The Wooden Sculptures Museum is located at the foot of the sacred mountain of Psiloritis and it is a permanent collection of the sculptor George Koutantos. In Axos Milopotamou, within an hour distance both from the city of Rethymno (45 km) and the city of Heraklion (43 km), in a natural landscape, more than one hundred handmadework arts are exhibited in a new two-storey building 300 s.m, all of them made from a hummer and a chisel.
The dimensions of the sculptures are in a natural size, while some of them are presented in bigger dimensions, such as «The Eagle and the Snake» approximately six metres long, «My Parents and I» approximately three metres height, «The Little Mermaid» five metres long etc.
The Wooden Sculptures Museum at the centre of Crete and at the foot of the sacred mountain of Psiloritis is a permanent collection of the sculptor George Koutantos. It works both as a Museum and Workshop and is the outcome of twenty years of involvement with sculpture. The opening of the Museum took place on March 14, 2010.
In a natural landscape, more than one hundred handmade work arts made from a hummer and a chisel are exhibited in a new two-storey building 300 s.m.: Traditional folk formsandthemes(«The Lyre Player», «The Cretan», «The Grandfather and the Grandmother», «Going to the Field» etc.), representationsofnatureandourecologicalsystem(«The Eagle and the Snake», «The Wild Goat»), religious content («The Saint George of Dioskouri», «The Wedding»), social content («The Patient») and from the mythology («The Little Mermaid»).
The visitor has the opportunity to tour the museum and the workshop and find out the aesthetic and artistic proposal, traditional elements (activities of the inhabitants of Crete/Greece in a society that is changing constantly and dramatically, customs and traditions) folklore elements (for example, the marking of the animals), sociological data (the family structure, the position of man and woman), historical evidences (for example, inside the trunks of the trees which were collected from the monasteries of Arkadi and Vosakos I discovered many bullets from the revolution of the Greeks against the Turks), etc. Visiting the museum can be combined with significant antiquities of Axos, which has a continues history of 4000 years, as well as other notable places in the region.
The dimensions of the sculptures are in a natural size, while some of them are presented in bigger dimensions, such as «The Eagle and the Snake» approximately six metres long, «My Parents and I» approximately three metres height, «The Little Mermaid» five metres long.
The timbers were collected from different parts of Crete, mainly dead trees or eradicated from natural destructions. I was born in 1981. I am self-taught and I have been involved with the woodcarving since nine years old.
For information contact the number ++30-6937691387 or e-mail:
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A Small Biography of the Sculptor
I, George Koutantos of John and Mary, was born on May 21, 1981. I finished the primary school in Axos and I continued my studies in the General High School of Anogia. Those six years of the high school I lived in the Student Residence of Anogia with other children from nearby villages. Happy years. During this time I did a course of blackwhite photography, which later helped me in the sculpture. When I was nine years old my family went Day in a field to celebrate the Labour Day and the coming of spring. While we were preparing a barbeque my father with my older brothers were planting a few olives and after they watered the trees. Then bent down and I got into my hands some clay and I began to play, after I put my two fingers into the clay and in my eyes it seemed like… a small head in my hands.
So very small, about 9 years old, I started to make various forms with gypsum, clay and stone before deciding working with wood. Eventually the wood won me because what I built with other materials was very fragile and the slightest break. I was a kid and I did not like to make something and then breaks. A neighbour used to make some little things to sell to tourists, maybe this was an influence.
Since then, the primary school, I did not stop working on the sculpture. In the beginning I started making musical instruments, especially lyres. Later in the secondary school I stopped making lyres and I started to make some small wooden sculptures.
Alone on the basement of my family house, I had a counter with some basic tools and I liked, it pleased me to curve, to create something, it was my passion. The people of the village used to visit me, they saw, they liked and they smiled. But I did not think to deal with art, that happened when I returned from my compulsory military service. In all my work and afford my family supported me psychologically, what I was building was not anything great, but they supported me they gave me courage and compliments, and this gave me strength to continue and not to quit.
When I finished my military service in 2001 I made "The Eagle with the Snake." The following year I demonstrated it in the village square in some cultural events of the municipality and the villagers put my idea to deal with art professionally. Since then I started with the idea to make some big sculptures and to exhibit them in a permanent collection, not sold. It has been 20 years since I started making woodcarving until it reaches the sculptures and the space to be available to the public. If someone was willing to do something, what obstacles do you encounter? The poet Constantine Cavafy wrote a poem: "As you set out for Ithaca, hope the be a long road.... I find it difficult and tiring to complete what I have created so far, the path seems to be long. I have participated in group exhibitions in Rethymnon and Heraclion at the Pancretian exhibition of 'Oikade' in 2003 which was organized by the Rethymnon Centre of Contemporary Art, I took place in the exhibition "The Myth of the Earth through the hands of man" in 2008 which was organized by the Natural Psiloritis Park, and other events organized by Anogia, Kouloukonas, Cave Sfendoni etc.
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
Wooden Sculptures Museum in Axos, Crete
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