On Saturday, 17 October, at 5:00 PM, we invite you to a philosophy and art workshop for adults inspired by two of Plato’s dialogues: Timaeus and Critias.
Plato’s dialogues are like a world waiting to be explored. We will begin with two of them, Timaeus and Critias, in which we discover how the soul and body of the universe were formed and how the ancient city of Athens defeated Atlantis, a great power that sought to subjugate many other cities and lands.
Starting from two passages from these dialogues, we will try to draw the way Plato imagined the human soul and the city of Atlantis. We will look at and discuss each other’s drawings, then explore how imagination cannot be separated from thought. In another dialogue, Philebus, Plato tells us that a scribe and a painter are always at work within the soul.
These are the ideas at the heart of Cătălin Partenie’s book, Atlantis and Plato’s Children (2025), which seeks to inspire readers to embark on their own journey into Plato’s world. It is a world you must see with your own eyes in order to marvel at it. The book will be available at the Art Encounters Bookshop.
“One of the priests, who was very old, said to him: ‘Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children; there is no such thing as an old Greek.’ Hearing this, Solon asked him: ‘How can you say such a thing?’ And the priest replied: ‘You are all young in soul, for you have neither an ancient belief passed down through the ages nor a teaching made venerable by time.’”
— Plato, Timaeus
About the guests
Cătălin Partenie teaches philosophy at the Faculty of Political Science of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest. He studied philosophy at the universities of Bucharest, Oxford, Heidelberg and Glasgow. Together with Petru Creția, he translated Plato’s dialogues Timaeus and Critias. He has edited several volumes, including Plato: Selected Myths (Oxford World’s Classics) and Plato’s Myths (Cambridge University Press). His book Androginul. Despre suflet și cetate (The Androgyne: On the Soul and the City), published by Editura Trei, received the Anthropos Magazine Award. His first novel, Vizuina de Aur (The Golden Lair), won two awards and has been translated into Romanian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German. Together with Bogdan Mureșanu, he wrote the screenplay for the short film Paharul cu lapte (The Glass of Milk), which premiered at the Romanian Film Nights Festival in Iași in 2026.
Bogdan Mureșanu is a writer, screenwriter, film director and producer. He made his literary debut in 2006 with the short story collection Erata, before moving into cinema, where he has worked across fiction, animation and documentary.
He is the creator of Anul Nou care n-a fost (The New Year That Never Came, 2024), his feature-film debut, which received numerous international awards and ten Gopo Awards, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. His short film Cadoul de Crăciun (The Christmas Gift) won the European Film Academy Award in 2019. He is a member of the European Film Academy.
Saturday, 17 October · 5:00 PM
Philosophy and art workshop for adults
With Cătălin Partenie and Bogdan Mureșanu
Part of the Picasso en visite exhibition
Tickets and registration → https://bilete.artencounters.ro/?p=event&e=41977
