Synikismos Festival, the first new institution of Eleusis 2021 European Capital of Culture, which systematizes the philosophy, the core values and the methodology of its central message “Transition to EUphoria”, is a festival of contemporary performing arts that transforms the historic neighbourhood of Synikismos into a place of meeting, reflection and exchange around important social and political phenomena of our time.
The Synikismos (Settlement) of Eleusis was built in 1924–25 to house the approximately 2,500 refugees who arrived in the city in 1922 and the following years, during the forced population exchanges between Greece and Turkey. The aim of the Festival is to transform this historic, yet little-known, area of Eleusis into a place of meeting, reflection and exchange around important social and political phenomena of our time, with contemporary performing arts as its main vehicle.
The Festival’s works invite visitors to an immersive experience that takes place not in conventional cultural venues but in public and private spaces of the neighbourhood. The Festival invests in original site-specific works that bring to light the particular stories of the area’s people and aspects of the place, as well as in long-term residencies that give artists and residents the time and space they need to get to know each other and, ultimately, to coexist. This year’s edition already includes two artists who work with Eleusis 2021 on a multi-year basis: Euripides Laskaridis and Yolanda Markopoulou.
Thematically, this first edition focuses on the refugee issue, a central European issue of our time, which is at the same time the foundation of Synikismos’ collective memory. The programme opens with Routes to the Roots #2, a welcome to Synikismos from its residents themselves, created by Euripides Laskaridis in collaboration with the Association of Asia Minor Refugees of Eleusis. Next, Yolanda Markopoulou and the Station Athens group, with Khalil Alizada, Hossein Amiri, Ramzan Mohammad, Reza Mohammadi and Aydin Joymal, bring moments of their lives from Tehran, Bangladesh, Kabul, Karachi and Athens to the houses and streets of Synikismos in the site-specific performance E_FYGA. From the other shore of the Mediterranean, Lebanon, Tania El Khoury, a leading figure in contemporary Live Art, creates an unusual encounter between a refugee and a spectator, entitled As Far As My Fingertips Take Me. Also from Lebanon, Dictaphone Group present the immersive installation Stories of Refuge, based on three videos they created together with a group of Syrian refugees in Munich. Finally, the refugee theme is rounded off by the exhibition of Italian visual artist Alfredo Romano, OPENINGS – MENDINGS: Eternity is the opposite of annihilation.
The ephemeral light installation Photosynaxis by the Beforelight group comes to aesthetically “stir up” the empty plot on Dardanelion Street and reposition it on the map of Eleusis as a flexible gathering place, shaped according to the needs of its users. Here Lena Kitsopoulou and her collaborators invite the public to an evening of rebetiko and popular songs, while every afternoon hosts Café Vouli, a series of discussions with theorists from various fields and residents of Synikismos, curated by Myrsini Zorba.
The Festival programme concludes with a series of parallel activities, such as workshops for children and adults, walks in Synikismos, visits to the Museum of Asia Minor Refugees of Eleusis, concerts in People’s Square on the occasion of the European Music Day, and the Home New Home project, a series of documentaries created by refugees in Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, telling these people’s personal stories.
In its first edition (15 -24 June 2018) the Festival invests in original site specific works, long-term residencies, 3 original productions and 4 post-calls that thematically focus on the refugee issue, a central European issue of our time, which is at the same time the basis of the collective memory of Synikismos.
The Festival programme was completed with a series of parallel activities, such as workshops for children and adults, walks in the Synikismos, visits to the Eleusis Museum of Asia Minor, concerts in People’s Square on the occasion of the European Music Day and the Home New Home project, a series of documentaries created by refugees in Greece, Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine, telling the personal stories of these people.
External link: Synikismos Festival | 2023 ELEUSIS (2023eleusis.eu)
Why in Synikismos, and why a café?
Because the fragments of this city’s history can awaken the power of its people’s memory and find their value in the present, helping to build the insight and perspective we need to shape the future.
For many decades the kafeneio (traditional café) was one of the few places in the area for meeting and public dialogue. An in-between space between work and family, it hosted free time and small pleasures: a waiting station, a place of exchange and of conversation about the small things that concerned the community, but also about the bigger events imposed on it by the winds of the world. An exclusively male place, participatory and intensely lived-in, it housed fears, threats, injustices, conflicts, compromises, agreements and hopes. Coffee, backgammon, prefa, ouzo, the radio, sometimes musical instruments, later the television, but above all, constantly and without interruption, words: political discussion, criticism, social commentary, gossip, news, contact with the outside world.
Today, under different and more favourable conditions, Eleusis 2021 European Capital of Culture invites us to the Café of the Synikismos Festival for a series of discussions that concern us all, in a participatory way that gives a voice to every point of view. Without discrimination or exclusion, without prejudice, with old memories and stories but without drowning in nostalgia. The participation of those who live in Synikismos, of those who will come from other parts of the city, and of friends from further afield is what will give the discussions meaning and value.
Open dialogue on the formation of refugee memory, the world of work, care of the self, education, the refugee experience told in the first person by new refugees, our “distance” from the ancient monuments, as well as a stop at the railway lines, together with the artists’ events and the food we will share: all this is what we are invited to experience at Café Vouli of the Synikismos Festival.
Myrsini Zorba
Curator of the Café Vouli programme
Aimilia Salvanou in conversation with Evgenia Antonara-Tsolaki, Georgia Giagtzoglou-Antoniadi and Vangelis Tsakiroglou.
Evgenia Kavvadia in conversation with Ahmed Alsalahi, Batoul Zamel, Iman Tallaa, Vangelis Ginis, Ioulia Rizopoulou and contributors to the Home New Home project.
Kostas Peroulis in conversation with Manolis Denzirtzoglou, Kemal Braousi, Stratos and Anna Rousita.
Nikos Panagiotopoulos in conversation with Athina Aravani, Thodoris Niagoulidis, Panagiotis Pitelis, Alexis Tsatsis and Christoforos Tsatsis.
Efi Falida in conversation with Sofia Adam, Anna Koufolia and Ornela Skenderai.
Peggy Tsolakaki in conversation with the Association of Engineers, residents of the area and local bodies about the future of Synikismos.
Dimitris Plantzos in conversation with residents of Synikismos on a walk from Upper Eleusis to the archaeological site.
External link: Café Vouli | 2023 ELEUSIS (2023eleusis.eu)
Photo credits Synikismos 2018: © Petros Chytiris // Eleusis 2023 European Capital of Culture
