Supplicant and the ritual of Supplication (Hiketia) were unwritten laws of divine origin and their guardian was the king of 12 gods Zeus, the divine refugee who was rescued as an infant after his mother Rhea fled to the most sacred of Cretan caves, the Idaeon Andro.
In this emblematic place, in the heart of Psiloritis, through an artistic and scientific partnership, the timeless concept of Ikesia as a refugee and Plea is approached in the context of the 100th anniversary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe. At an altitude of 1550 meters, a symbolic thematic cycle will be attempted from Smyrna waterfront to the foothills of Xenios Zeus, which will include two thematic contributions, a theatrical excerpt from Aeschylus’ tragedy Icetides and the musical-theatrical improvisation
Refugee (part of Metartum a Cultural – Augmented Reality Project). Finally, the event concludes with a musical performance by the band of the Cretan artist Vassilis Skoulas.
The Dark Side of Memory/The Pier is a musical multimedia performance about the collective trauma of “the Asia Minor Catastrophe” and the twofold substance of our roots. It is structured around testimonies of historical unnamed protagonists, which, during the performance, are voiced by an unseen person.
Small pieces of living memory, gleaned from the sacred pool of the dead, drip their blessing onto the present, weaving the ground on which every wound rejoices and heals. The living root of the catastrophe sprouts underground in the body of Greece, founding an Asia Minor which is more real than the actual one.
Everything is abandoned to the ocean of the inevitable, transforming the throng of the uprooted into an international symbol. Music is an islet of consolation, a hint about the inner homeland, towards which the refugees unceasingly march.
A proposal that combines the original traditional music of Asia Minor, from the days of joy and prosperity to the days of the uprooting, folk-rebetiko music as it evolved in metropolitan Greece, and contemporary music.
Three different orchestras co-exist onstage, the original traditional orchestra of Smyrna, the Folk-Rebetiko orchestra in the form it acquired in inland Greece, and a Classical Symphony Orchestra performing the Oratorio. The latter will present in its world premiere Christos Samaras’ work Mnimes (Memories).
This musical journey is a sequence and co-habitation of music, poetry, dance, images and performing, composing a complete, ripe, and interdisciplinary performance-concert that illuminates the eternal Asia Minor of Greeks.
A music and dance performance in collaboration with the Athos Danellis Shadow Puppet Theatre and Kyriakos Gouventas’ musical company, which will attempt to showcase the musical and dance tradition of Asia Minor through a journey across the time before its destruction, the subsequent uprooting of its inhabitants, and the transformation of their tradition in the new setting of Greece of the time.
Asia Minor has always been a crossroads of nations and cultures, a melting pot of musical traditions of the West and the East.
The folk songs and tunes still surviving to a great extent to this day are known to be an age-old legacy coming to us from a region that is at once so close, yet so far from us: Asia Minor.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the Encardia ensemble presents a special and very topical musical programme.
An excellent anthology of songs and texts that will illuminate the ever-topical issue of refugeeism and migration.
A focal point of the performance will be human solidarity, the only thing that can alleviate the “Foreigner’s” pain, even transform it into hope and optimism.
A performance that will mostly feature old instrumental pieces from the wider region of Asia Minor ingeniously rearranged by the Violione Orchestra.
The goal of this alternative twenty-member ensemble of exclusively bowed strings is to bring out a romantic and at the same time communicative and outward-looking mood, with elements of earlier and more modern techniques, taking us on a musical journey from the past into the future with abundant improvisations while creating a dynamic continuation of the old style of performing bowed stings into the contemporary one.
The orchestra is conducted by Giannis Zarias, assistant violin professor in the Department of Music Science & Art of the University of Macedonia.