When the Onassis Cultural Center first opened its doors on December 7, 2010, Athens was like a boiling cauldron. A beacon on high-speed Syngrou Avenue, the façade says it all about the architectural philosophy behind this impressive edifice: a solid square banded in white marble slats that offer glimpses of the interior. It was a counterproposal on how we live our lives, inviting us to be alternative and inquisitive.

The shock of bankruptcy was still raw when the OCC first started operating. Everything we took for granted was put into question and economic losses came in quick succession. What did the OCC mean at that time and how has its personality been shaped five years on? And what does it mean when most of its shows are sold out even as the crisis continues to gnaw at incomes and push up unemployment?

As constants, be they in the political system or people’s daily lives, collapsed, new relationships of trust began to emerge: movements to improve life in the city, synergies and initiatives to help the poor. Greece was straddling two different time zones, past and present, with the future seemingly lost somewhere on the horizon and culture, in its broadest and narrowest sense, was the only thing that could bring it back as a prospect. The OCC took down the walls between the haves and have-nots in one fell swoop by introducing educational programs and a cut-price ticket policy. Its audience from the onset was basically young, though it had its fair share of older patrons who were open to new artistic experiences and forms of expression. In a relatively short period of time, it succeeded in attracting a public that is well informed, inquisitive, unconventional, open to getting around and asking questions, and supportive of new things in art, in public discourse and in culture. The OCC was a new arrival that built on the momentum created by its predecessors like the Athens Concert Hall, the Greek Festival, the Thessaloniki and Athens international film festivals and dozens of pioneering theaters, all of which through the years shaped a discerning public.