29 / 10 / 2026
Athens Through a Partner’s Eyes: Barbot Bernardo at Bautopia
A partner's travel notes · Barbot Bernardo, Porto · TY-CO
A few days after the TY-CO conference at Arroz Estúdios in Lisbon, our Porto partner Miguel Barbot of Barbot Bernardo flew to Athens for Bautopia, the annual conference of the European Creative Hubs Network (ECHN). This year it came with a soundtrack too: SONOTOPIA, a programme of music events across the city.
Miguel spent five days there and wrote it all up as a visual diary on the Barbot Bernardo journal: personal, funny and full of photos. He came back with new friends, two cassette tapes and a clear idea of what a small hub like his can bring to a network of more than 300 organisations.
Why go at all?
Barbot Bernardo joined ECHN after the 2022 Bautopia in Porto. Miguel admits that until now he wasn't quite sure what a small education project and creative hub could add to the network.
He also writes candidly about how hard EU cooperation funding has become for small organisations, with more and more projects won by large consultancies far from the cultural field.
TY-CO gave him part of the answer. Through decentralised events under the ethos of the ABR Festival in Nicosia, the partners built an informal, Europe-wide learning community around the sustainability of culture, local resources and inclusion.
So he went to Athens with a plan: to help start a new cluster within ECHN that brings together hubs with learning communities.
The city
He stayed in Exarcheia with friends from the network, and with André Forte as an unexpected travel companion met at the gate. The first night meant Ethiopian food eaten by hand from a shared plate, then an experimental electronica gig in a small venue in the centre.
There was time for the National Museum of Contemporary Art (ΕΜΣΤ), a cheap and very good lunch at The Cretan, a walk to the Central Market and a long conversation about music with a stranger at a coffee kiosk.
TOGETHER, WE ALREADY ARE COLLECTIVELY BIG AND A FORCE FOR GOOD
Bautopia
The conference ran between Bios and Romantso, with talks, a General Assembly and a lot of conversations in between. In the evenings SONOTOPIA took over, with gigs and dub sets late into the night. Steven from Arroz Estúdios, in town for another conference, joined the crew too.
On the last morning, Miguel found a small record shop run by a Greek-Cypriot couple, bought two tapes still priced in drachmas, and stayed to talk about Nicosia and the ABR Festival. The week ended with a shared ride to the airport with Katja from C-SPACE Berlin, and a promise to keep in touch.
Words and photography: Miguel Barbot｜Barbot Bernardo
TY-CO (communities in conversation) · ABR｜Alternative Brains Rule · Co-funded by the European Union
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.