The descendants of Asia Minor refugees from upper Eleusis participate in a site-specific performance within their unique neighbourhood of Synikismos. It is the tiny refugee houses and the dead-end alleys that bear witness to the memories of the destructive uprooting, while the reminiscence of personal experiences composes the nexus of the performance.
By intertwining fiction and a documentary approach, the personal testament of the individual becomes the collective history for the community. Participants and audience relive the experiences of the locals listening to a radio, a television, discovering long forgotten images and entering old yards filled with memories. A live transmission, 100 years old, silently maintains their everlasting legacy entrusted to future generations. Behind the flaking walls, the abandoned terraces and the new-builds, a hidden facet of the story is revealed and articulated for the first time.
The cross-pollination and interweaving of narration and reconstruction are mediated through performance, video projections and live music. Different forms of creative expression interact to generate this special performance milieu.
I_LEFT Asia Minor is presented as part of 2023 Eleusis’ tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. It was presented for the first time at the 2019 Synikismos Festival.
