Melisma

Artistic workshops cycle in Northern Evia

From September 2022 and for nearly a year, the Caravan Project followed Melisma, the year-long cycle of educational and artistic activities for persons of all ages that was realized in the wider region of Northern Evia, recording the workshops and personal stories of the people who took part in them. The Project tracked the compositional processes of a collective music-dance narration, which was turned into a performance titled Topos Ateliotos (Endless Land) and presented in Kechries, Northen Evia, on Sunday 16 July 2023, as well as on the GNO Alternative Stage on Sunday 17 September 2023.

The members of the film crew wandered across burnt-down and reborn areas, walking on trails and seeking legends and stories. They let themselves get carried away in adventurous encounters with the guardians of this land: a beekeeper who insistently harvests honey in the burnt forest, a monk who serenely reminisces on the miracle that saved the monastery from fire, a carpenter who reopened his carpentry shop, a retsina (variety of Greek wine) producer who is concerned about his future, a wood carver who carves burnt tree trunks transmuting the catastrophe into reborn, peculiar figurines, a horse whisperer who talks with animals.

The documentary composes an unseen geography of diverse narratives that shed light upon catastrophe and rebirth, challenging us to ponder on the symbiotic relationship between nature and civilisation.

Programme coordinator: Leonidas Panagopoulos

Implementation: Caravan Project (Stratis Vogiatzis, Dimitris Kourtis)

Presentation: Spring 2024

The programme was subsidized by the Ministry of Culture

GNO Learning & Participation Lead Donor