Greece’s first artplex?
When the Attica cinema closed, long before its demolition last month, rumor had it that the next big thing was coming. An entrepreneur was looking seriously at turning the cinema on Amerikis Square into the first artplex in Greece. The plan never came to fruition but the idea of a creating a multiplex that would show art films and other non-mainstream works interested many people. One of them is Leonidas Papageorgiou, owner of the Trianon and Ilion, in what was once the flourishing cinema market on Patission Street. He himself never planned to do so, but he did give us a piece of information. «You can smell something in the air,» he said, «nothing more.» Might Amerikis Square be the starting point? «I don’t think so,» said Papageorgiou. «You must put an artplex in the center of town, and Amerikis Square has not been the center of town for many years. Or in a less central area which has easy access, meaning a metro station.» There are few plots available downtown. Gazi would meet Papageorgiou’s requirements. The new Film Library is being built on Iera Odos in the same neighborhood, and the people who visit Gazi and nearby Metaxourgeio are potential artplex customers. All that is needed now is an entrepreneur who is willing to take a risk, and a little luck.
