ABOUT

In the art project "Mystery 32_"OPEN ELEUSIS - One documentary, many stories" historical and ethnographic research meets artistic creation.

The project attempts to write a history of Elefsina that focuses on its people. The results of the project are collected in this digital open archive, OPEN ELEUSIS. This website is a digital space, a living library and a memory bank of the city, which presents the material resulting from ethnographic and historical research in an inventive way, as a digital narrative. The material includes, among other things, texts and documents such as photographs, videos, maps, testimonies, interviews, etc.

In addition to the digital archive, the material of the project is transformed into the documentary "Elefsina: One City, Many Stories", which narrates the multiple stories of the city's lived present. The documentary focuses on Elefsina, an industrial center with many peculiarities, but perceives it within a broader geographical context. Elefsina is a place of multiple uses and activities (industries, ports, places of temporary and permanent residence for workers and refugees), as well as an area of different transitions (from rural to industrial societies, from native cities to refugee cities, etc.). It stands out on the basis of its own, exclusive specificity, as it encapsulates a dual symbolism: A "modern" center of industrial development, it is at the same time a center of particular cultural and archaeological interest. The fusion of these two histories in space and time has been captured in a rare way, as reflected in the everyday life of its inhabitants.

After spending many hours in the field, the working group chose to give the floor to its inhabitants, young and old, in an attempt to get to know and understand the cultural load that the city carries. This knowledge, following the methodology of artistic research, is returned to the city and its inhabitants in the hope that it has contributed to the protection and promotion of the intangible and material cultural heritage of Elefsina.