Mystery 112: Maria Papadimitriou Dual Theatre, Or On Friendship

2023 European Capital of Culture Eleusis, from Monday 22 January to Wednesday 29 February, presents Mystery 112: Dual Theatre, Or On Friendship, a work by the distinguished artist Maria Papadimitriou, that includes a series of open fiction art workshops for – and with – the residents of Elefsina. At the Eleourgiki industrial complex, young and older participants will have the opportunity to gain knowledge, experience, skills and awareness of the wide range of practices and techniques associated with art production.

Maria Papadimitriou settled in the city since 2018, in order to cultivate friendship relations and to get to know the place, its history and its inhabitants better. Over the years she has met and created friendly relationships with important collectors of special interest living in the area, women, craftsmen, artists, amateur creators, volunteers of the Thriassian field and members of various local associations. In fact, during the pandemic, in order to maintain physical contacts with the city’s inhabitants, the artist, together with five Eleusinian women friends, founded the group “Elefsomenes”, which developed continuous activity.

The central axis of the work is the most precious thing we have today, the concept of friendship and the people that the artist and her collaborators have met, discussed and connected with over the years. The encounters, dialogues, exchanges, contexts, obsessions, differences, material traces and fantasies they shared, emerge as a crucial paradigm and precondition of creativity itself. Friendship – precisely because it is not easy to define or describe artistically – is approached in the way the philosopher Giorgio Agamben defined: “that which we share and precedes all sharing, because what we have to share is the very fact of existence, life itself”. In this context, what characterizes friendship is the inclusive “co” – co-feeling, co-existing, co-creation – the sharing of actions, practices, thoughts and experiences. The friend is in fact an “other self” to become, ultimately, a community that makes our very existence different.

For Maria Papadimitriou, artistic practice presupposes active citizens who are not just external observers or spectators but they participate as co-creators, co-inventors and co-promoters who craft ways, processes and events of a common course in the vast web of everyday practices. The artist is distinguished for her ability to activate collaborations, associations and collective activities that directly link art to society. For this reason, her work is characterized by an intense social interaction and inter-activity with a primary interest in the place and its people. In this context, the artist and the curator will continue the investigation they started in 2018 at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Thessaly into the territorial archive and the geological unconscious of the region, where myths, archaeology, industry and everyday life coexist through complex relationships, interweavings and temporalities.

The establishment of the workshop Mystery 112 Dual Theatre, Or On Frienship is the culmination of the relationship that the artist has developed with the residents of Elefsina and the institution of the European Capital of Culture over the last six years. An open workshop of fiction that focuses on “in-work” artistic and plastic activity, not only for but above all with the inhabitants of the city. The starting point is the social and cultural expansion of artistic practices and the cultivation of interpersonal relationships through artistic activities, combining workshop creation with an anthropological approach to culture. In this context, a review of the collective artistic projects that have been disseminated in our country since the late 1990s and in which the artist has played a significant role will be attempted.

The space of ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex will be transformed into a permanent artistic laboratory of fiction, through a series of assemblages and experiments in various forms of materiality that do not separate the subject from the object, thoughts and ideas from matter. The intention of the workshop is that the works produced will be related to the cartography of the city and its people, choosing social gathering places and points of interest, routes and locations where they can be placed.

During the workshop, a number of artist friends, writers and creators from various fields who have collaborated and interacted with the artist in previous years will present their work and engage in conversation with the participants and residents of the city. Another reference to the importance and pleasure of friendship that leaves its mark on life and creation itself. At the same time, the ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex will also function as a permanent exhibition space, offering an open creative experience and dialogue. At the end of the meetings, the workshop can also function, on occasion, as an artistic hub with special events and happenings.

Monday 12.02

11:00 – 14:00 | Artistic workshop with schools of Elefsina – Thriassian Field
16:00 – 21:00 | Artistic workshop for adults
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – Jewellery Weaving

19:00 -21:00| We invite those who are interested to participate as creators in the fashion
show that will take place on 29 February, on the theme of recycling, to bring to the
ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex whatever they would like to throw away from their home,
e.g. old clothes, sails, plastic bags, etc. for the manufacture of clothes.

Tuesday 13.02

11:00 – 14:00 | Artistic workshop with schools of Elefsina – Thriassian Field
16:00 – 21:00 | Artistic workshop for adults
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – Jewellery Weaving
19:00 -21:00| We invite those who are interested to participate as creators in the fashion
show that will take place on 29 February, on the theme of recycling, to bring to the
ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex whatever they would like to throw away from their home,
e.g. old clothes, sails, plastic bags, etc. for the manufacture of clothes.

Wednesday 14.02

11:00 – 14:00 | Artistic workshop with schools of Elefsina – Thriassian Field
16:00 – 21:00 | Artistic workshop for adults
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – Jewellery Weaving
19:00 -21:00| We invite those who are interested to participate as creators in the fashion
show that will take place on 29 February, on the theme of recycling, to bring to the
ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex whatever they would like to throw away from their home,
e.g. old clothes, sails, plastic bags, etc. for the manufacture of clothes.

Thursday 15.2

16:00 – 21:00 | Special events and happenings (HUB)
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – jewellery
Weaving
19:00 – 21:00 | Guest Artist, Angelos Plessas with the theme Internet, Zen and Beyond.

Friday 16.2

11:00 – 14:00 |Art workshop with TAGMA21 People with Trisomy 21
16:00 – 21:00 | Artistic workshop for adults,
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – Jewellery
Weaving
19:00 -21:00| We invite those who are interested to participate as creators in the fashion
show that will take place on 29 February, on the theme of recycling, to bring to the
ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex whatever they would like to throw away from their home,
e.g. old clothes, sails, plastic bags, etc. for the manufacture of clothes.

Saturday 17.2

11:00 – 15:00 |Art workshop for adults
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – jewellery
16:00 – 21:00 | Weaving
Sculpture and painting
Construction with Hypersychno: Collage – Jewellery
20:00 | Screening of the film "The Awakening of Spring" at ELEOURGIKI Industrial Complex"
(Sacred Way and Mouriki)

Sunday 18.2

Opening 12:00 | Special events and happenings (HUB): Presentation of SpaGhettoElefsina

The weekly programme of the workshop will be announced every Monday on the official
channels of the 2023 European Capital of Culture, the artist and the project participants.

The weekly programme of the workshop will be announced every Monday on the official channels of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture, the artist and the project participants.