Between national(ist) desires, digital glamour, and everyday destruction
Eleusis as a European Capital of Culture (2023)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59391/a0bfcg32Keywords:
culture, industrialisation, nationalism, relationalities, human and non-humanAbstract
Eleusis, a seaside town in Greece, sports both ancient heritage and the ruins of heavy industrialization. Appointed European Capital of Culture 2023, its residents found themselves participants in a spectacle where they, cultural heritage, and the landscape were integral to a new Eleusinian transformation. Here, we argue, ecological catastrophe and capitalist development meet EU-subsidized art, leveraged into nationalist investments. This article describes Eleusis as European Capital of Culture as a counter-site, both reflecting and distorting the social realities of Eleusis itself. Based on dialogue between fieldwork, analysis of digital material and visual constructions, we examine layers of sociality from archeological sites to refineries and the seashore, showcasing how destruction, environmental and human, is (inter)nationally deployed by cultural institutions to promote nationalist interests. Further, we track how human and non-human relationalities synthesize and collide, sometimes in strangely gendered ways, while critical micro-resistances and narratives point towards new ways of co-existence.
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