Wednesday, 21 October 2020, 18.00
The Public Readings Voices in silence of the stories of women at EMST complete the work MEMORIA. Women in the Mountain, Notebook 1, Notebook 2, exhibited at the exhibition “Theorimata 2: On History,” organized by AICA Hellas, at EMST (Bia Papadopoulou’s curatorial proposal).
Concept: Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Readings: Natasa Dailiani, Pagona Zali, Xenia Kalpaktsoglou, Magdalini Kristallinou, Mirto Belopoulou, Vassiliki Nomidou, Eleni Tzirtzilaki
Movement: Danae Manolesou
Projection: Christina Katsari
Venue: EMST, Temporary Exhibitions Space (-1)
The 14 women whose stories will be heard are:
Xenia or Xenoula Athanassaki, Andriani Katartzoglou, Vagelio Kladou or Vagela Maria, Pagona Kokovli Katerina, Maria Ledaki or Marika, Koula Marathaki, Maria Boraki-Mario or Marika Teacher, Eleni Xerogiannaki, Eleni Nitsa-Papagiannaki Electra, Argyro Polychronaki, Eleftheria Papadogianni, Georgia Skevaki or Skevogeorgia, Antonia Trikounaki, Athina Handabi.
These women were Guerilla Fighters of the Democratic Army in Western Crete, their exit to the mountain being associated not only with their request of Freedom and Democracy but also with their revolt as women against a patriarchal, suffocating society.
For society, the women in the Mountain were Federici’s witches,[1] they were uncanny. Communists, dressed in men’s clothes, young, beautiful, free, they attained equality at the Mountain. They were viewed as libertine. They were, however, heroines of an ancient tragedy, some of whom remained till the end, sacrificed themselves, their bodies remaining unburied. Others were imprisoned, exiled. But for many years they fell in silence and now they have no voice to speak. Even though diaries and archives were found, the enemies destroyed them. And whatever archives were left to the party, are unapproachable. There is almost no photographic material from the life at the Mountain and in some cases I was unable to even find a photograph of them. In MEMORIA. Women in the Mountain I connected fragments, the extended silences, those words that were whispered, the feeling. I found material from the press of the epoch, from archives found in Chania, from books on the Civil War, from stories recounted by comrades and relatives. The women in their voyage to the Mountain, to arduous paths, were transformed into wild beasts, into flowers, into birds. Our voices –will be heard. They will transfer their unsaid stories. Even though they come from the past, the women are looking towards the future. History is present and concerns us all. As the trauma from which these stories derived.
We want your silence and for you to listen to the stories in a standing position, adhering to the distances and to the use of a mask.
[1] Federici Silvia, Witches, Witch-Hunting, and Women, Greek edition, Ekdosis ton xenon, 2019