Rhodes to Host 2nd Biennale of Contemporary Keramics
The Medieval Town of Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage site, will host the second edition of the Biennale of Contemporary Keramics (BCK) from 6 June to 31 October 2026. Titled 'Where the Day Begins,' the event transforms the historic centre of Rhodes into an expansive field for contemporary artistic creation. The biennale seeks to place ceramic art in dialogue with the island's history, architecture, and distinct cultural landscape.
The Medieval Town of Rhodes, a UNESCO World Heritage site, will host the second edition of the Biennale of Contemporary Keramics (BCK) from 6 June to 31 October 2026. Titled 'Where the Day Begins,' this year’s event transforms the historic centre of Rhodes into an expansive field for contemporary artistic creation, placing ceramic art in dialogue with the island's history, architecture, and distinct cultural landscape.
The exhibition is curated by Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos, Loukia Thomopoulou, and Anissa Touati, who draw inspiration from the geographical position of Rhodes, the light of the eastern Mediterranean, and the island's layered past. The sun, as a timeless symbol of life, regeneration, and transformation, serves as the exhibition’s central axis, illuminating the wide-ranging expressions of contemporary ceramic practice and the diverse narratives that unfold around material, memory, and place.
The biennale brings together 42 artists from 18 countries, presenting a broad spectrum of approaches from sculpture and installations to works that explore issues of cultural identity, the environment, and collective experience. Participants include Etel Adnan, Dionisis Kavallieratos, Kyriaki Goni, Luke Edward Hall, and Zoë Paul, alongside creators from Europe, the Middle East, the Americas, and North Africa. The artist selection resulted from an international open call, which attracted over 300 applications, as well as by curatorial invitation.
The main exhibition will unfold across five emblematic sites within the Medieval Town: the Armoury de Milly, the Rhodes Kosmitiki Collection, the Church of Our Lady of the Castle, the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, and Kleovoulou Square at the Palace of the Grand Master. Through this dispersal, the city itself becomes a unified exhibition environment, inviting visitors to navigate between monuments, public spaces, and contemporary artworks.
A distinguished international jury includes Katerina Gregos, artistic director of EMST in Athens; Stefano Collicelli Cagol, director of the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato; and Karina El Helou, director of the Sursock Museum in Beirut. In addition to prizes awarded by the jury, ceramic artists Kostas Neofytou and Menandros Papadopoulos will be honored for their lifetime contributions to the field.
Alongside the main exhibition, the biennale will feature an extensive public programme of artist residencies, performances, talks, screenings, workshops, and educational projects held in various locations. This approach reinforces the event’s character as a meeting point for different creative practices and cultural experiences.
Following its inaugural edition in Santorini in 2024, the Biennale of Contemporary Keramics continues its trajectory as a nomadic institution, moving to a new Greek island every two years to forge fresh connections between contemporary art and local identity. In Rhodes, ceramics will become the medium for a dialogue between past and present, under the light of a city that continues to be a cultural crossroads in the Mediterranean.
Source: CultureNow Τέχνες