So large – it is the largest island in Greece – and so unique in its identity is Crete, that it is often described as a world unto itself. It is steeped in a multilayered and fascinating history and mythology, and its characteristic traditions – encapsulating an internationally exemplary gastronomic profile – remain very much alive today across its many villages and illustrious towns. Equally remarkable to discover in Crete is its striking array of multifaceted landscapes, some reminiscent of places far and wide across the planet. With its heart set in antiquity and a steady gaze on the future, Crete is also the home to ongoing projects for generating vibrant new cultural life on its turf. Its many visitors are now welcomed to bridge their understanding of the island’s rich past with a modern vision at two hotels that are creating an art movement.
On my latest journey there, I travelled to Lasithi, the eastern-most part of Crete, to the Agios Nikolaos area where the general architectural style is perhaps less reflective of Crete’s most dazzling beauties, yet where a pleasantly lively buzz of activity prevails. Immediately upon arriving I was immersed in a novel and inspiring aspect of fresh cultural vision different from that provided by the region’s stunning Minoan palaces and many other cultural treasures, one centered around modern art.
Hotels as Galleries for Inspired Interaction
In just a few days, I got to directly and actively interact with stimulating art and the creators, curators, patrons and viewers around it. I was there to attend the Mamidakis Foundation’s Art Prize event, which the G&A Mamidakis Foundation launched in 2019. The foundation has established the annual international Art Prize and a Residency Programme, which supports the creation of new artworks and site-specific research and provides artists with significant financial assistance and rare opportunities to network and showcase their work. A highly successful hotelier driven by a passion for art as a way of life and communication, Gina Mamidakis, CEO of Bluegr Hotels & Resorts, runs three luxury hotels in Lasithi, the Minos Beach Art Hotel, the Minos Palace Hotel & Suites, and Candia Park Village. These places increasingly reflect her dedicated passion for promoting and presenting art, and many guests are drawn to the unique, high-end aesthetics they can enjoy during their stay.
In recent years Minos Palace has served as the ‘canvas’ for the Art Prize finalists whose works are permanently exhibited on its corridor walls, open for all – not just guests – to see. Meanwhile the Art Hotel has developed a strong reputation among art lovers for its lush and expansive seafront Sculpture Garden, which contains 55 impressive works by international artists such as Nikos Alexiou, George Lappas, Linda Benglis, Carlo Ciarli, Giorgos Gyparakis, Magdalena Abakanowicz and Rena Papaspyrou, also visitable upon appointment.
Just 10 minutes away from each other and sprawled over the crystalline Cretan water, the two hotels harmoniously combine modern architecture with traditional local elements and the magnificent natural surroundings. Their style is elegant, minimalist and tranquilly artistic, reflecting the low-key but tasteful aesthetic of the Mamidakis family. The structures seamlessly fuse with the area’s wildly pacifying nature – cobalt sea and emerald trees, sunsets that dye everything orange and bright mornings where shadows of silver olive tree branches dance on whitewashed walls. But they also are full of well-spaced design details and artworks, chiefly sculptures and wall installations, that catch the eye, inform the soul and awaken perspective.
The concept at both hotels is evidently not one of presenting a beautiful venue ‘dressed’ in attractive artworks, but to showcase impactful Greek and international pieces, becoming an open gallery of sorts. One people can enjoy in a peaceful, breezily chic and warmly hospitable setting.
A New Center for Global Art in Crete
This year was the third and final year in which competition winners – this year selected among 700 global entries – will be showcasing their art indoors. Speaking to us about what visitors can expect – including hotel guests but certainly not exclusively for them, Gina Mamidakis said: “Next, we are expanding beyond Minos Beach to Minos Palace and Candia Park village. At Minos Palace, after introducing indoor large-scale site-specific installations, starting in 2025, we plan to invite artists to explore the site and develop land art projects. The culmination of this ongoing effort will be the inauguration of a contemporary art museum at Candia Park village, offering space for exhibitions, symposia, and cultural events. My dedication to art in hospitality moves beyond aesthetics – it’s about creating cultural sanctuaries that offer transformative and impactful experiences.”
“I have wanted to help promote artists since the very beginning of my career,” Mamidakis adds. “I wholeheartedly believe that art and hospitality are inextricably connected; they go hand-in-hand. One complements the other, and together, they offer each guest a unique experience. I organized the first art symposium in 1988, bringing together Greek and international artists to create in-situ art installations at Minos Beach Art Hotel. Its success led to two more symposia and multiple group and solo exhibitions. Today, our Sculpture Garden features over 55 large-scale installations on permanent display. It is open to the public, the local community, students, and educators, and to anyone who wishes to experience the collection. In the 1990s, I founded the G&A Mamidakis Foundation to continue supporting and promoting excellence in contemporary art, as well as the rich cultural heritage of Crete.”
The Incandescent Discipline of Creation
Eloquently guided by Sotiris Bahtsetzis, Professor of Art History and Artistic Director of the G&A Mamidakis Foundation, and Giota Dimitriou, its Curator, Art historian, and Director, I became more and more intrigued to learn about the not-so-simple creation of this emerging art haven. Like most people met with the final result of an already placed artwork, I take for granted how it got there. I was fascinated to learn just how complex and arduous the process is. Juxtaposing the scope, size, shape, concept and energy of each and every artwork with the hotels’ structural design is no easy feat. Dimitriou shared the intricate procedure involved in selecting the right artists and artworks for the competition and its theme, which this year was ‘Eudemonia’ or Care. Apart from needing to be proficient communicators, artists must have a deep understanding of the space where their work will appear. The space and artwork must be respected and enhanced, from the aspect of aesthetics and functionality to how people move past it and what they experience. The works are permanently housed and there can be no accidentalism or disharmony with the space.
This year’s three winners, Irini Miga, Stratis Tavlaridis and Katerina Nakou are all Greek, despite the majority of submissions being international – from 72 countries. Their entries excelled in meeting the competition’s criteria, which called for large-scale projects designed to be focal points within their exhibition spaces. The artists aptly tailored their concepts to the unique characteristics of the venues, using floor plans, precise dimensions, and photographs to guide their creations. The resulting pieces are meticulously made to fit the hotel’s expansive corridors, offering guests, staff and outside visitors alike an experience that can be as breezily passed by, perhaps absorbed quiescently, as it can be deeply engrossing for those stop to really get drawn in and connect.
Beyond the new awarded works, a major highlight of the Art Prize event was the captivating visual and auditory performance by artist Maria Louizou, who worked with local ceramic craftspeople using traditional methods in Heraklion to build three giant ancient-style vessels. Placed by the expansive, sea-facing side of the large infinity pool, the vessels have openings and can be sat and sung within, offering viewers a foetus-like immersion within them. On the Art Prize event night, Louizou, joined by two performers, enchanted the audience with her presentation of “Six Breaths Per Minute”, a remarkable, mesmerizing polyphonic song performance revolving around the vessels.
Three Artists Who Care
Stratis Tavlaridis
Stratis Tavlaridis’ ‘Long Waves’ is a large-scale installation (30 meters) created from perforated handmade paper using the paper cut technique. The artwork evokes the form and movement of the sea, while also symbolizing a new era with imagery reminiscent of fishing nets. Its aim is to raise public awareness about the urgent need to care for our oceans. He said: “The sea is a profound source of inspiration for me. The starting point for my work ‘Long Waves’ was the location itself; Crete, with its strategic position in the eastern Mediterranean, has been a significant cultural crossroads since antiquity. This maritime hub has fostered one of the largest trade centers, crucial for the dissemination of knowledge and the evolution of human civilization in the West. However, today the sea faces unprecedented threats, with countless tons of waste disrupting its ecosystem. Paper provided me with the flexibility and potential to continually evolve my technique.
“Since childhood, I’ve always made things by hand. Ready-made objects never satisfied me; I wanted something more personal. To me, living in art is a constant play between the child and the adult, where the emotion triggers the creation of a piece. I feel fortunate that art allows me to express all my concerns. Each project begins with essential questions: how, where, why, and when, which guide the conception and creation of the next work. I focus on abstraction and, through the papercut technique, conductive using a surgical knife, I ‘paint’ by removing material.
All my pieces are made on handmade papers produced with traditional techniques by small workshops in Nepal, chosen for their durability. I don’t discard the paper remnants. In the West, we often see paper as disposable and lacking durability because its creation is far removed from our culture. We know how to use it but not much about its origins. Humanity owes much of its progress to paper. What is created on paper endures in an accessible way. The handmade papers I use offer the finesse, movement, and sensitivity needed to express my themes. This technique demands extensive manual labor, discipline, and concentration, practices often found in Asian cultures and influenced by meditation. This process brings me closer to my core. It requires total dedication.”
Irini Miga
Irini Miga’s ‘Landscape in Motion’ is a site-responsive artwork that integrates painting, sculpture and found objects to depict an ever-evolving landscape. Inspired by the swirling motion of a leaf in the air, it highlights the endangered rare flora of Crete, encouraging collective awareness and conservation of the island’s biodiversity.
Miga said: “l was to draw attention to the endangered and rare flora of Crete and to encourage awareness for its preservation. The work unfolds in five parts, combining painted and sculptural elements to depict Crete’s endemic plants categorized as Critically Endangered (CR). My research was based on the Red Data Book of Rare and Threatened Plants of Greece. Traditional botanical illustration materials, such as watercolors and graphite, are used with a twist, emphasizing the precarious existence of these species. Representational and abstract elements, dynamic and subtle painting gestures highlight the inherent movement within the five parts of the work. The handmade ceramic elements representing stones, leaves, and small branches bring the endemic plants to life, symbolizing different regions of the island where these plants bloom.
“Exploring how we perceive space, I engage with the memory of a place from its origin to the present. This often manifests as reconstructions of locations and objects of personal significance and beyond. I am particularly fascinated by the language of everyday objects. The dialogues and shifting relationships of axes, such as primary and secondary environments, physical and mental space, form and utility, personal and communal, sculpture and painting. In this ‘path’ through space, I wanted each part of the work to present a plant from Crete thriving in different areas of the island, starting (or ending, depending on the point of entry) with the plant flourishing in the region of Agios Nikolaos.
“Each of my works is treated as a new experiment, elements of which may emerge in new forms in the next. I am interested in unconventional viewing spaces and how a work can exist within specific spatial parameters.”
Katerina Nakou
Katerina Nakou’s ‘Resilient Thread’ features large-scale compositions woven on a loom, transforming the decorative elements of passementerie—a nearly extinct art traditionally adorned textiles’ edges—into the central focus of her narrative. “My fascination with fabric in an artistic context began during my studies in Textile & Fashion Design in Germany,” she said. “I wanted to see it for what it is, not just what it is destined to become in fashion or decoration. My deeper understanding of textile art came through my postgraduate studies and my specialization in jacquard weaving at the Textiel Museum in the Netherlands, where I worked on artistic and research projects. This experience opened up a new world for me, a liberating journey where I could experiment with techniques, textures, and materials without product design constraints.
“In ‘Resilient Thread,’ I revived the patterns and techniques of passementerie on a proportionally enlarged scale with new compositions and materials, aiming to give it the attention it deserves, making it the central element of the narrative, both literally and metaphorically. This work is entirely handmade, even the cords I use as wefts are handcrafted and unique, which directly relates to the concept of care, as handmade objects reflect the dedication and time invested in their creation. The work embraces diversity and represents inclusivity, speaking about the ‘margins,’ what has been neglected.
“Passementerie art has long been a mystery to me. It is one of the rarest textile techniques and the only one I wasn’t taught during my studies. It includes various decorative elements like woven trims, tassels, and braiding…When I first sat at the loom to weave a passementerie trim, I realized my focus was no longer on the center of the fabric but on its edges, where the patterns suddenly flourished. Each work is unique, determining the method, tools, and materials I will use. I start with an idea and then research historical textile archives, museums, and even academic essays. Sometimes, a new material I find and want to use sparks a creation. Ideas are tested through experiments, and often failures give birth to new concepts and propel me forward. Beyond weaving, I engage with various techniques, including manual knitting machines and tufting. I am particularly drawn to the structured nature of weaving. The loom is a complex machine, and the entire process involves balancing and coexisting elements to create a whole. Every thread, knot, and line is not just a construction method but a language, a way to understand and express the world.”
