Elefsina, the place where in 2000, as Philipos Koutsaftis recorded in Agelastos Petra“whoever passes by here, turns his gaze elsewhere”,fifteen years later, was destined to gather all gazes on a European level. And this is the important legacy of Elefsina both at national, European and international level.

“If Elefsina could do it, so can we“, is the key argument that fuels the self-confidence of cities and opens up new paths for the collective imagination. Progress and change require new paradigms. And Elefsina seems to be currently serving as such a paradigm at a national level.

It is our duty, the duty of all of us involved in the cultural field, to listen to these changes, to listen to the ferment that is happening on the periphery and on the margins of institutional culture, and to connect with all these communities that are hoping. And because they are hopeful, they are working on ambitious plans and are imagining themselves not in the margins of cultural life, not as mere imitators of what is happening in the centre, but as innovators, as ambitious producers of the future, which is an act that brings them to the centre of the world.