ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
In the art project “Mystery 32_”OPEN ELEUSIS – One documentary, many stories” historical and ethnographic research meets artistic creation.
The project attempts to write a history of Elefsina that focuses on its people. The results of the project are collected in this digital open archive, OPEN ELEUSIS. This website is a digital space, a living library and a memory bank of the city, which presents the material resulting from ethnographic and historical research in an inventive way, as a digital narrative. The material includes, among other things, texts and documents such as photographs, videos, maps, testimonies, interviews, etc.
In addition to the digital archive, the material of the project is transformed into the documentary “Where the Chimneys Rise”, which narrates the multiple stories of the city’s lived present. The documentary focuses on Elefsina, an industrial center with many peculiarities, but perceives it within a broader geographical context. Elefsina is a place of multiple uses and activities (industries, ports, places of temporary and permanent residence for workers and refugees), as well as an area of different transitions (from rural to industrial societies, from native cities to refugee cities, etc.). It stands out on the basis of its own, exclusive specificity, as it encapsulates a dual symbolism: A “modern” center of industrial development, it is at the same time a center of particular cultural and archaeological interest. The fusion of these two histories in space and time has been captured in a rare way, as reflected in the everyday life of its inhabitants.
After spending many hours in the field, the working group chose to give the floor to its inhabitants, young and old, in an attempt to get to know and understand the cultural load that the city carries. This knowledge, following the methodology of artistic research, is returned to the city and its inhabitants in the hope that it has contributed to the protection and promotion of the intangible and material cultural heritage of Elefsina.
RCH’s project team:
Danae Karydaki is a modern historian interested in social history, gender history, institutional history, oral history, and history of the psy-sciences in the context of post-war Greece. She has served as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Thessaly (2020-2022) and the Research Centre for the Humanities (2018), a teaching fellow at the University of Athens (2019-2021), and an in-situ researcher for the history of the State Scholarships Foundation-IKY (2018-2020). She received her PhD in History from Birkbeck, University of London (2016), where she was also a teaching assistant (2013-2015). She has edited the volume Leros in the Spotlight and on the Margin: History, Politics, Psychiatry (Psifides: 2020) and her monograph History and Psychoanalysis in the Columbus Centre: The Meaning of Evil is forthcoming from Routledge (2023). She has published several peer-reviewed articles and book reviews in academic journals (e.g. History of the Human Sciences, Central Europe, International Journal of Psychoanalysis) and edited volumes, and has presented her work in conferences at the universities of Oxford, London, Manchester, Madrid, Athens, Volos, and Komotini. She is an academic referee for European History Quarterly and Routledge, an editorial board member (book review editor) of Almagest, and a founding member of the Greek Association of Historians. She has received awards and scholarships towards her research from the State Scholarships Foundation-IKY, the Onassis Foundation, the Ioannis Latsis Foundation, and the Arts & Humanities Research Council, UK.
Regina Mantanika is a social anthropologist interested in migrant mobility and settlement, the evolution of institutions, urban exclusion and social geography. She has served as a post-doctoral researcher at the department of sociology of the University of Crete (2020-2022), a teaching fellow at the Hellenic Open University (ΕΑΠ) (2020-2022) and at the department of historical and cultural studies of the University of Vienna (2018-2019). She is currently a teaching fellow at the department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies of the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki. She received her PhD from Paris7 Diderot University Sorbonne Paris Cite. She has published peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and edited volumes in English, French and Greek. She has received scholarship towards her post-doctoral research from the State Scholarships Foundation-IKY.
Io Chaviara is a visual artist and social anthropologist interested in visual culture, history, humor, politics and national identities. She is a PhD Candidate in Social Anthropology at the Panteion University of Athens. Chaviara’s artworks and documentaries has participated in exhibitions and festivals internationally. She has been awarded the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Artist Fellowship by ARTWORKS (2021). She has published peer-reviewed articles in academic journals and edited volumes. She has received scholarships towards her research from State Scholarships Foundation-IKY and H.F.R.I. The Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.
In 2006 he completed his studies in the Department of Industrial Management and Technology at the University of Piraeus, then studied production documentaries at the Obsevatorio de Cine and in 2009 he completed his postgraduate studies in Visual Anthropology and Ethnography Documentary at the University of Barcelona (Antropologia visual – Universitat de Barcelona).
Since then he has worked on many film and television productions as operator and editor. His film, Feeling of a Home, co-directed with Io Chaviara, has been distinguished in numerous festivals in Greece and abroad and has been used as educational tool in educational institutions in Greece and abroad, Their latest film Crafting Futures in co-production with the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. was selected in the official program of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival.
He is the producer of the in-development feature film “Kalikantzarous” co-financed by
Creative Europe Media and the Hellenic Film Center .
In recent years he has been teaching film classes to children and young people, and the creations of his students have been distinguished and awarded at the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People.
Constitutes founding member of the production company Fabula Productions.
The Mystery 32 Open Eleusis project is implemented within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan Greece 2.0 with funding from the European Union -NextGenerationEU.
Read more:
Oral History Seminar “Elefsina tells her memories”
The project is implemented in collaboration with the Research Centre for the Humanities (RCH).
