Eleusis 2023 - Mystery_44: 7 Columns

The European Capital of Culture (ECoC) is an annual initiative that aims to highlight the diverse cultural wealth of European cities, and in this way help its citizens better identify with each other. This year, Elefsina—along with Veszprém (Hungary) and Timisoara (Romania)—holds the title and presents a rich cultural agenda over the course of a year.

The programme’s name, The Mysteries of Transition, was inspired by the Eleusinian Mysteries. These were secret religious practices held in Elefsina during antiquity to honour the goddess Demetra. Makes sense that each event on the programme was therefore dubbed a Mystery. The festival’s cultural agenda is built around three thematic axes: Environment, Labour, and People and Society, and includes 130 artworks, 465 events (Mysteries) in 30 different city sites, and 17 different types of art by 192 Greek and 137 international artists from 30 countries.

With his exhibition-installation 7 Columns, composer and director Heiner Goebbels transforms The Old Oil Mill Factory in Eleusina into a modern day “Telesterion”. In ancient times, the Telesterion was a great hall and sanctuary, and one of the primary centres of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Initiates entered the Telesterion where they were shown sacred relics of Goddess Demetra, before the priestesses revealed their visions to them. 

Goebbels uses every element the factory’s setting has to offer; with the reflections of moving images of performers on its walls, ceilings and on the surfaces of its stones, the mysticism and wonder of the secret rites is recreated. An ethereal soundscape takes over the space, including sounds difficult to associate with any familiar musical instruments, as well as voice recordings which were collected in Greece during the mid-20th century by ethnomusicologist Samuel Baud-Bovy.