PARIAHS IN ELEUSIS – RESEARCH BRIEF:
Overview
Eleusis is a town of mystery and tragedy. Located 22 km west of Athens, the city was the site of the cult of Demeter and the sanctuary in which the Eleusinian Mysteries were celebrated from the Bronze Age to the Roman Imperial period. Modern Eleusis is a major industrial town. Internal migratory movements redrew the Eleusinian chartography. Many Greek families of Asia Minor settled in Eleusis after the 1922 sacking of Smyrna and created the settlement of Upper Eleusis. During the Axis Occupation of Greece (1941–1945), resistance movements were established and soon after the conclusion of WWII, the city attracted workers from all parts of Greece to satisfy the demand for modern buildings and new structures. Industrial activity, however, developed anarchically on the antiquities and next to the residential area. Environmental pollution, archaeological discoveries and industrial formation shaped the image of contemporary Eleusis.
Two sessions were organised in Eleusis with a total of 30 people participating. The participants were carefully selected through digital campaigns, word of mouth and phone calls to CHORUS’ audience, to ensure maximum attendance by those least likely to attend such events. Particular attention was given to people who experienced the events of the Farmakis period as well as the wider historical locus of post WWII Eleusis.
Secondly, individual interviews were organised to attend to the individual witnesses both in relation to an Eleusinian “pariah” Panayotis Farmakis and the formation of Eleusis as a neo-industrial hub in the post-war Attican region. This has unearthed valuable testimony and evidenced the need for a personalised approach to new literacies and a common thread between marginalisation, internal migratory flows and Greece’s rich archaeological landscape and the debate over its preservation.
All participants were given the space and context for personal and often intimate iterations of their memories. Firstly these were centred on the figure of Panayiotis Farmakis, a marginalised figure that lived between the 1930s and early 1990s, who contributed immensely to the local community by preserving and discovering pieces of ancient artefacts and monuments, as well to community members personally, yet in most cases community members treated him violently and in a discriminating way.
Every participant in the session delivered their own personal memories and, slowly, a picture of Farmakis emerged against the backdrop of Eleusis’s canvas post-WWII.
The questions were unstructured in keeping with the commitment not to reflect preconceived ideas and they were performed without organisation. The researcher selected not to introduce with an opening statement, considering the age bracket of the participants who often preferred to progress in their own way, following an initial prompt. Unstructured interviews are advised where depth is required about a specific area and each participant’s individual perspective is crucial to the final interpretation.
CONCLUSIONS
In Eleusis we observe the central figure of Farmakis who personifies resistance, marginalisation and a desire to preserve archaeological literacies and, perhaps, unwittingly, advance community cohesion and allegiance. We also observe a common thread of silent marginalisation and collective trauma, often resulting in community solidarity.
We further observe that the activities of the marginalised communities of industrial and post WWII Eleusis were rooted in relationality, coalition-building, and an acknowledgement of difference. There were strong testimonies of urban-neighbourhood experiences which resulted in the self-organisation of socio-political spaces.
On modern Greece’s economic model of state-led and capital-owned enterprises, Eleusinian pariahs have been drawing on working-class self-activity to self-manage spaces of personal development and production.
We note five commonalities on the connective yarn of the Pariahs project which are observable across the four participating territories:
- A sense of sharing of resources and ecologies against a post-capitalist/neoliberal political economic context
- A yarn of collective memory which mobilises the potential of horizontal organising, and coalitional possibilities.
- Though emerging in different national conjunctures and histories, Eleusis brings to the surface the resistive and creative dimensions of each marginalised experience. 4. A common root in deeply relational coalitions with an acceptance of difference. 5. An urgency to re-operationalise collective memories of the past to create the present and design the future beyond the legacies of canonical and oppressive histories and capitalist-centred actualities.
Read the full research here
Pariahs D2.2 Guide_final
THE LOCAL PARTNER:
CHORUS is a non-profit organisation founded to build a bridge between the arts, education and society. It was established in 2016 in Eleusis by citizens active in the cultural, creative and educational sectors. Its mission is to promote humanitarian principles and values, trigger public debate and mobilise the public on key social issues, support the proactiveness of the Civil Society, as well as to foster respect for the rights of each individual through contemporary artistic creation, education and cultural activity in general. It collaborates with teams, organisations and individuals within and beyond Greece to design and implement its projects. CHORUS will be leading the consortium and be in charge of the project communication. Its artistic team consists of a theatre performance group and a playwright/social researcher who will conduct the research with the communities. CHORUS has experience organising cultural events and productions and has also gained experience in EU programs by participating in the large-scale Creative Europe programme “Ulysses: a European Odyssey”. As also expressed within the core objectives of 2023 Eleusis ECoC, CHORUS seeks to unveil Eleusis’s invisible side, marking a new era for the city and its transition to a new model of development focusing on its dynamic cultural assets. The European Capital of Culture as an institution focuses on highlighting the richness, diversity, and common aspects of European cultures, seeking to reinforce ties and mutual understanding between European Citizens. It also aims to reveal and develop the tangible and intangible Economy of a city via the interventional contribution of Art, Culture and Research.
