Mystery 69 Greekies

The cinematic depiction of unknown and invisible places, stories, and characters serves as the starting point for a multimedia project that actuates key social issues through multi-disciplinary arts events (the visual arts, music, dance, and video art) held in hard-to-reach spaces, with in situ screenings and public actions that provide a platform for the voices of vulnerable social groups. This Mystery focuses on the abandoned and traumatised strays found across the wider area of the Thriasian Plain, animals that are extremely popular for adoption outside Greece despite their clear disabilities: the Greekies. This term takes on an allegorical dimension to also include anyone who feels isolated or abandoned. The leads of this work – the Greekies – live within the broader urban fabric of a capital city expanding haphazardly at a dizzying pace, with little regard for the ecological footprint this development brings, creating pariahs and isolated individuals living on its margins.

Audiences of the work are made eye-witnesses of unfamiliar landscapes and themes; as a result, further interactions are activated, creative public discourse with different population groups is mobilised, critical social issues are spotlighted, and inventive and innovative educational programmes are created. Døcumatism and Menelaos Karamaghiolis are forging a synchronic landscape of mysteries and social sculpture across the broader area around Elefsina with on-site screenings – a nomadic festival and alternative “museum” that “journey” freely, launching wide-ranging arts activities that create inventive ways of interacting with the public: inaccessible lead characters are made “guides” of a nomadic action/installation that activates in situ, is easily transportable, and combines on-site experience with traditional and new technologies that cancel out constraints.