ABOUT

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"Amoli" is the water ditch that is used to water the farms of Aspropyrgos and it is derived from the verb "Amolao" (to release). The Farmers of Aspropyrgos used to say "Amolao to nero stin Amoli", meaning to fill the ditch with water in order to distribute it to the greater farming area.

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International Project Amoli | Art and Culture

 

Memory | Visual Practice and Sustainability in the Rural and Post-Industrial Landscape of Aspropyrgos

 

October – December 2021

 

Emilia Bouriti, visual artist, performance artist, enriches with new dynamic actions the international program "Amoli", a collective project in the Rural, Post-industrial, Multicultural Community of Aspropyrgos, of which she is also the initiator.

 

The actions have already started successfully and will culminate in November and December 2021.

 

Specifically, on November 21, we will have the start of the outdoor, research, educational workshop at the Aspropyrgos farms with the participation of farmers, artists, researchers, teachers and students from the Laboratory of Soft Energy Applications and Environmental Protection University of West Attica (SEALAB UNIWA).

 

The workshop will elaborate as a unit the elements "Rural culture, art, sustainability and resilience in agricultural cultivation with special theoretical reference and technological application to the issue of the value of water and energy use.

 

Also, the workshop aims to educate students and farmers on energy and culture, to highlight the rural culture and rural farming of the region, thus contributing to the sustainability and resilience of the rural community of Aspropyrgos.

 

Finally, it stresses that Aspropyrgos is a city that maintains its relationship with the land and food  and, furthermore, with the existence of the farms it is created a microclimate that supports the environment of the post-industrial city.

 

Taking seriously the pandemic caused by the coronavirus (covid-19) the Amoli project will fully respect the security measures set by law.

 

On December 21, the online screening of the video participatory work entitled "Rural footprints of Aspropyrgos II - The Pontian Culture" will take place.

 

The video is a recording of the participatory work  that was held in July 2020 in a neighborhood of the Gorytsa area of Aspropyrgos and consists of participatory action, site specific installation performance, testimonies and songs by Pontian residents from Aspropyrgos and Elefsina.

 

The work conveys the testimonies of the Pontians about their relationship with the cultivated land and their history, but in the period of the pandemic it acquires an additional value as it revokes memories of contagious serious diseases such as Chichotka, Vrasa, Tsumam when the participants or their ancestors leved in the former Republics of the Soviet Union.

 

Also, the work conveys the message that the power of art, community solidarity and historical memory are liberating in times of pandemic.

 

The video work will be shown on websites and social media sites.

 

Emilia Bouriti | YouTube

Emilia Bouriti SynErgasia | Facebook

 

At the same time, in the context of this cycle of actions, Emilia Bouriti held a series of meetings and interviews with farmers of Aspropyrgos, of various ages, in order to collect data that help to preserve the memory of the residents, their rural Arvanitic identity, which until 1950 was dominant in Aspropyrgos. These data contribute to the development of a "memory bank" that Emilia Bouriti has been creating since 2017.

 

The international project "Amoli - Art and Culture" of the non-profit company "Syn+ergasia", is carried out in collaboration with the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Aspropyrgos, the SEALAB UNIWA and the Rural Association of Aspropyrgos.

 

Under the auspices and financial support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

 

Other collaborating institutions: Pantheon Sorbonne (Research Group) University of France (Universite Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne), Comunitatea Elena Prahova - Ploiesti, Twinning of the cities of Aspropyrgos and Ploiesti, Romania, ECTE (European Center in Training for Employment) and the higher education institutions as well as primary and secondary education institutions of Thriasian Plain.