); DESTE Foundation, Athens (2014); Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2016); Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (2017); Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2018); T-10/SKP-S, Beijing (2021); Grand Palais Éphémère, Paris (2023); Triennale Milano (2024); and Galleria degli Antichi, Sabbioneta, Italy (2025). In 2007, he was invited to represent Ukraine as one of five artists at the 52nd Venice Biennale. His photographs are held in major international collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain (Paris), the International Center of Photography (New York), the Louvre Museum (Paris), and the National Portrait Gallery (London). Teller has published over 60 books and was Professor of Photography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg from 2014 to 2019.

Onassis Ready

At the heart of Agios Ioannis Rentis, a former plastics factory has been transformed into something entirely new: Onassis Ready. This authentic and generous space invites artists to dream, rehearse, and take risks. Spanning 3,760 square meters, it is the newest creative hub in the ever-expanding ecosystem of the Onassis Foundation.

Before its renovation, the building housed the research for Xiromero/Dryland, which represented Greece at the 60th Venice Biennale. It also served as a workshop for the productions Of Mice and Men, Aris, and Red Lights directed by Vasilis Bisbikis, the rehearsals for Prometheus by Nikos Karathanos, the “Climax” ball in collaboration with Léa Vlamos, and was once the studio of Lena Kitsopoulou during the creation of her Frankenstein.

Onassis Ready is more than a building. It is a space that listens, adapts, and invites—ready to embrace artistic creation and to host Onassis AiR/ONX Fellows, building bridges between the physical and the post-digital. A place where Athens meets New York and the world; where the post-digital intersects with the deeply human. A space where tomorrow’s ideas can be tested—boldly, quietly, freely.

Exhibition Curators: Juergen Teller and Dovile Drizyte
Architectural Design: Tom Emerson, 6a architects
Production Management: Josselin Merazguia (Juergen Teller Studio)
Commissioned and Produced by: Onassis Stegi / Onassis Foundation