Karina Rek: German sculptor celebrated at Cretan festival

Karina Rek, a 90-year-old German sculptor known as ‘the Karina of Anogeia’, has become a viral sensation after being carried on a lounge chair by locals during a festival in Margarites, Crete.

Rek has a distinguished artistic background, having previously worked as a model for Salvador Dalí, appeared in a film by Pier Paolo Pasolini, and performed as a flamenco dancer. Her connection to Crete began after hearing the music of Psarantonis in Berlin, which led her to seek out the village of Anogeia.

Moved by the history of the region and the suffering endured by locals during the Axis occupation, Rek spent two years collaborating with local craftsmen to create the ‘Peace Partisan’ monument on the Nida plateau. The landscape sculpture, composed of approximately 5,000 local stones, is designed to be visible primarily from the air or via satellite. She currently resides permanently in the village of Margarites.