Rick Lowe, a Houston-based artist, first came to Greece for Documenta 14 (April-July, 2017) where he participated with the “social sculpture” Victoria Square Project, a community art initiative bringing together refugees, migrants and local Greeks to shift debate from politics to shared culture. Later, collaborating with the Benaki Museum, he paired his paintings with objects from the collection and was struck by the depth of Greek material culture. He chose the humble kasela (wooden chest) as his key object, seeing it as a portable container of memory and identity, linked to histories of movement, migration and class. Living in Athens allowed him to move beyond the “tourist” image of Greece, discovering neighborhood squares, open-air cinemas, Pikionis’ pathway on Filopappou Hill and the city’s growing multicultural influences from Eastern Europe, Africa and the wider Mediterranean. He wonders how these new cultural presences will shape Greece’s future.