The unmissable mysterious charm of Elefsina
[ad_1]
A few hundred meters, in a continuous and light ascent, to enclose a dreamlike universe of myths: Eleusis is all this, provided that we can understand the immeasurable mysterious charm of its so pervasive uniqueness. An emotional unicum, just twenty kilometers from Athens, for a town of just under 30,000 inhabitants, which is reflected in the short stretch of sea that separates it from the epic Salamis.
Aeschylus and industrial archaeology
A concentration of ancient art and history that of the city whose deme, in 525 BC, gave birth to Aeschylus, very far from the polished streets of Esch-sur-Alzette, past capital of European culture, and which even with the city Luxembourg shares the past of industrial archaeology, with the soaring chimneys marking the horizon and the disused warehouses of a glorious past of cement factories, paint factories, ceramic factories, soap factories, shipyards. And again, the lights – disturbing and magical at the same time – of the largest Greek oil refinery that illuminate it at night. Elefsina is all this and much more. It is therefore not surprising that, having abandoned the glories of an industrial growth that is now only a distant memory, the Greek city aims for its own redemption by combining its two souls: the archaeological and the ex-industrial one. And it does so on the strength of a program, with a title that refers to the myth of the Eleusinian Mysteries (as such unrevealable and punishable by death, a sentence that – as the director of the Excavations, Kalliopi Papageli recalls – suffered Alcibiades himself for mocking them, ed. ) Mysteries of transition.
Michael Marmarinos
“We worked precisely on this idea of mystery – Michail Marmarinos, artistic director of Eleusis 2023 explains to me – which is then the real chance of this unknown yet so fascinating city, which for many years was an industrial center. And it is a city that we intend to improve and propose for its spiritual connotation as well, for a unique experience, in the place from which Pluto’s realm was entered”.
Romeo Castellucci
The Eleusis 2023 program is particularly rich, which includes 465 productions, in 30 sites, with over 300 artists and performers from over 20 countries involved. Concerts (among others those of the Athens State Orchestra and Stereo Nova), theatrical performances (including the production of Romeo Castellucci Mystery 11 Ma), photographic exhibitions, dances, as well as craft traditions (olive oil and its derivatives are the masters) and culinary (with the local fish restaurants that are already a certainty), constitute the fulcrum of the activities on the bill in the recovered urban and extra-urban spaces as well as in natural areas subject to environmental reclamation interventions. The remnants of industrial archeology from what was once the era of a distant relaunch of this town are now reinterpreted in the name of integration and hospitality: where immigrants and workers looking for work were previously recruited, today a new model is offered interaction and cultural exchange. Even the former train station has been transformed into a meeting place for young artists from the LGBT community.
The new Archaeological Museum
And above all, as the main recovery, is the resumption of archaeological excavations in the sacred area with the Greek and Roman remains, in addition to the forthcoming inauguration of the Archaeological Museum (the only regret of the writer, who was unable to visit it, since it will only be open between a few months) in a former soap factory. In this space the most important testimonies from the site dedicated to Demeter will be collected, which was not by chance celebrated here, since the plain since ancient times allowed those crops of wheat impossible elsewhere, and which the goddess of the harvest made during what the myth describes as succession of days of desperate searches for her daughter Persephone, who has now entered the kingdom of Hades.
[ad_2]
Source link
