On Monday, the 8^th of March 2021, the bronze sculpture ‘NIKI’, created by the artist Nektarios Kontovrakis from Aegina, was placed in the courtyard of the Library of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The artist Nectarios Kontovrakis is a painter and sculptor, a student and follower of the earlier great teachers Nikos Nikolaou, Giannis Moralis and Christos Kapralos.

This sculpture, donated to the School of Philosophy by Mr. Elias Koukoutsis, has a multi-layered meaning and dense symbolism. The three-member advisory committee, consisting of Mr. Manos Stefanidis, Mr. Dimitris Pavlopoulos and Ms. Efthymia Mavromichali, have pointed out that this is a brass figure that represents a winged adolescent girl on the way to cut the thread during a race, which dynamically combines archaic grace and modern ethos as she is getting ready to fly high.

It is a cast sculpture, 1.80 meters tall, which stands as the universal symbol of a timeless "struggle", conveying powerful messages of life, individually and collectively. It indicates the VICTORY against ignorance, obscurantism and prejudice, while it emphasizes the supremacy of knowledge and science, virtues that represent "Good" in a time when "Evil" spreads so arrogantly.

The sculpture will remain henceforth at the entrance of the Library of the School of Philosophy, to communicate its aesthetic and pedagogical message to our students, tomorrow's scientists, and winners of knowledge and life. It will be a tangible symbol of every victory achieved in the various struggles in which all members of the School of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens engage.