December 21, 2021 – Start time: 20:30
The project will be screened on websites and social media platforms, on our YouTube channel, and on our Facebook page.
With new dynamic actions, Emilia Bouriti, visual artist and performance artist, enriches the international program “Amoli,” a Collective Work in the Rural, Post-Industrial, Multicultural Community of Aspropyrgos, of which she is also the inspirer.
The word “Amoli” is used by the farmers of Aspropyrgos and means the agricultural ditch that carries water to irrigate the crops. The activities have already started successfully and will culminate in November and December 2021.
On December 21, the online screening of the video work titled “Agricultural Footprints of Aspropyrgos I The Pontic Culture” will take place. The video work is a documentation of the participatory project carried out in July 2020 in a neighborhood of the Gorytsa area of Aspropyrgos and consists of participatory action, site-specific installation performance, testimonies, and songs from Pontic residents of Aspropyrgos and Elefsina.
The project conveys the testimonies of the Pontic people regarding their relationship with the cultivable land and their history, but it also acquires an additional value during the pandemic period as it recalls memories related to contagious serious diseases such as Tsihotka, Vrasa, Chumam when the participants or their ancestors lived in the former republics of the Soviet Union. The project sends the message that the power of art, community solidarity, and historical memory act liberatingly in times of pandemic.
Direction, performance, visual installation: Emilia Bouriti
Participants from the Pontic community: Efthymios Andreadis, Eleni Maskalidou, Klaudia Masmanidou, Christina Sofianidou, Chrysoula Topalidi, Eleni Tsiripova
Lyra – singing: Vasileios Semertzidis
Photography – graphic design: Voula Androni
Camera – video editing: Haris Karoutsos
In collaboration with the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Aspropyrgos, the Laboratory of Mild Forms of Energy and Environmental Protection, University of West Attica (HME & PROPE – UWΑ), and the Agricultural Association of Aspropyrgos.
With the support and auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.
At the same time, as part of this series of actions, Emilia Bouriti conducted a series of meetings and interviews with farmers of Aspropyrgos, of various ages, aiming to collect data that help preserve the memory of the residents, their rural Arvanitic identity, which dominated Aspropyrgos until 1950.
These data contribute to the development of a “memory bank” that Emilia Bouriti has been creating since 2017.
The international program “Amoli | Art and Culture” is implemented by the non-profit company Syn+Ergasia Art Platform, in collaboration with the Cultural Center of the Municipality of Aspropyrgos, the Laboratory of Mild Forms of Energy & Environmental Protection, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Mechanical Engineering, University of West Attica, and the Agricultural Association of Aspropyrgos.
Other collaborating bodies: Pantheon Sorbonne (Research group), University of France (Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne), Comunitatea Elena Prahova – Ploiesti, Twinning of the cities of Aspropyrgos and Ploiesti, Romania, ECTE (European Center in Training for Employment), and tertiary institutions as well as primary and secondary education institutions of the Thriasio Plain.
The urban non-profit company Syn+Ergasia Art Platform aims at research, creation, and presentation of interdisciplinary and inter-artistic works, opening a dialogue between art, science, education, and society. Emilia Bouriti is a visual artist, performance artist, and founding member of the company.
The company operates today as an artistic platform with collaborations from Greece and abroad, cooperating with international cultural centers, educational institutions, and researchers on issues concerning the dialogue between “Art, Participation, Rural Life, Energy, Industry, Multiculturalism, Creative Economy, Environment, and Cultural Heritage.”
