“Byzantine art and the concept of the icon; Athens' medieval and Byzantine cultural traditions”
The Art Of The Icon is a residency and video / narrative / drawing project for visual artists, jewelers, crafters, designers, filmmakers, performers, art theorists, curators, academics who wish to explore Athens' medieval and Byzantine cultural traditions that still live on. The residency program initiates participants in understanding how to read, and be inspired by, the icon tradition, and explains concepts of time, space, eternity, providence, and divine union embedded in the visual language of Orthodox art. Byzantine art, a highly conceptual art created by a combination of mastering ancient techniques and preparing the artist's body and mind for creative contemplation, is widely unknown to the West.
Icons are intellectual and emotional bridges to the invisible world, while the sacred space manifests the union of humans with God through rituals of bonding the past, the present and the future. The residency program includes an online introductory course into Byzantine art history, and its significance for contemporary conceptual art, Pop Art and major modern art movements, guided visits at Unesco sites, museums and Byzantine monuments, individual tips on Athens' secret addresses, as well as curatorial and editorial advice for the realization of a creative video or narrative. Participants' videos that will be inspired by the residency program will be screened at Munich's SCHMUCK Jewelry Week 2027, while the narrative or article or presentation of the artists' work will be published in SMCK Magazine.
Residents' work inspired by The Art Of The Icon will be eligible for the SMCK On Reel Video Awards 2027, and promoted through press and social media. Workshops offer support and advice for developing a narrative / script / comics / video: shooting a video, narrative and storytelling; canalizing inspiration in new work, new formats of presentation and promotion. Guided city tours plus visits at Unesco sites, museums and art venues include a trip to Elefsina with a guided tour to ancient and Byzantine monuments, a curated visit to the Byzantine Museum and to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, and an Athens city tour with focus on Byzantine treasures and monuments.