Varlamis Efthimios exhibition, Santorini, houses of God, landscapes and compositions June 21, 2011 What makes Santorini so exciting, the mystery of the island, is the ability it gives us to realize an entire habitat, history, natural environment, social and religious structure. These you can not meet in other places. It is worldwide rare, because Santorini does not let the man to see it, to observe it as an object, but accepts him as a guest, is hugging him. Is the result of a mysterious civilization in history, known as Minoan Peace. With these words the renowned Greek painter and architect, Professor Efthimios Varlamis, defines the need for a metaphysical initiation, as he attempts through a series of works titled Santorini, houses of God, landscapes and compositions. What is ultimately Santorini? Can art capture what he sees? Himself Mr. Varlamis answered: In my paintings about Santorini I do not want to represent what exists, what would be redundant. I tried to get to the heart of reality. My art represents what does not exist, what is lost. It is a situation that carries a landscape or a building in an ephemeral state between the annihilation and memory. It is symbols, ideas of a lost island, is humility and grandeur of traditional architecture, which I studied and studied with patience and love. The architecture of Santorini, according to Mr. Varlamis, is archetypal, touches the deepest layers of our being, and not confined to the epidermal surface of a decorative style.He also notes that the secret of the island is the Cave troglodytic culture, a culture which has benefited from the geological and tectonic nature of the island to convert the land itself to house. Featuring Santorini as a great world building, which to be experienced requires to know the humility of the cave, Mr. Varlamis notes that the architectural space is configured for directing the sociability and a whole range of contact points carrying personal initiative in a stable society. Santorini is a place of laughter and joy, is a paradise on earth. To those who wonder why there are so many churches in Santorini, the great creator says that the island is organized so, that God is omnipresent, to accompany man in his every step. The exhibition Santorini, houses of God, landscapes and compositions, which is under the auspices of the Thira Municipality, opened on June 20 at the gallery of the Hellenic American Union in Athens, by the President of the Union, Chris Spirou, and prefaced by the historian and Art critic Athina Shina. The exhibition runs until June 27. Author : Greece-Athens.com