A true capital of culture, Athens is strewn with reminders of the gifts the gods left in their wake: theatre, poetry and sculpture. Yet modern Greece has faced financial ruin, crippling austerity measures and record rates of unemployment in recent years. The country is also dealing with a refugee crisis, with tens of thousands of people seeking asylum on its shores.

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So how do artists continue creating amid these economic and social crises? Street artist Spike 69, film director Thanos Anastopoulos and members of the Skrow Theater group tell us about making art against all odds.

We also take a look at Chinese artist Ai Weiwei’s response to the refugee crisis, and singer Angélique Ionatos tells us why bearing witness is her mission as an artist.

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