Somewhere along the late 90s and throughout the 00s, the dominant public discourse came to view the densely populated district of Kypseli as a dangerous “ghetto” in the city centre, holding its relatively large percentage of migrant residents responsible for problems of urban and social decay. Half a decade into the crisis, many Athenian residents and young professionals sought lower rent and started moving into the degraded district, a phenomenon that has intensified in the last few years. Today, the vertical social and ethnic segregation of the typical Athenian apartment building in Kypseli includes middle class young residents of greek ethnicity, and while the migrant-managed small grocery stores on the ground floors are gradually being replaced by art galleries, cafeterias etc, the rents are indeed getting higher. At the same time, the central square is a construction site awaiting a brand new metro line stop that will change Kypseli irreversibly. One can witness different levels of ‘displacement’ as part of the processes of urban transformation of the district, resulting from both small and large-scale developments.

It is a small and insignificant road just next to the oldest road in Europe. It is an almost invisible urban island that connects the city center with the poor western districts. It is the point where the refugees of the 1920s meet with the economic migrants of the 1990s and refugees and migrants from 2010 onwards. It is a hybrid space where the ruins of old factories and craft workshops and the bazaars of used objects and bodies are emerging.