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Marina Nikolova

Nadia Koritarova is a woman who has made her idea come true to create a place in Athens, where she can make exhibitions, concerts and parties, however the difficulties of the everyday life are still being a problem because of the mass impoverishment, which makes people think whether to meet their friends for coffee outside or stay home in front of the TV.

Nadia’s café “Delarte” is in the center of the city – few blocks away from the Acropolis and a step away from the subway stationat “Singru Fix”. In front of the café there is a stand with a picture which shows the intention of the owner to offer not only the most flavorful coffee in the neighborhood, but also something more – to take her clients on a trip around the world, which creates with her paintings.  

Nadia Koritarova is born in Kiustendil – a small town in Bulgaria, known for its juicy cherries. Some time ago Nadia came in Greece in order to visit her sister, who lives and works here. She likes so much the live in Athens that she decides to try her luck here. Currently Nadia and her friends are owners of the “Delarte” café where this Saturday (February 10) after 22:30 in the evening they organize a big party with masks and latino music.

Nadia’s dream is for the café to turn into a place where the Bulgarians, who deal with culture meet as she has already set the foundations and of course she has an appropriate place to do that and the mood for fulfill crazy ideas.

How did everything started for you in Greece?

Nine years ago I came here in Athens to visit my sister. The first year was difficult, until I learned the language. After this like most of the Bulgarians here worked for two years as a babysitter, then I graduated from a school of tourism in Athens and worked for five years in Grand Bretan. Gradually while I was working in the hotel I started thinking of making something of my own. I couldn’t be subordinate to somebody for so many years any more. So I decided to open the café and I had the support of my boyfriend who is Greek. He helped me, we found the place, and our apartment is nearby. I liked the high ceilings here because I was imagining it to be an exhibition hall.

While I was working in the hotel I started painting in my spare time – I was more devoted to it then I was in Bulgaria. I met an artist who is also a teacher – Antonis Kurtikakis. He took his post graduate qualification in history of art in Cambridge University and he opened my eyes for the art and thought me various techniques. He makes an unbelievable contact with people – he can read you like an X-ray, which helped him in the way he was teaching us as well. When I created my art-café my main idea was to make exhibitions and music nights here and to make it a cultural center.

I was very well paid in the hotel, however I needed to do something for myself. And now for a little more than one year I have a lot of experience and I have met a lot of people. However you have to always be on alert as the place doesn’t help much. When I made my café and placed all the paintings I started crying. I was thinking it was not possible, but at last….

Don’t the concepts of a café and cultural center mix? Meaning that the customers would not know whether they are going to a café or entering a gallery…

I don’t want to change it, event though in the neighborhood are often telling me to make it a tavern… I don’t want to…. It is very hard for me, but I fell satisfied. I fell happy that I made it look like this and my studio is on top and I can paint when I feel the need to do it.

There are difficulties in the everyday life – it is empty. The style in which I made is somehow cannot be accepted as a café by the people in the neighborhood yet, they look at it with fear, they pass by, they look, it is interesting for them, they comment on the paintings, however they are scared to enter even though it is not expensive, not more expensive then the cafes next-door. Everyone is telling me that if it was in Kolonaki or Gazi it would have been a lot more visited. However we will try to make it work with some new things. We have the best coffee brand in the neighborhood. When we organize evenings with music and parties people come and in the day I wonder where they got lost?!

What kind of difficulties did you face until you made your idea come true?

One year I fought in order to receive all the necessary papers in order to open the café. When I left my job at the hotel I was hoping that in two-three months I would be able to start. In this one year I was paying rent, but I couldn’t work. I was going to all kinds of institutions, including the archeological institution of the Acropolis where we had to declare that we will not dig and search for antiques. Two months and a half I was waiting just for this permit.

From the moment I started working I organizing exhibitions we made few concerts of Janet Kapuia from Uruguay, who is a very famous latino singer, however she lives in Greece for the past twenty years. Here also played the rock band “Vatia Nihtomeni” as well as a jazz band who play light jazz in Sade style.

What would be the program from now on?