GRAND OPENING OF THE WARLAMIS EXHIBITION IN SOFIA BY HIS ALL-HOLINESS THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW AND HIS BEATITUDE THE PATRIARCH OF BULGARIA, DANIIL

The opening of an exhibition featuring the collection of the late Warlamis-centered on Mount Athos-alongside portraits of Athonite monks from the Athonite Photo Archive, took place in a packed hall at the National Palace in Sofia (NDK). More than 500 guests attended, over 100 of whom traveled from various parts of Greece for the occasion. Concurrently, as part of the exhibition, a publication by the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy titled "Mount Athos and the Orthodox Oikoumene" was presented.

His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch… Bartholomew, in his opening remarks, stated:

“…With feelings of deep joy and enthusiasm, we open today, at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia, an exhibition featuring works by the late teacher, architect, and artist Efthymios Warlamis, alongside a series of portraits of monks from the collection of the Mount Athos Phototheque. We warmly congratulate all those who contributed to this remarkable initiative.

This exhibition serves as a symbol of the unified spiritual identity of Orthodoxy. It invites us to recognize our shared spiritual and moral character, the overarching direction of our ecclesiastical life, our ethos, and our culture. It also conveys a message to the entire world that Orthodoxy is light and truth…”

And His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Bulgaria, in his concluding remarks, noted the following:

“…Efthymios Warlamis-a multifaceted artistic figure, painter, architect, sculptor, and educator-does not approach Mount Athos merely as a traveler or a detached chronicler. He understands profoundly that the sacred Athonite realm possesses a rich spiritual memory, and that its truth is not exhausted by a mere external description of the setting. In the paintings he has crafted, the monasteries are not merely buildings, but dwellings for communities of prayer—living spiritual brotherhoods. The rocks, the sea, and the light seem to participate in a shared doxology offered up to God, the Giver of all things. The human figure neither dominates nor imposes itself upon the landscape; rather, it is humbly-and
for this very reason, harmoniously—integrated into it, existing both as a part of creation and, simultaneously, as its crowning glory. The freedom with which the artist transforms scale, perspective, and color directs the gaze beyond the visible, guiding the mind toward the transcendent—that is, toward the life to come, toward the Kingdom of the Father. Warlamis’s works do not replace the holy icon; rather, they bear witness to the fact that contemporary visual language, too, can serve as a vehicle for the sacred, ardent longing for the immeasurable beauty of the Divine…

Greetings were also offered by Members of Parliament Maximos Charakopoulos and Tomas Bikov, the Director of the National Palace in Sofia, Iya Petkova, and the exhibition curator, Pavlos Trochopoulos, from the Vergina Experimental Workshop.

The exhibition will run until November 15.

In addition to the Bulgarian national television channel, ERT3 was also present, with an extensive report by the well-known journalist Chrysa Samou.