Since the beginning of February, the small town of Eleusis, located 21 km northwest of Athens, has been in the spotlight. It benefits this year from the title of “cultural capital 2023”, just like Timisoara in Romania and Veszprem in Hungary. From February until the end of November, 465 events and hundreds of artists from thirty countries will be hosted in this large industrial suburb of the Greek capital. It is a form of snub to other cities in the country that had applied for this distinction. Eleusis is a bit of the unloved suburb of Athens.
The direction of the city is certainly indicated on the signs on the road that connects Attica to the Peloponnese… but few are the motorists who take the exit, and fewer still the tourists who stop there. “It was a surprise that Eleusis won this competitionbook Michalis Marmarinos, director and artistic director of Eleusis 2023. There were larger Greek cities, like Kalamata and Rhodes. But Eleusis, which has only 30,000 inhabitants, was chosen. It is the smallest European capital since the creation of the label.»
Night ceremonies
This element is one of those that seduced the jury. “Any city, whatever its size, can be a cultural capitalexplains a source familiar with the matter at the European Commission. And it is interesting to have cities of all sizes, reflecting the geography of the European Union.But Eleusis had other assets. “It is an ancient city, but its ancient history includes an unknown part”, specifies for his part Efi Giannopoulou who was in charge of the file at the Greek Ministry of Culture under the previous government, when Eleusis was selected. Then, she continues, “Eleusis is a city of industry and of the labor movement. It is also a city for the integration of refugees from Asia Minor. Finally, it suffers the effects of deindustrialization, in particular with the pollution of the atmosphere and the environment.
To celebrate Eleusis is therefore to pay homage to Greek history in all its diversity. This is also the guiding line of Michalis Marmarinos’ project, expressed right down to the chosen title, the mysteries of the transition. There is, in this title, a first level of reading. Each event is called “Mystery” and is accompanied by a number. It is, obviously, to dive into a form of the unknown, of discovery. The key for the second reading level is delivered in the “Mystery 20”. This is a performance produced by a collective of actors on the archaeological site of Eleusis, of which it tells the story, the practices that were in progress there since the 7th century BC. Indeed, Eleusis is home to a superb sanctuary dedicated to Demeter, goddess of fertility, harvests and working the land, and her daughter, Persephone, wife of Hades and queen of the underworld, according to Greek mythology. It is on this site that, until the 4th century BC, secret religious rites of worship to Demeter took place, called the “mysteries of Eleusis”. Thousands of pilgrims traveled to these ancient Greek sacred centers. In Eleusis, they participated in nocturnal ceremonies where, in a large hall that could accommodate up to 3,000 people, they were informed about the endless cycle of life and death; it was the “mysteries of Eleusis”, in which the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus took part.
ship graveyard
During the Byzantine period and in the Middle Ages, the birthplace of the Greek playwright Aeschylus declined. It was not until the 19th century that it became an industrial center comprising soap factories, refineries, cement works, resin and ceramic factories. The country’s largest steel plant, one of the main refineries and a shipyard are still in operation. But pollution has become a headache. The local bay has turned into a ship graveyard; large amounts of oil and chemicals are released into the air and into the water. The city received a significant number of migrants of Greek origin who fled Asia Minor during the disastrous Greco-Turkish War of 1919-1922. A camp has recently been built to meet the needs of migrants. In recent months, it has welcomed Ukrainians fleeing the war in their country.
It is this heritage, this diversity, that Michalis Marmarinos celebrated during the opening ceremony. He masterfully directed a show on the water, mixing human procession, parade of boats, against a background of sound and light with the industrial landscape in the background. Stavros Ikbal, a 24-year-old dancer who led the choreography, explains: “We wanted to stylize the movements of the fishermen.He worked with groups of amateur dancers, thus sharing the time of a cultural capital a common passion. No doubt the project would have pleased the Greek actress and singer Melina Mercouri, who was Minister of Culture in 1984 when, with her French counterpart, Jack Lang, she launched the project. Eleusis, unloved today, has returned to its glorious past. In the city, the inhabitants hope that from now on, tourists will also come to stay there. But already, they are proud of this multiple past justly celebrated.