The Biennale of Contemporary Keramics Finds in Rhodes Its Most Resonant Stage Yet |
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The Biennale of Contemporary Keramics Finds in Rhodes Its Most Resonant Stage Yet
At historical locations across the city, a medium shaped by hand becomes a way to think about movement and belonging.
Arriving inside the Medieval City of Rhodes, one senses time loosening its hold. Stone passages and fortified walls still carry the memory of the Knights Hospitaller, while souvenir shops and summer crowds press against that weight with a more familiar kind of immediacy. Into this loaded setting comes the second iteration of the Biennale of Contemporary Keramics, a nomadic project that treats clay not as a minor craft, but as a language of history and contact.
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The “K” in Keramics points back to “kéramos,” the ancient Greek word for pottery. It is a simple typographic shift, yet it sets the tone for an exhibition that seeks to engage with an old medium without leaving it inert. Founded by Loukia Thomopoulou, the biennale began in Santorini in 2024 and now lands in Rhodes, a major Greek destination with its own deep relationship to ceramics and artisanal production. Thomopoulou imagines the format as a recurring celebration staged on distinct islands, each edition shaped by the identity of its host.
Co-curated with Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos and Anissa Touati, this year’s edition is titled “Where the Day Starts.” The phrase takes Rhodes as its point of departure. Positioned at the eastern edge of Greece, the island is linked in myth to the place where daylight begins. Rather than using that reference as decoration, the three curators built a framework around brightness and Mediterranean exchange. Dimitrakopoulos notes that the show unfolds across historical locations in the city, gathering works by 42 artists from 18 countries, selected through an open call as well as invitation. Touati emphasizes the Mediterranean as a zone of circulation, where beliefs and objects have crossed borders for many centuries.
"The Biennale of Contemporary Keramics" Location: Rhodes, Greece Dates: Through October 31, 2026 Curators: Stamatia Dimitrakopoulos, Loukia Thomopoulou and Anissa Touati
What makes the entire route........