Routes in Marpissa 2022 Festival This year’s festival album in 12 plus 1 click
One more festival of Routes in Marpissa has come to an end. For the 12th year, residents of the village and of Paros, visitors from Greece and all over the world walked through the traditional settlement, which for three days celebrated the end of harvest with concerts, music and dance performances, workshops, events, lectures and documentaries. The countless moments of joy, emotion and excitement that we shared fill the album of this year’s festival with powerful memories and unique moments, such as the ones that follow…
#1 The festival premiered with the documentary “Don’t Break my Stones”, a production of Routes in Marpissa Association directed by Katerina Patronis, based on the interviews of residents of Paros and their memories of life in the Parian ‘katikia’, which was the theme of this year’s festival. The documentary, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, was shown in the first national screening in the presence of the distinguished director and the participants and was one of the most powerful and moving moments of the festival since its beginning. It is worth noting that it was preceded by a lecture on the topic of intangible cultural heritage and its importance for local development by the Director of Modern Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Stavroula-Villy K. Fotopoulou, and the archaeologist – social anthropologist Elena Bazini.
#2 In the context of the impressive art workshop “Dragons”, the artists,Myrsini Artakianou and Theodora Kanelli, on the occasion of this year’s theme, “harvested” wheat straw with the participating children and made creative and imaginative constructions with them. (Friday 26.08)
#3 In collaboration with the educational organization Arkki by AKTO (School of Architecture for children & youth) and the architect Eleftheria Kapsalis, the youngest children made paper lanterns and the oldest models of settlements in the unique Cycladic landscape. (Friday 26 & Saturday 27.08)
#4 The young, restless visitors participated in an original philosophy workshop specially designed for children, under the guidance of the facilitator Stelios Gadris (Department of Philosophical and Social Studies, University of Crete). (Saturday 27 & Sunday 28.08)
#5 This year’s art exhibition entitled “the mouth fills with words”, included four original works based on the oral histories collected by the festival’s team about the “katikes” and the rural customs that are being lost with them. The exhibition was curated, as every year, by Despina Zefkili and the artists that participated were Phoebe Giannisi, Virginia Mastrogiannaki, Maria Sideri and Chara Stergiou.
#6 The audience watched with special interest the speech-performance of Maria Sideri“around the disappearance of words” and the poetic speech-performance “Cicadas and Figs” by Phoebe Giannisi which took place in the context of the art exhibition “the mouth fills with words”.
#7 3D puzzles, eco-consciousness quizzes, a deconstructed house roof, a “virtual” concept sieve, and an alternative farming calendar were just some of the surprises that awaited young and old visitors at the specially designed thematic station set up for the needs of the festival, with games inspired by this year’s theme: HARVESTat the Parian katikia.
#8 On Saturday, August 27, the festival welcomed with great honor and joy the Microdances, dance performances with the participation of dancers from the National Opera Ballet. The three performances, “Forget me not” choreographed by GNO Ballet Director Konstantinos Rigos and music by George Koumentakis, “Knight rider” choreographed by Yannis Nikolaidis and “Active Motivation” choreographed by Elena Kekkou, captivated the audience.
#9 On Sunday morning, a group of visitors led by Pavlos Hatzigrigoriou PhD, Vassiliki Nikolakopoulou PhD(c) and Aliki Hamalidou MSc(st) visited a Parian katikia, applying the intangible cultural heritage methodology ‘HERMeS’ (“Heritage Management e-Society (HERMeS)”).
#10 The first day of the festival ended with the atmospheric concert of the “Spiral Trio”. Pianist Spyros Manesis, double bassist Arionas Gyftakis and Anastasis Gouliaris on drums, with their creative improvisations, took the audience on a journey through melodic jazz paths.
#11 Accordingly, the second day ended with Rebotika musical performance in an evening full of poetry and rebetiko music, with Michalis and Pantelis Kalogerakis.
#12 The authentic Cycladic feast with Nikos Economides and Kyriaki Spanou is a tradition that, especially this year, after a two-year break, the public has been waiting for with great impatience. That’s why both musicians, together with Panagiotis Vergos, George Gavras and Nikos Tsantanis, “compensated” them in the best way with a celebration that lasted until the early morning hours.
We are truly grateful to the supporters, sponsors, the public and the visitors, who embraced this year’s event with particular warmth and walked another year with us in Marpissa. We warmly thank the Ministry of Culture and Sports for having the festival under its auspices as well as the Region of South Aegean and the Municipality of Paros for co-organizing and the Municipal Community of Marpissa for the cooperation.
We thank you all very much and renew our appointment for next year. Until then, stay tuned to our social media accounts to be informed about the news of Routes in Marpissa.
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