The exhibition is the result of a multi-year art program organized by the Mount Athos Center in collaboration with artist George Taxidis, who, between 2020 and 2025, made more than fifteen trips to the State of Mount Athos, visited all twenty monasteries, observed the monks’ daily routine, participated in liturgical services, conversed with them, and captured this immersive experience in 115 works using a variety of techniques: pencil, charcoal, oil, watercolor, as well as sculptures and engravings.

The exhibition premiered at the Mount Athos Center exhibition space (June 29 through October 11, 2025), then traveled to the AMKE KYKLOPS Cultural Center in the Marble Building in Drama (November 7, 2025, to February 15, 2026) and subsequently traveled to Istanbul, where, in collaboration with the Consulate General of Greece, it was presented at the Sismanoglio Megaro from March 26 to April 16, 2026.

Alongside the visual arts program, director Nikos Anagnostopoulos accompanied the artist on some of his visits to Mount Athos and created the documentary of the same name, which will be screened on the evening of the opening in the atrium of the GSA/ Historical Archives–Museum of Hydra. Immediately following the screening, there will be a discussion with the audience featuring visual artist Giorgos Taxidis, director Nikos Anagnostopoulos, and exhibition curator Anastasios Douros.

As part of the exhibition, a catalog of the same title is also being published, featuring the complete body of work by Giorgos Taxidis, as well as essays by art historian Yannis Bolis and David Ebony, former managing editor of Art in America and contributor to many leading art magazines in the U.S.

Throughout the art program, Giorgos Taxidis kept a journal, which is included in the exhibition catalog. In it, he recounts the unique, immersive experience he had: On Mount Athos, I allowed myself to absorb what I was seeing without feeling pressured to paint what I had already mastered in the past. I came into conflict with my own artistic work in order to create something new, something I had never painted before. In a way, I thought that a monk and an artist, despite the distance that separates them, nevertheless walk parallel paths in their lives: all that inner struggle, the purpose of a lifetime, the dedication and devotion to one’s work. Each person’s patience and prayer, in their own way. Above all, the fulfillment of a work in the truest sense. “We, too, are searching for ‘the true light’” (Diary, June 4, 2021).

Curator of the visual arts program and exhibition: Anastasios Douros, Director of the Mount Athos Cultural Center

Duration: 1 to 31 August 2026