The Aeschylia Festival at Elefsina, west Attica, will kick off with music concerts, artistic performances, plays and an open air cinema. The annual and much beloved festival with a history of 47 years was cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic.
This year it will run from August 22 until September 26, 2021.
The Festival highlights include a sculpture show by Andreas Lolis and a dance performance by Omma and dancer/choreographer Josef Nadj.
The projects by Lolis and Nadj are part of the city’s contribution to its upcoming designation as “Cultural Capital of Europe” for 2023.
Lolis, who specializes in marble sculpting, uses the theme of a salvage excavation to set up eight marble works in the area behind the theater of the Old Oil Factory (Paleo Eleourgio).
The pieces express aspects of the city’s history, which goes back to Ancient Eleusis, home of Demeter’s Mysteries, and he hopes they will become a permanent exhibit.
France-based Nadj, well-known and loved by the Greek public, will bring eight dancers to the stage from Mali, Senegal, the Ivory Coast, Burkina faso, Congo-Brazaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo, forming a single body on the theme of “our ability to see what is before us, so we may be able to see better what lies deep within us, in a common fate”.
The Aeschylia will also include seven concerts with well-known Greek singers like Fotini Darra, Dimitra Galani, Natassa Bofiliou and Yiannis Kotsiras, as well as eight plays, most based on ancient tragedies.
“Art has a surface that is visible and one that is deeply hidden,” general artistic director for Elefsina 2023 Michalis Marmarinos said. “This is like Elefsina. If you visit, you will meet secret aspects of it from which you won’t disengage easily.” He added that the festival’s uniqueness lies in presenting original art works.