2019: Holy Mount Athos — Ierissos
As of April 13th 2019, the unique cycle of paintings by Makis Warlamis about the 'Holy Mount Athos' is exhibited in the cultural center of the city of Ierissos.
The city is located at the 'entrance' of the monastic republic of Athos at the east coast of the last finger of the Chalkidiki peninsula and is at the same time headquarters of the community of Aristotelis in the northern Greek region of central Macedonia. The cultural center offers information about Aristoteles and the Holy Mount Athos. Both the exhibition and the other attractions of the city and the beautiful landscape and beaches are worth the trip.
In this remarkable and memorable exhibition, artist Makis Warlamis takes visitors into a world of sacred buildings and sketes and the lives of the monks. Because of its remoteness, its unique nature, culture and spirituality, the holy mountain of Athos provides an oasis of tranquility and peacefulness in a tumultuous and bustling world.
"From each of my visits to the holy mountain of Athos I took a deep and intense experience with me,“ said Prof. Warlamis. The artist and architect dedicated an impressive cycle of paintings to ‚his paradise,‘ as he called it, and, by means of his images, created a journey into the mysterium, the deeper secret of the holy mountain.
The multimedia presentation, which was exhibited in the European parliament in Brussels and in the Byzantine museums of Thessaloniki and Athens as well as in the Waldviertel art museum, includes numerous paintings of monasteries, landscapes and monks – partially meticulously, partially expressively painted. The collection of paintings and multimedia stagings - a chapel, a prayer room, the singing of the monchs and the films - reveals this spiritual, internal harmony perceptible on Athos.