Crossroad - The Price of Choice
A large-scale artistic project
Authors: Dian Kostov and Milena Tashkova
Summer 2026
Manchester Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, UK
“Crossroad - The Price of Choice” is a large-scale artistic project by icon painter and artist Dian Kostov and psychologist and psychotherapist Milena Tashkova, exploring the inner and outer choices that shape both human life and society.
In the summer of 2026, the project will be presented simultaneously in two cathedrals in the United Kingdom through two connected exhibitions - “Peace Is Not Given” at Manchester Cathedral and “A Mother’s Warmth” at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.
The project brings together contemporary art, spirituality and psychology in an immersive and deeply personal experience, inviting visitors to reflect on the choices that shape our lives and the world around us.
Peace Is Not Given
Manchester Cathedral
“Peace Is Not Given” is an immersive installation about war, inner conflict and the fragile nature of peace. Through contemporary iconography, documentary photography, symbolic objects and interactive elements, the exhibition invites reflection on how fear, pride, intolerance and unresolved inner conflicts can gradually turn into destruction in the world around us.
A Mother’s Warmth
Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral
“A Mother’s Warmth” explores tenderness, care and the human need for closeness, protection and love. The exhibition is dedicated to the quiet forces that preserve our humanity even in times of division, fear and loss.
Together, “Peace Is Not Given” and “A Mother’s Warmth” create a shared journey through destruction and hope, pain and compassion, asking one essential question: What kind of world do we choose to create?
Preview of the exhibition:
History
16.05 -29.05.23 Vien, Austria
The exhibition originally took place in the Votivkirche Cathedral, Vienna and was realised at the personal invitation of Father Dr. Joseph Farrugia, the cathedral’s Pfarrer.
The exhibition was originally supposed to take place between May 16 and May 29 2023, but it turned out to be so successful that Father Joe Farrugia offered Crossroad - the Price of Choice to stay for the Long Night of the Churches and present the cathedral.
15.06 -18.08.24 Brussels, Belgium
Crossroad - the price of choice is a conceptual exhibition which consists of more than 70 icons, posters and murals by the icon painter Dian Kostov. Crossroad - the Price of Choice aims to recreate the search for harmony and trust in difficult times and to turn it into an awakening experience for visitors.
The Price of Choice will be presented in the National Basilica of the Sacred Heart from June 15 to August 18, 2024. The main highlights of the exhibition will remain, but it will be further developed with new works of art, taking into account the larger scale and different architecture of the Basilica, so that visitors can have a new, unique experience. For the first time, we will place large images on the facade of the Basilica, which will also be part of the exhibition and experience.
About Dian Kostov
Dian Kostov is a Bulgarian icon painter, both popular for his icons and murals, and for his projects in the field of modern art, presented in Bulgaria and around the world. His works have been exhibited in world galleries and are owned by collectors from Europe, USA and Japan.
Kostov strives to create author's iconic images in which symbols of the time in which we live present. With his works, he poses some of the eternal questions to his contemporaries.
Dian Kostov creates icons - modern icons.
While using traditional painting techniques,
he develops and enriches the traditional
iconography of icon painting, which has been
established and handed down over centuries,
by addressing both timeless and contemporary
questions about being human in his search for
new images. He focuses on questions such as
“Who are you?”,
“What do you believe in?”,
“What is your goal?”,
“What are you afraid of?”,
“What are you ashamed of?”,
“What do you dream of?”.
Keeping his finger on the pulse of the times, he
creates an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the
protector of the world from the coronavirus in
the first pandemic year of 2020. An icon is not
to be seen and understood as a superficial work
of art, but as an enigmatic symbol that requires
looking with the eyes of a searching soul. Dian
Kostov wants to motivate us for this conscious
contemplative search - he, who grew up under
communism and state-imposed atheism in
Bulgaria, when it was not even allowed to speak
about God, but who was nevertheless seized by
a fascination for the Bible and at first began to
read it in secret, and who would go on studying
theology and iconography after the fall of
communism and advance to become one of the
most innovative icon painters of the present day.
Art Historian,
Curator,
Art Advisor - Museum Director (Retd.)
Other projects
In 2019, Dian Kostov was selected from among hundreds of candidates to participate in the XII World Biennale of Modern Art - Florence with his installation "Who are you?”
As a kind of continuation of the installation Who are you?, Dian Kostov created the work Holly Mother of God - Protectress, which he presented to the team of Pirogov University Emergency Hospital as a gesture of gratitude to the physicians for their efforts during the pandemic.
Just before Christmas in 2021, the installation Life is Stronger is also ready. It is located on a silo along the international road Sofia - Vidin. The installation is a several meter image of the icon Holly Mother of God - Protectress, to which photos of children born during the two complex pandemic years 2020-2021 are added.