In Rhodes, it is easy to forget where you are. The all-inclusive hotels, the endless beaches lined with hotel complexes, the taverns displaying eye-catching photographs of their dishes, and the uninterrupted movement of visitors often create the impression of a place that exists in order to be consumed. An island where the impressive fortified medieval city of the Knights, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the buildings of the Ottoman past and the architectural remnants of the Italian occupation (testimonies to centuries of history, cultural exchanges and successive identities) often seem to function merely as a picturesque backdrop for the sirtaki of mass tourism.
It is precisely this place that the 2nd Rhodes Biennale of Contemporary Ceramics (BCK 2026 – Biennale of Contemporary Keramics) comes to illuminate from a different perspective. The “wandering child” of Loukia Thomopoulou, the inspiration, founder and artistic director of the event, which took its first steps two years ago in Santorini, each time highlights the place that hosts it through the gaze of its artists.
In this year’s event, 42 artists from 18 countries present works in five locations of the Medieval City, with the support and collaboration of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese: at the de Milly Armoury, the Decorative Arts Collection of Rhodes, the Church of Panagia tou Kastrou, the Archaeological Museum and Kleovoulou Square, in front of the Palace of the Grand Master.
With the contribution of curators Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos and French curator Anissa Touati, who gives the event an even more international character, Thomopoulou composes with them an exhibition titled “Where the Day Starts.” Drawing inspiration from the geography, the light and the mythology of Rhodes (where, according to myth, the god Helios became the protector of the island), the Biennale unfolds as a visual journey from one space to another, functioning like a map within the map of the city, inviting the visitor to discover the different historical layers of Rhodes through the lens of contemporary art.
Two breathtaking spaces
I will focus particularly on two breathtaking spaces, which function not merely as exhibition environments but as active interlocutors with the works.
On the one hand, the Decorative Arts Collection of Rhodes, housed in the historic Armory of the Knights, contains important examples of ceramics, furniture and decorative arts objects from the 16th to the 20th century. A small museum gem which, despite the richness of its collections, continues to lack labels and explanatory texts for its exhibits.
Within this environment, the ceramic works of Atalanti Martinos (“Quatrefoil,” 2026) engage directly in dialogue with the historic ceramics of Iznik, Çanakkale and Kütahya, creating bridges between different eras, geographies and traditions of ceramic art.
On the other hand, the magnificent Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, housed in the medieval building of the former Knights’ Hospital, possesses a beautiful garden where ancient sculptures, architectural fragments and Hellenistic mosaics coexist in an outdoor space of rare beauty.
There, Malek Gnaoui’s Ionic column (“Essaida Carthage 1.618,” 2026), constructed from red bricks and cement, seems to converse with the architectural fragments surrounding it, transforming a classical architectural symbol into a commentary on the problematic relationship between the contemporary built environment and historical memory.
A little further away, George Vavatsis’s chain installation “Landmarks” (2026) resembles at times a chaotic archaeological excavation and at others an iridescent landscape unfolding before the Hellenistic mosaics from ancient houses of Rhodes.
It is not by chance that Vavatsis had received first prize in the previous BCK event in Santorini, as part of the awards the Biennale grants to artists who explore the expressive possibilities of clay.
Both art and technique
But what about the exhibits themselves?
The event attempts to bridge the long-standing gap between visual artists and ceramicists. The former usually view the latter as simple craftsmen, while the latter respond by accusing visual artists of having only a superficial technical understanding of the material.
BCK chooses to move beyond this distinction, including both sides. It treats clay as a complete visual medium with inexhaustible possibilities and contemporary ceramics as a field of broad artistic expression as well as intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean.
And Rhodes provides fertile ground for such an approach. The history of local ceramics, as expressed through the Ikaros factory, is a history of movement, influence and exchange. Eastern models, Italian techniques, local motifs and trade routes intersected on the island for years, shaping a tradition that was open to the world from the very beginning.
In any case, in the informal dispute between ceramicists and visual artists, there is no need to take sides. It is enough to surrender to the power of the artists’ works, whose participation was secured through an open call (300 applications for 20 artists) and through direct commissions by the curators.
Works such as Dionysis Kavallieratos’s decayed hoplite [“Upward Downfall (Hoplite),” 2026], which appears as though it has been recovered from some ancient shipwreck and cast in bronze, or Elysia Athanatos’s award-winning work “Echoes” (2024), a funnel-shaped form with a golden interior that seems to collect vibrations, thoughts and invisible energies.
Or one can stand before Costas Neophytos’s work “Form” (1997), created by the Rhodian ceramicist and sculptor who has devoted five full decades to his art.
And yet, it would be difficult to say that he is treated as the cultural capital that he truly represents for his homeland.
Neophytos, as well as Menandros Papadopoulos from Athens, received honorary awards from the Biennale; after all, learning alongside them is an “integral part of the education of a person who wants to work with clay,” as Loukia Thomopoulou said.
It is important that an event gives space and recognition to people of art who often remain in the shadows — to craftsmen who, when brought into the spotlight, prove that their knowledge is not merely technical but deeply artistic as well, even though they do not accompany it with the theoretical vocabulary with which, not as rarely as one might expect, the world of contemporary art dresses up its own lack of substance.
