What can classical music have to do with experimentation, the electric guitar to the visual arts, cinema to a festival, and psychedelia to the Greek Easter?

April in Eleusis begins with dissonArt and the iconic work Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello by the pioneering American composer of experimental music Morton Feldman, while a few days later the contemporary art exhibition Mysterio 177 Visions from the Underworld opens with another “revelation” to wait for the audience that will attend at its end. Next comes the real-time multi-layered Festival of Sylla Tzoumerkas, where Live Cinema, the Working Class and Sirens interact with the festival of Saint George (the patron saint of the city), to arrive at the great folk feast of songs and dances of the Earth, Spring and the Greek Easter under the supervision of professor of ethnomusicology Lambros Liavas. The visual artist Marios Fournaris creates for one day, a mixture of visual art, performance and music, the local artistic group Cultterra holds weekly actions open to the public, while the emblematic exhibitions Mysterio 44 Heiner Goebbels 7 Columns, and Mysterio 17 Melina will remain open for a few still days, while invitations to participate in projects and actions, such as the exhibition of the internationally renowned artist Juan Esteban Sandoval, the first contemporary circus workshop in Elefsina by the group “Ki omOs movi” the international conference Mysterio 79 Beyond The Obvious, the artistic program hosting Visual Arts Initiator III – But don’t tell anywhere and also the community radio of Elefsina, they are open throughout the month.

SATURDAY APRIL 1

Mystery 92 Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello

Warehouse 1, Old Olive Oil Mill of Elefsina

Contemporary music ensemble dissonArt performs Morton Feldman

The distinguished musical ensemble dissonArt presents, for the first time in Greece, the iconic work of the pioneering American composer Morton Feldman Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. An immersive listening experience, where the audience will be free to sit or lie down in Warehouse 1 of the Old Olive Mill of Elefsina in order to be within breathing distance of the musicians, experiencing a unique experience.

SATURDAY 8 APRIL – 3.33 p.m.

Mystery 177 Visions from the Underworld – Finissage

X-Bowling Art Center

Curtain for the contemporary art exhibition with the unveiling of the work of the award-winning sculptor Theodoros

Having already hosted more than 2,000 visitors, the group exhibition of contemporary art concludes with the unveiling of the “cube of the unknown”. Through a special ceremony, led by the artist McCloud Zicmuse, visitors will have the opportunity to see, for the first time and for one day only, the sculpture of the multi-awarded international Greek artist Theodoros. On the same day, a little earlier, from 11.00 to 13.00, Zicmuse will hold the Preparing the Ways workshop, with the aim of preparing visitors for what is to come, through playing with improvised musical instruments, vocal exercises and simple choreographies. Visions of the Underworld, edited by Agprognostic Temple, is a symbolic passage to the Underworld and back, a journey of revelation and discovery, through which 10 important contemporary creators highlight the relevance of the Eleusinian Mysteries to modern times and interpret them in a 21st century language.

APRIL 21-23

Mystery 84 Feast (on the Feast of St. George)

Elefsina Employment Center (EKEDA) & Public space

A movie marathon at the festival of St. Georgiou in Elefsina

This pioneering festival engages with a religious, historical and cultural institution such as the feast of Saint George (the patron saint of the city), incorporating new features into the collective consciousness with all-day and all-night film screenings, six-hour public talks, VR performances and live filming in public space with the aim of creating two films, in real time, which will be completed with audience participation, edited on site and screened at the end of the festival. A conception by director Sylla Tzoumerkas, co-edited by academic and cultural practitioner Maria Hatzichristodoulou aka Maria X, and film critic and programmer Lorenzo Esposito, in collaboration with the Thessaloniki Film Festival and LADA – The Live Art Development Agency.

SATURDAY, APRIL 22

Mystery 100 The Sacred Songs

Pontian Settlement Square & Oasi – Former Camping

Songs and dances of the Greek Easter

The ethnomusicology professor of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Lampros Liavas, will talk about the deeper meaning and functions of the folk events and songs of this period, where Christian worship is rechristened in its ancient origins, Christ converses with Adonis and Ai- George meets the ancient dragon-slaying hero who frees the water and brings fruitfulness. Afterwards, a great folk feast will be set up in the trees with the songs and dances of the Earth, Spring and the Greek Easter.

SUNDAY, APRIL 30

Mystery 83 Spe Meliore Moriendi

Old Elefsina Railway Station

An interdisciplinary synergy of visual art, performance and music

Visual artist Marios Fournaris presents an inter-artistic synergy of visual art, performance art and music in collaboration with musicians Georgia Balabinis and Mislav Režić and with the participation of cultural groups from Elefsina. The work/action brings to the fore the reconsideration of the characteristics that make up the whole of ephemeral human existence, through the counterpoint of symbolic representations of the mythical world and the Renaissance. The artistic proposal includes three parts: the sculptural environment, the performance and the music.

THURSDAY APRIL 6, 20, 27

Culterra

Days of Thirst

Old Elefsina Railway Station

The artist groups of Elefsina in action

The youth group Cultterra presents the action Thirstdays. The title is a pun on the English words “Thursday”, the day of the group’s weekly meeting, and “thirst”, signifying the thirst of the city’s youth for art and culture. The axes of action pass successively from the most informal occupations to the most formal and open to the public events. In April, the activities will take place to meet the 2023: Martha Frindzila, Araxovolin: film screening, to meet the locals: Elpida Hatzinikolaou.

Educational programs

April is a month rich in education and training programs and actions for all school levels, young people and adults. Photographic works inspired by the city, short documentaries, murals inspired by the environment, a participatory urban design workshop, a dance journey in public space with a skateboard, a mixed group of teenagers designing the city of the future through digital environments , 1st grade children who get to know the new construction technologies, a university that opens its doors to anyone interested to attend lectures, seminars and experiential workshops and many more actions and programs take place in the city of Elefsina.

For a few more days!

Mystery 44 Heiner Goebbels 7 Columns | Photo: John Kouskoutis

Until Sunday, April 23, the two emblematic exhibitions will be hosted: the Mystery 44 Heiner Goebbels 7 Columns by the versatile artist and composer Heiner Goebbels, who transforms Warehouse 2 of the Old Olive Mill into a modern temple, while right next door, in Warehouse 3, the Mystery 17 Melina, the dedicated exhibition to the late Melina Merkouris, under the general supervision of Manuela Pavlidou and the general curation and museological and museographic study of Nikolaos Kaltsas.

Open Invitations to Participate

Mystery 19 Visual Arts Initiator – But don’t tell anyone

Artistic hospitality program for the concept of initiation and secrecy

Five artists experiment, interact, introduce themselves to the art of in situ installation. Artists active in the field of visual arts, with an emphasis on the public space (installation, video art, sound art, performance, sculpture, etc.), to participate in the 3rd edition of the artistic hospitality program Mysterio 19 Visual Arts Initiator III – But don’t tell anyone. The program will take place in Eleusis in two periods, in May and October 2023, while the five selected artists will reside in the city, be inspired by the Eleusinian Mysteries, experiment and create original works in dialogue with the Archaeological Site of Elefsina, under the guidance of the internationally recognized curator Joanna Warsza and five other renowned artists.

Applications until April 6 here

Mystery 111 The clay army of Eleusis

Be part of the work of internationally renowned artist Juan Esteban Sandoval

The Clay Army of Elefsina, the work of the internationally renowned artist Juan Esteban Sandoval, is a tribute, a monument to those who worked and are working in Elefsina, to those who have made the current image of the city with their work, their physical effort, their life their. The open call is addressed to employees and pensioners of factories, industries and companies in the area. For each participant, the artist will create a handmade clay helmet, on which will be engraved elements or words that will characterize that person. In September 2023, all the clay helmets that will be produced will be exhibited in a large exhibition at the Iris site and then shared with the participants as a memento of this gigantic artistic work.

Mystery 109 The Higgs boson

The first modern circus workshop in Elefsina

2023 Elefsis and the experienced group of dancers and acrobats “Ki omOs movi” hold the first modern circus workshop in Elefsina for professionals and amateurs, children and adults, leading to the renewed version of the award-winning performance “The Higgs Boson”. The workshop includes modern dance and acrobatics classes by choreographer Christina Souyultzi and dancers Nonda Damopoulos and Ileanna Pappas and is aimed at residents of Elefsina, as well as dancers and acrobats who wish to intensify their knowledge of modern circus.

Mystery 79 Beyond The Obvious Conference 2023

Handle with Care Agora: Call for projects

As part of the Beyond the Obvious conference, the Handle with Care Agora action takes place, an informal forum presenting local and international European projects related to issues of care, community and individual well-being, health and culture. The aim of the Market is to bring different perspectives from the arts, heritage, human rights, health, research, politics, activism and to bring together initiatives from Greece, Europe and the rest of the world creating an open space for networking and exchange of good practices.

Access to Elefsina

#21km

Just 21 km from the center of Athens, one of the most important sacred cities of antiquity, the city of the Eleusinian Mysteries and birthplace of Aeschylus, Eleusis is the fourth European Capital of Culture to be hosted in Greece. It can be accessed in the following ways:

By car or motorbike via Attica Odos or from Athens Avenue, just 25 minutes from the center of Athens

By bus (lines 845 and 871 from Piraeus, 876 from “Ag. Marina” metro station and 878 from Acharnes)

By suburban train (stop “Magoula” and then by bus 863)

By KTEL (line Megara – Nea Peramos – Elefsina, starting from Asomaton Square in Thisio)