SNF Nostos 2026 kicks off with dialogue with Jean-Michel Jarre, a concert by David Byrne, and interactive exhibitions

He’s drawn some of the largest crowds ever seen at concerts, but on Sunday, Jean-Michel Jarre joined Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou onstage for an intimate SNF Dialogues discussion on AI and artistic creation to open SNF Nostos 2026.

Prefaced by an informal welcome by Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Co-President Andreas Dracopoulos, the discussion presaged two major threads of the week of SNF Nostos: discussion with fresh perspectives from a wide variety of thinkers, and summer-defining musical performances by artists like Jean-Micel Jarre himself.

The day’s schedule rounded out the preview of what’s to come at SNF Nostos 2026 with the opening of interactive installations will engage visitors throughout the week. These include an interactive map highlighting SNF grantee-partners around the world in celebration of 30 years of grantmaking as well as of Artefacts of the Future: Ethical Echoes in Medicine, a provocative look at one speculative future that invites visitors to enter into direct dialogue with the exhibition via AI.

For Nostos-goers who needed a break from tech, Kafeneio tou Gianni in Stavros Niarchos Park offers a phone-free space where they can try out a brand-new style of communication: sitting down and chatting face to face.This is exactly what path-breaking electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre and SNF Dialogues Initiative Executive Director and iMEdD Co-Founder Anna Kynthia Bousdoukou did—onstage in the Greek National Opera’s Stavros Niarchos Hall.

Anna guided the discussion by asking how we make sure AI can help aid human efforts rather than replacing them, about the emotional dimension of AI use, and what happens when AI levels up.

Jarre encouraged his fellow artists, and others, to embrace AI as a tool for “augmented imagination.”

“It is strange how we as human beings, generation after generation, are afraid of innovation,” he said. “Technology is neutral.” At the same time, he urged us not to be naïve in our embrace of AI. “What makes the difference between democracy and chaos are rules.”

Anna closed the discussion by opening the week of SNF Nostos 2026, the series of SNF Dialogues discussions, and the thematic houses organizing the SNF Nostos Conference: the House of Arts & Culture, the House of Civics & Education, the House of Health & Sports, and the House of the Future.

In the evening, a Release Athens x SNF Nostos concert—the first of three—by David Byrne, with Deadletter and Nation of Language, lit up the summer night.

The SNF Dialogues discussion is available on snfdialogues.org