In Agios Nikolaos, Crete, from September 27 to October 3, 2025,
six gifted artists—wood sculptors Athanasia Pastrikou, Markos Toufeklis, Andri Paphiti, Zafeiria Athanasopoulou, Nikos Georgiou, and Nikos Manesis—are invited to share their own vision of the myth of the Abduction of Europa.

The sculptors will work at the Sotiriadis family workshop, the very same space where in 2005 the monumental sculpture of the bull and Europa was completed. That work was later sent to Strasbourg, where it has stood for the past twenty years at the entrance of the Winston Churchill building of the European Parliament.

Their new works will be exhibited at a later date, as part of an exhibition that will also include material from the original sculpture’s creation in Strasbourg.

In October 2005, the monumental representation of the Abduction of Europa—a gift from all of Crete—was sent from Agios Nikolaos and installed at the entrance of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Sculptors Nikos and Pantelis Sotiriadis hoped that with this work they could send a blessing from Crete to the heart of the newly united Europe, in the way the island knows and loves to do.

Twenty years have passed. Much has changed. Nikos Sotiriadis passed away suddenly and prematurely—it’s already been ten years. The united Europe is no longer what artists had once hoped and imagined, often with a romantic spirit. The world itself has changed—it is moving along a difficult and dangerous path.

The Sotiriadis family felt a deep need to revisit the vision that gave birth to the Abduction of Europa. This need goes far beyond the emotional or personal: it is well known that once a work of art leaves the workshop, it no longer belongs to its creator—it belongs to humanity.

A group of gifted wood sculptors has been invited to work for a week in the same Sotiriadis workshop where the original sculpture was born. They are asked to express their own vision of the same myth, a theme much loved and widely explored by artists through the ages—yet one that never runs dry, always renewing itself through each new artistic lens.

The timing feels urgent and critical. Today’s Europe walks a tightrope. Is this the Europe promised by politicians? Is this the Europe of the people that artists once dreamed of? Perhaps it's time to reopen old and new questions, and to rethink the path forward so that Europe can meet the challenges of today.

In parallel with this week of sculpting, a number of related activities are being planned—
a “making-of” exhibition featuring materials from the creation of the original sculpture, including the new artworks;
school visits and interactive sessions with students;
and a possible conference where invited speakers will discuss with the public the current state of united Europe and how it might carry forward its founding vision.

The myth of Europa began in Crete. The union of the Phoenician princess with Zeus gave birth to three remarkable sons—Rhadamanthus, Sarpedon and Minos. The last would give his name to a great civilization—the Minoan—and Europa herself would lend her name to an entire continent.

If it’s true that beauty will save the world, then let art become a small step toward that salvation.
Now, more than ever, we need it.

Photo: Municipality of Agios Nikolaos