The opening of the Settlement Festival is a welcome from the residents themselves to the alleys and houses of the neighbourhood and a first acquaintance with them, their stories, their songs, their habits.
Two years ago, in the summer of 2016, the experiential walk Routes to the Roots #1 took place in Syνοικismo, the area of Elefsina where the Asia Minor refugees of 1922 settled. Euripides Laskaridis (OSMOSIS team) with the collaboration of Aspasia-Maria Alexiou and the Association of Asia Minor of Elefsis had focused on the narratives of the residents of the neighborhood, in an attempt to understand the past and the contemporary implications of the phenomenon of forced population movement. Now, the residents of the Settlement open their homes once again to the visitors of the experiential walk and share with them their stories, their customs and traditions, their songs and their concerns.

New questions are now being added to the questions that had been raised: What has changed in the time since then? What does it mean for the inhabitants themselves to tell their own stories and those of their ancestors, and what are the new narratives of the inhabitants of the Settlement? In what ways does a community, a neighborhood perform the task of preserving its collective memory?

The walks Routes to the Roots #1 and #2 invite the viewer to a unique experience: that of life in the Quarter. The residents of the area become co-creators of the play and star in all of its scenes. They welcome us into their spaces – their homes, the museum they have created, their “ark of memory” as they call it, their gardens and the inner streets of the Settlement that serve as an extension of their courtyards and a meeting place.

Credits
Conception – Direction.
Dramaturgical collaboration: Aspasia – Maria Alexiou
Artistic Contribution: Alexandros Mistriotis

Alexandre A. Alexandre A. Mastrisriotis, in cooperation with the Association of Asia Minor of Elefsina and its president Mrs. Georgia Giagzoglou-Adoniadou. Participants are residents of the area of the Settlement

Video Routes in the Roots #1: Dimitris Triantafyllou and Stelios Keramidas
Production: Elefsina 2021 European Capital of Culture, OSMOSIS Team