The news of Eleusis 2021 Vol.2

We participated…

• in the three-day Fundraising workshop organised on February 17-19 in Eleusis by The Heritage Management Organization. 14 participants from 8 different countries (Belgium, Vietnam, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Ukraine, Palestine, Turkey), including Eleusis 2021, took part. Three days full of interesting and useful presentations, lectures and role-play exercises on crowdfunding, sponsorship and donorship under the guidance of Linda C Hartley and Jennifer E. Herring, experts on funding strategies for institutions, cultural organisations and other non-profit organisations. After sending invitations to other ECoC teams and giving to them scholarships provided by the Heritage Management Organization, Mairin Doddy, member of Galway County Council, European Capital of Culture in 2020, came to Eleusis and participated in the seminar. Of course, her visit was an opportunity to exchange knowledge and discuss about possible collaborations between Galway 2020 and Eleusis 2021.

• in the new programme “Plateaux Media” of the French Institute of Athens under the theme “The culture as attraction factor of the living environment and an engine of economic value”. Kelly Diapouli participated in this interactive discussion along with Charis Mpisko (architect and coordinator of Syn Athina platform of the Municipality of Athens), Yvan Detraz (architect and director of the collective Bruit de Frigo) and Simon Laisney (managing director of the organisation Plateau Urbain), responding to different questions such as: How does culture strengthen the attractiveness and the identity of the territory? How does culture contribute to the city’s shine and development? Just a few hours before launching the new interactive TV platform at the French Institute of Athens, the event’s keynote speakers Yvan Detraz and Simon Laisney visited Eleusis. Kelly Diapouli, Yorgos Alexandrou and Peggy Tsolakaki introduced the city to them through a walking tour in Sinikismos, Pontiaka, the sea front, Kronos Factory, the Old Oil Mill Factory, Symiaka, explaining to them our programme’s concept. The following day, the French Institute of Athens organised a workshop especially for Eleusis 2021 curators and their French guests, during which the development of different forms of possible collaborations was discussed.

We travelled…

• to Berlin for the 51st ITB Berlin 2017, the world’s leading travel trade show, where Eleusis 2021 had its first international presence as European Capital of Culture for 2021, participating along with the Region of Attica in Greece’s showroom. Along with the Region of Attica and a board member of Eleusis 2021, we collaborated in order to promote the activities, the vision and the artistic programme of Eleusis 2021, to the professionals of cultural tourism, as well as the general public who visited the exhibition. Also, we talked with the Greek National Tourism Organisation in Germany and investigated possible ways of cooperating so as to attract the German public to Eleusis and finally we visited the impressive showrooms of this year’s European Capitals of Culture, Pafos and Aarhus.
• to Paris and more specifically to the Parisian suburbs of Montreuil,  on the occasion of the focus event under the theme “Un Souffle Grec” organised by the Nouveau théâtre de Montreuil. The theatre’s stage was dressed in the colours of Greece and was transformed into a Greek tavern which seeks to approach political, social and artistic issues, through a mixed show of performances, discussions and “rebetiko” songs which triggered the public to start dancing. Artists, students, activists and professionals of the Greek and French political and cultural scene have participated in the events. Eleusis 2021 participated in the discussion under the theme “Greece in crisis: an experimental workshop, the mark of a Europe in the middle of disorder”, during which the artistic director of Eleusis 2021, Kelly Diapouli, talked about how the Greek contemporary cultural scene functions, highlighting the independent scene’s need for support and strength, provided that it is the base of the Greek artistic production. The event was also attended by the Eleusinian Christos Peppas, who is the press attaché of the Greek Embassy in Paris. Finally, on the occasion of her visit in Paris, Kelly Diapouli met the representatives of French Cultural Institutions like the Office National de la Diffusion Artistique (ONDA), La Belle Ouvrage and Nature Addicts Fund, with which they discussed about Atelier Mobile and Nature Addicts Academy to be held in Eleusis next May.

We welcomed…

• representatives of 10 research groups of the Athena Research and Innovation Center in Information, Communication and Knowledge Technologies. Our team introduced them the city through a walking tour in Sinikismos neighborhood and Lower Eleusis, explaining them our programme’s concept and vision. The aim of the visit was to interconnect the Center’s particularly innovative research programmes with the main themes and programmes of the European Capital of Culture, within the application of new technologies and the use of digital media.
• the curator of “Nature Addicts Academy” Stephane Verlet – Bottero, who visited Eleusis in order to organise the final content and format of the Academy, to be held next May in Eleusis under the theme of the connection of arts and environment that  will bring together artists from different countries of Europe. Along with our curators Yorgos Alexandrou, Costantia Manthou and Elena Symeonidou, Stephane Verlet – Bottero visited the city’s neighborhoods such as Sinikismos, Pontiaka, Symiaka and met some residents’ initiatives on urban agriculture. After Kassel, Venice and Basel, the Nature Addicts Fund (NA! Fund) chose Eleusis as the next venue and case study of the annual “Academy” workshop held for the first time in Greece from 22nd to 27th of May. The workshop brings together young artists from Italy, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey that focus on sustainability. The aim of the Academy is to transform Eleusis into a place of interactions regarding the contemporary problems of environmental protection and sustainability in general, while providing the necessary space and time to obtain ideas for projects that could be used as part of our artistic programme.
• Frauke Wilhelm, the curator of the project “Golden City” coming from Bremen, held her first research on the needs of the project “Golden Cit”» that will be held in Eleusis from June 10 to 16. The project aims at creating an open dialogue between Greece and Germany, bringing together the residents of Bremen and Eleusis. The curator and performer Frauke Wilhelm along with Adrian Frieling and “Adespotes Skyles” visited central locations and neighbourhoods of Eleusis and had a series of meetings with different associations in Eleusis such as the Folklore Association “Adrachti”, the Asia Minor Association, the Workers’ Union of Western Attica, the Film Club of Eleusis and Mr Yannis Kalomenidis, in order to learn more about their work and collaborate in the implementation of the project.

the artist Maria Ikonomopoulou who returned to Eleusis and met some of the residents who participated in the interactive project Growing Ground (bit.ly/2mCQfrd), held last autumn in Eleusis: mister Giorgos, Iliriana, Chrysoula, Ms Popi. She held the Dutch magazine Lychnari – Verkenningen in het Griekenland van nu in her hands, in which mister Giorgos was on the cover. On the occasion of the interactive art project Growing Ground, the magazine’s latest issue is dedicated to the… “silent” power of Eleusis and the European Capital of Culture 2021 title.