Is my art (also) my homeland? Screenings, music-dance events & public dialogue for 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture
11/06/2023 Elefsina, Greece
Greekies participated at ΣΥΝΟΙΚΙΣΜΟΙ A FESTIVAL, an international multimedia festival by 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture with a complex action that took place in Elefsina. The action gave new life to an open space at the intersection of Nikolaidou and I. Dragoumis St (which has not been used for 10 years) in order to create – for the first time – an alternative public “station” for the activities of the 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture.
Many years ago, say the Eleusinians, there was a bar on the main pedestrian street of the city. When they found its owner, of Pontus descent, hanged, without ever knowing the cause of his suicide, his family tore down the walls of the building, and more than ten years ago a new, stray and indecisive square was created in the centre of Elefsina opposite the ancient mysteries.
The stray Greekies called it “the square of my homeland and Despina Geroulanou”. And they started looking for ways to make this space a meeting point for those who through art redefine boundaries, borders, stereotypes and their own lives.
The first action that took place on this square featured an open screening with a film containing all the processions of the local associations of Elefsina at the opening ceremony of the city as Cultural Capital 2023 as an example of a participatory celebration that honors origin by creating essential conditions of integration in the new homeland.
Choreographer Jenny Argyriou and visual artist Vassilis Gerodimos presented this practice together with representatives of local associations who creatively intervened during the screening and participated in the celebration that followed with traditional songs of emigration by the band Adalou and the Afro-Greek Angelos Angelou. Participants also included refugee and interpreter Keita Alasan, lawyer and former Child Advocate George Moschos and representatives of local associations.
An evening full of film screenings, music and dance performances and public dialogue with unpredictable encounters that took place as public mysteries in the centre of Elefsina and redefined through artistic processes the definition of homeland: sometimes as a place of origin, sometimes as a destination and place of residence and sometimes as a concept that can protectively enclose those who feel strayed and abandoned.
Unpredictable artistic interventions, through Mystery 69, Greekies, intervened in the city, creating a dynamic public dialogue with Eleusinians: teenagers from refugee camps becoming volunteers assisting locals in natural disasters in Mantra; an Afro-Greek with his group enriching Greek traditional music; Elefsinians redefining the notion of “foreign” by intervening in the city through dance in remarkable partnerships with contemporary visual artists. At the end of the action, the people dancing declared that my art is (also) my homeland.
As part of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, Greekies is creating public artistic actions and synergies based on the moving image, generating an important social interaction with the residents of the area of the Thriasio Plain on key environmental and social issues.
The participation of local residents of all ages, ideological positions and origins was ensured with screenings of films about protagonists of different origins. These films reflected the ways in which teenagers from refugee camps actively participated in solidarity events for local residents of the area, the stories of Greek immigrants abroad and artistic public actions that reflected the history of the labour movement in Elefsina.
Eleusinians have different origins which they honour powerfully and this became the focus of the action. The public discussion that followed, the concert with songs of emigration and the dances created a proposal for the management of a space that – while private – functions as a public space and requires a new management by the citizens after a decade of abandonment. This alternative management of the space does not dismiss the rights of its owners but approaches them respectfully in conjunction with the needs of the city and its citizens. It is noteworthy that for 5 months after this action no new slogans were written on the walls of the space and the wall that had been painted white for the screening of the films remained clean.