Heraklion municipality to host 11th International Sculpture Symposium from September 21
Sculptors from China, Cuba and Greece will carve five sculptures from white marble during the Municipality of Heraklion’s 11th International Sculpture Symposium, scheduled to run from Monday, September 21 to Sunday, October 11, 2026. The municipality is co-organizing the event with the Region of Crete.
The sculptors will work for twenty days at a specially arranged site in Venerato, in the municipal unit of Palianis. According to the municipality, visitors of all ages will be able to freely visit the site to watch the artists shape the marble into finished works, an experience open to the public throughout the symposium.
Once completed, the sculptures will become property of the Municipality of Heraklion and will be placed in public spaces. The participating artists are Óscar Laureliano Aguirre Comendador from Cuba, Yang Liu from China, and Antonis Myrodias, Lida Pavli and Manolis Charkoutsis from Greece.
The Panhellenic Marble Association is the event’s main sponsor, with member companies donating all the white marble the artists will use. The symposium is also supported by the community councils and cultural associations of Venerato, Dafnes, Avgeniki, Kerasia and Sivas, along with contributions from local businesses.
Two decades of the symposium
This year marks twenty years since the symposium began. It started as a pilot project in 2006, launched by sculptors Manolis Charkoutsis and Christos Tsoumblekas together with the then-Municipality of Palianis, with invited artists from Greece and abroad. According to organizers, the event received a warm reception and strong support from the local community from the outset.
Charkoutsis, who lives in Venerato, has continued to support the institution since then, while Tsoumblekas has taken part with his own works in several subsequent editions.
Organizers describe the Municipality of Heraklion’s International Sculpture Symposium as one of the oldest and best-known sculpture symposiums in Europe and worldwide, and the only one in Greece held with continuous, international participation over time.
To date, sculptors from twenty countries have taken part, including Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Egypt, Spain, Russia, Serbia, India, Syria, Peru and islands of the Caribbean. Cuba and China are joining this year for the first time. Thirty-four sculptors from Greece have also participated over the years, including several university professors. The 6th symposium, held in 2012, was carried out under the artistic direction of the late sculptor Aspasia Papadoperaki, while the 7th symposium in 2014 featured works by the late sculptors Nikiforos Voskakis and Christos Riganas.
The symposium has produced seventy-three works of art in total, made from poros stone, Gortyna marble and white marble. Additional materials, including iron, concrete and glass, were used at the 2nd symposium in 2007. Some of the finished pieces have already been placed in Heraklion and surrounding villages, while others currently remain in an outdoor sculpture collection in Venerato; the municipality plans to install much of this remaining work in the city of Heraklion and in villages across the municipality.
