‘Playgrounds & Toys 2000-2025’ – An International Celebration of Art, Play, and Creativity at the Benaki Museum

The exhibition ‘Playgrounds & Toys 2000-2025’, an ongoing project by the Swiss NGO ART for the World, is organized by the Benaki Museum and is curated by Adelina Von Fürstenberg, President of the ART for the World. It opens on Wednesday 29 October 2025 at 8:00 pm, at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138 and will remain open until Sunday 11 January 2026.

The exhibition is a presentation of an extraordinary collection featuring playgrounds and toys designed by contemporary artists, architects, and designers from around the world. The collection showcases more than 50 models, collected, exhibited, and fabricated between 2000 and 2025, as part of the ongoing Playgrounds & Toys project by ART for The World, now generously donated to the Benaki Museum.

Playgrounds & Toys is the flagship initiative of ART for The World, an NGO associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information (UNDPI) and recognised as a Public Utility by the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. Since its inception, the project has embodied the organisation’s mission: to connect art with the most vital dimensions of human life: community, imagination, and cultural exchange.

Conceived and curated by Adelina von Fürstenberg, a long-time advocate for contemporary art’s role in social change, Playgrounds & Toys invites children and adults alike to explore the profound link between play and human development.

‘Time is the realm of the child’, said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. To play is to know, to learn, to relate with others, and to act while having fun. Through play, children exercise their most ‘serious’ activity: exploring their inner and outer world, developing intellectual, creative, emotional, and social skills, and discovering their own identity. Play is a fundamental human right, yet in many countries, children are denied this essential experience due to war, famine, or social injustice.

The project was launched in 2000 to mark the 50th anniversary of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Adelina von Fürstenberg invited over forty international artists, architects, and designers to create innovative playgrounds and educational games. From Nigeria to the outskirts of England, from disadvantaged areas in the United Kingdom to urban centers worldwide, the project demonstrates how art and play can become instruments of solidarity, learning, and discovery.

After acclaimed presentations in Geneva, Rome, New York, Lugano, London, Paris, Monte Carlo, Brussels, and Milan, Athens now becomes the permanent home of the collection at the Benaki Museum. Visitors of all ages will be invited to explore imaginative installations that merge play, creativity, and reflection, encouraging both children and adults to rediscover their sense of wonder.

For this presentation, more than 50 Greek and international artists and architects, including Andreas Angelidakis, Martand Khosla, Stefano Boccalini, Lauda & Donegani, Luca Pancrazzi, Viviane van Singer, have contributed to the project, designing playful spaces that inspire learning, collaboration, and self-discovery. All designs – from sketches to models – will be displayed on metal bases, ready to serve as blueprints for real-life, artist-designed playgrounds.

Beyond showcasing this remarkable project, the ‘Playgrounds & Toys’ exhibition aims to inspire the full-scale construction of playgrounds in Athens and beyond, with at least one installation remaining permanently in the Benaki Toy Museum. This way, art will be transformed into a living experience, celebrating creativity, play, and solidarity, and creating a more beautiful world, one that is even child-sized.

LIST OF ARTISTS & ARCHITECTS

Vito Acconci	Andreas Angelidakis
Igor Antic	Atelier van Lieshout
Sergio Augusto	Antonio Barletta
Carlo Berarducci	Paola di Bello
Alberto Biagetti	Stefano Boccalini
Andries Botha	Marie-José Burki & Mitja Tušek
Paolo Canevari	Pietro Capogrosso
Fabiana de Barros	Silvie Defraoui
Marta dell’ Angelo & Luigi Ripaldi	Flavio De Marco
Shin Egashira	Johannes Egger
Theodoulos Gregoriou	Alessandro Guerriero
Fabrice Gygi	Joyce Hariklia Hari
Noritoshi Hirakawa	Pip Horne & Sirazeh Houshiary
Alfredo Jaar	Ashot Kanayan
Romi Khosla & Martand Khosla	Joseph Kosuth
Lauda & Donegani	Los Carpinteros
Enzo Mari	Eva Marisaldi
Tony Morgan	Liliana Moro
Yorgos Nikas	Olaf Nikolai
Izumi Ogino	Tsuyoshi Ozawa
Luca Pancrazzi	Maria Papadimitriou
Maria Carmen Perlingeiro	Angelo Plessas
Annie Ratti	David Renaud
Pietro Roccasalva	Filippo di Sambuy
Domingo Sanchez Blanco	Denis Santachiara
Franck Scurti	Teresa Serrano
Edgard Soares	Chrysanne Stathacos & Diane Bald
Super!	Vivan Sundaram
Viviane van Singer	Margherita Lafranchi Turewicz
Fabrice Verschaere	Nari Ward

Associated Events

As part of the exhibition, a dance performance will be presented in collaboration with FLUX Laboratory at the Benaki Museum / Pireos 138. Further details will be announced soon.

Friday 12 December, 17:00–18:30

The Education Department of the Benaki Museum will host a special multisensory workshop for visitors with low vision or blindness, within the framework of its regular program of multisensory tours and workshops ‘Seeing with the Senses’, in collaboration with artist Sophia Damouli Plaini.

Saturday 10 January, 15:30–18:00

Furthermore, an educational program is designed for children aged 6 to 9 and will be conducted under the guidance of artist Sophia Damouli Plaini.

For more information and reservations, please call +30 210 3671067–69 or email education@benaki.org