This project aims to join different European cities and bring an artistic perspective, that can be seen and read, about the particular moment in our history that was lived “at home”.
#EuropeAtHome
Eleusis (Greece) and Clermont-Ferrand (France) are the cities that recently joined “Europe at Home” project, each selecting a photographer and a literary artist to portray the experience of social isolation as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. With these cities joining the project, the online exhibition “Europe at Home” now counts with 24 cities and 48 artists. Eleusis, following the initiative of Eleusis European Capital of Culture, participates in the project with the literary Konstantinos Ch. Loukopoulos and the photographer Haris Karoutsos.
Faced with the scenario of a stopped Europe, where a significant part of the population closed itself at home, the Faro2027 team, responsible for this city’s candidacy to European Capital of Culture, decided to challenge several European cities to portray the experience of this unprecedented moment in our recent history through the lens of a photographer and the words of a literary author. The response was immediate and enthusiastic and cities quickly came together to highlight how Europe is so identical even assuming its differences.
Each city invited a photographer and a literary author and the result of these works are displayed on europeathome.eu, where the visitor can access not only the artworks but also information on each city involved, as well as short biographies of each artist. The platform is very user friendly, offering navigation through a map or menus by city, photographer and literary artist. The project includes cities that place culture as one of their main development axis, most of them belong to the European Capitals of Culture family.
About the artists and the artworks
Artists regardless age, ethnicity and gender, coming also from different backgrounds; writers, journalists, activists, critics, teachers, anthropologists, translators, publishers, art directors, musicians, poets, performers, photojournalists, teachers, cultural agents and freelance photographers reflet their diversity in the project itself. They create a set literaly rich both in style and content with prose and poems, fiction and texts that call for action combined with colorful works and in others the rawness of the black and white prevails. They raise questions about the future and about new forms of online culture, but also messages of hope. In common, everyone shares views of their cities and the dichotomy between home (private) and public space, and expresses a common concern summed up in the motto “Artists burtsing into a new world”.
About Eleusis participation
Eleusis participates in the project with 10 photos by Haris Karoutsos showing the city deserted but peaceful with people present even behind the masks, capturing in one “click” unprecedented experiences and feelings of the “staying at home” time. At the same time, “The ointment of the Eleusinian Mysteries” by Konstantinos Ch.Loukopoulos, narrates how covid-19 emergency affected on time, dream, thought and desire, restoring in the text forms, places and characteristics of Eleusis, from Persephone and the Eleusinian Mysteries Telesterion, to the port, Agios Zacharias and Synikismos.
