On Board to Border(less) Futures 3

People

Mrs. Aggeliki Giannakidou

Conversation with the Director of the Ethnological Museum of Thrace

During the visit to the Ethnological Museum of Thrace we had the chance to have a conversation with its founder and director Mrs. Aggeliki Giannakidou. She was born in St. Nikolaos of Halkidiki in 1947. She graduated from the Pedagogical Academy of Alexandroupolis and since 1967, has been living in Alexandroupolis, dealing with research and collecting material of the folk culture of Thrace. She founded the Ethnological Museum of Thrace in 2002 and her research interests concern the wider culture and history of Thrace, with the aim of preserving and spreading itsculture with a modern aesthetic.1 The discussion with her supported our claims that interraction between the populations living on the two sides of the river can be achieved through the introduction of cultural activities. Below are presented some important parts of our conversation with her.

“The symbolic value of the Evros is greater than its geostrategic significance and this is very important. Because it is a place that is hyperlocal. Because the movements of populations that intersect at this crossroads come from very large, hyperlocal networks. Thus, it goes beyond its local scale and what we call ‘place’.”

“They found the modes and code of communication in the past, so we are called to reclaim and rebuild such solidarity codes and modes of communication, both international and global. Ways of processing a physical coexistence. Because the river is a waterway, a road on which people communicate, they move, ideas, products, culture, civilization. That is why all the ethnic groups that lived here, have created a cultural physiognomy that has been influenced by the others, because it is an area that has been active since antiquity for a long time without borders. Through this osmosis that exists in all subjects, in nutrition, in clothing, in music and in architecture, all these networks of communication are recorded.”

“A border defines our limits, but it is also a challenge to go though it in order to get to know you, without losing my identity.”

“Architecture is the memory registered in space of the collective living”

“This communication can exist again. This is the goal of all cultural spaces that have man as their center. Thrace was divided in 1923, 100 years ago, so all its three parts were bordered. And Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece were three countries that were led to isolation. Meaning, economic and social isolation. Thus, they were on the fringes of any modernization plans, and they didn’t make any big modernization interventions that would alter the environment. Even this delay could work constructively today because there is a human resource that has the memory and has lived a little while ago, and since they were in the areas that entered the modernization processes last, have potentials of development. So, we have many reasons to be called to rebuild these cultural networks, to bring back to the scene the lived experiences of people in order to restore such cultural networks and communication. History has been written, that’s what we believe and that’s how it should be.”

“Whatever problems there are today in Thrace that stem from the symbiosis between the walls, the borders, it is a place that can prove that its societies function so well, to the extent that they do not allow social conflicts. So, it is very important that there is a base, a lived history on which people can step and rebuild this. For us this bridge can be made through culture and by utilizing the shared experiences between populations. Culture is the only way to create a bridge between the two sides, but it is very difficult. And to give you an example, I have a lived experience. In the Forty Churches in Kirklareli, there is a City Museum and the Mayor in his honor invited the neighboring nations to make a space inside the Museum. So, Greece is also

“Each region should respect the culture of the other while keeping the enthusiasm for its own culture.”

there. I went and saw it ten days ago, it was excellent, the people were very hospitable and very open and did not forget these experienced networks of communication. And this is the reason they don’t get influenced easily by a political speech. The political discourse at this moment in order to mobilize a reverse movement will have to appeal to someone’s core of being, for example to say that you are Muslim, and you are Christian, and it can never work out between you. So, from the moment a politician starts and invokes this reasoning, it means that he has no other footprints in the world. There is hope, but there is also a lot of work that needs to be done and I think that the best thing that can be done, is to create a series of things and actions for communication and constant exchange of opinions.”

“When it come to tourism, I have three different worlds that I can see here and this is very important for its development, especially since today what we are asking for is not mass tourism but participatory alternative experiences. This just requires a strategy. The area has a potential both in its environment and in its people that simply must be exploited and included in the overall planning. This strategy in order to be created must not lose sight of the big picture, and perhaps this is the reason why many people in the first and second level leadership cannot manage this. They are local people who do not have a broadness, they are from here, they live in the here and now, with its locality that narrows their horizons.”

“The fear of the stranger, the unknown is eliminated, when one knows he is no longer afraid and therefore there is no racism.”

“They miss the big picture.”

Mr. Christos Paschalakis

Conversation with the Delta Evros Explorer founder and tour guide

During our visit to the Evros Delta, we had the chance to get a guided tour with the founder of ‘Delta Explorer’, the main organizer of touristic activities related to the river. He is a leading member of the local community and part of various groups and organizations that have as an aim to promote Evros to visitors, both local and international. Below are presented some important parts of our conversation with him.

“Here there is a very small but strong community... locals that admire and love this land.”

“The people living here are either professional fishermen, hunters or locals that have great admiration and love for this land. They chose to come and stay at their cabins here for some part of the year to enjoy a solitary life and the beautiful natural environment of the Delta.”

“It is a form of illegal and informal settlement. However, now we are waiting for the new Presidential Decree that is supposed to provide a more defined set of regulations of use and the determined uses of the cabins for the future. During the pandemic our activities stopped. I see them expanding though in the next years. I would like to put a sign at the entrance of the Delta on the main road.”

“There are some people that have owned a cabin here for more than forty years and are raising the Greek flag on their porch since then.”

“Adding basic services for the boat tours, to provide more to the people that chose to take my tours and learn more about my land.”

Mrs. Marina Timchenko

Conversation with the Curator of ‘The Art of Silk Museum’

Visiting ‘The Art of Silk Museum’ we were given a tour by the Curator Mrs. Marina Timchenko. She has been working in the museum since 2018 and after the short tour she answered some of our questions regarding the involvement of the local community with the activities related to silk, as well as the town’s standpoint in the international silk production.

“So, from the cultivation and farming of the silkworm, its processing and finally to the creation of its final products that can be clothes, accessories, or anything else you can imagine. There were two main companies dealing with silk production in the past in the area, both dealing with a smaller production. Now they have bigger factories using modern machinery and employing a lot of people. We created spaces for the traditional techniques and machinery for silk processing to be exhibited, so now there are people working in these cultural spaces too. There is an interest by tourists either national or international for the art of silk and the traditional ways of production, so in Soufli there are two museums this one and another one which was an initiative funded by the Piraeus Bank and consists of a larger project. Both have done a significant intervention in the town, restoring building of cultural heritage and their surrounding areas.”

“Soufli is the only place in Europe where silk was and is still produced from start to finish.”

In the town of Didymoteicho, while sitting at a caffe, we met a young woman in her twenties who was working there as a waitress during the summer. She told us that she was born and frew up in the town and was living there full time also during the winter. We asked her a few questions about the life in Didymoteicho.

“The central part starts from the square in front of Sultan Mehmed Bayezid Mosque and moves down through the main pedestrian street.”

“Most people are there when they want to go out in the town. This street is also the main shopping street and there, as well as on the square you can find many bars and restaurants that are more popular for people. Here in the countryside everything remains closed from around 2pm until 6pm. But in the late afternoon people go out from work and either go home or go out in the town so that’s when all the activities restart until the night.”

Local woman of Didymoteicho Short conversation with a local woman

Trip Journal

o Mrs Angeliki knows all farmers and artists of the area. Even though she works in Alexandroupoli she says she lives in all the villages of Evros river. She organixes many events for the locals and visits the villages weekly.

o 2022 is the20th anniversary of Ethnographical Museum of Thrace. Additionally it is the 100th year of the trisection of the area and population exchange. For this reason they organized an exhibition along the river. Embroiding the names of 732 dissapeared villages of Evros due to the population exchange together with the clothes of the refugees that were found on the river they wanted to mark the traces of migration starting from 1922 until today.

Mrs Angeliki Giannakidou

observation tower

o After the refugee crisis a Police Station was situated in the Evros Delta. On the roadside there are Police veichels and even boats on the river that belong to the Policeman.

Didymoteicho town center

o Didymoteicho has an important historical value, being the first European capital of Ottoman Empire. Many buildings on the centeral square are left from Ottoman Empire but today they are abandoned and waiting to be demolished.

Kipi - Ipsala border crossing

o This is one of the two border crossing point on Evros river. The other one is on the North across the city of Edirne. Both crossings are located on a bridge on the river.

Breaking the Borders

Conceptual Map

Breaking the Borders

The river as a border and a bridge

The concept is to bring different communities together by breaking the borders, forming a community through art and a collaborative production of culture. Returning to this land, that once belonged to all but is now divided by walls.

This “bridge” symbolizes the shared values; the landscape, the culture, the past and is meant to construct the start of a common future.

Breaking the Borders

Catalytic and Participatory Actions

Note:

1. Definition from, Oxford English Dictionary.

2. Rossi A. (1982). The Architecture of the City, The MIT Press.

In chemistry a ‘catalyst’ has three specific properties: it is a substance, it activates or accelerates a process and, in that process, it is not itself changed.1

For Aldo Rossi a ‘catalyst’ refers to the “primary elements of the city”such as activities and physical characteristics associated with the collective life of urban settlements. Despite the permanence of those elements, they can act as accelerators during the process of urbanization, thus acting as ‘catalysts’.2

Jane Jacobs states, “once one thinks about city processes, it follows that one must think of catalysts to those processes, as this too is of the essence.“3

Essentially, a catalyst is formed by, and forms the city, in order to regenerate the urban fabric. The term does not refer to a single outcome, but to a device that generates and regulates future developments. Catalytic action can be interpretted on a smaller scale, through minimal interventions that have a large impact and affect indirectly the urban life. Such an impact cannot be achieved without taking into account user needs and participation.

By doing so, participatory actions in public spaces are introduced. These are “temporary actions that take place in open and easily accessible places in cities.”4 Participants have the opportunity to influence the action while it is actively impacting their own community. And so they become drivers of social change.

3. Jacobs J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House, New York.

4. Ottolini L., Guerra M. (2019). In The Street, Corraini.

Culture for Social Impact Selection criteria and tools

Approaching the project as a catalytic action, the core of the selected references is human participation and sociocultural impact. Therefore, the following case studies are chosen according to the type of cultural tools applied. The criteria is formed according to possible cultural experiences that can work with the project.

Breaking the Borders

Antepavilion Air Draft

Benedetta Rogers and Thomas Randall-Page

London, 2018

participation/itinerant/color

An inflatable Zeppelin-inspired structure allows the theater to navigate London’s network of canal bridges and tunnels while touring the capital for a 10-day festival, visiting pubs and art venues. Realized with the help of a structural engineer, the design allows the barge to deflate, pass over the many low bridges and tunnels that line London’s canal network, and then inflate again to form a pop-up the performance space.1

Note:

1. Thomas Randall Page website www. thomasrandallpage. com, 2018.

Breaking the Borders

The Chapel of Many Sebastian Hicks

St. Michaels Cathedral UK., 2019

Note:

1. Arch Daily website www. archdailycom/938195/epluribus-unum-thechapel-of-manysebastian-hicks, 2020.

performance/participation/identity

As a place for non-denominational gatherings, the chapel is designed as a place of reconciliation. The walls of the chapel are made of custom folding chairs. In its full form, the room is a monolith with no entrance or exit. Anyone trying to enter the room must remove the chair. A window is created and the view is framed. This closed room is a place of contemplation and protection. The walls will collapse as more people arrive to occupy the space. 1

Breaking the Borders

Open Air Concerts

Fazıl Say Munzur River, Kaz Mountains, 2022, 2019

performance/environment/community

Turkey’s internationally acclaimed pianist Fazıl Say gave a free concert on the banks of Munzur River to raise awareness about environmental pollution. He also held a similar concert in different locations such as Kaz Mountains to protest against deforestation for the construction of a cyanide gold mine by a Canadian company.

Breaking the Borders

Chinatown Mobile Cinema

Parasite 2.0 Chinatown, Milan, 2013

Note:

1. parasiteparasite.com

performance/participation/identity

The project is inspired by the myriad of trolleys and bikes that are used by the Chinese community in the Paolo Sarpi zone; facilities that have over the years turned into a symbol of disputes between Italian residents and Chinese ones. For the two weeks of Art in Sarpi, residents has the chance to participate in the construction of the Chinatown Mobile Cinema trolley and be spectators of the program of four projections of Chinese and Italian subtitled masterpiece movies.1

Breaking the Borders

The Picnic at the Border JR

US - Mexico Border, 2017

performance/participation/identity

The Southern border of the U.S. is the site of fraught crossings and tense searches, border patrol guards and a long promised, not fully realized wall. But lately it’s also been the home of artwork that uses the border as a way to tell a new story about a shared humanity.“The table goes through the wall, and the people eat the same food and drink the same water and listen to the same music,” JR says. “For a minute we were forgetting about it, passing salt and water and drinks as if there were no wall.”

The Refugees and Befriending Project

Merrett Houmøller Architects

London, U.K., 2017

participation/inclusion/color

In response to the RIBA’s Beyond Borders design competition, Merrett Houmøller’s proposal provides a mobile base for the Refugees and Befriending Project (which brings vulnerable young people together who have crossed borders to get to the UK). It can be adapted to suit various sites on a temporary or permanent basis. The project was be launched at the RIBA in July 2017. Once a week they gather together, with British Red Cross volunteers and staff, to cook and eat a meal together.1

Design Museum Dharavi Jorge Mañes Rubio Mumbai, India, 2016

Note: 1. www.jorgemanesrubio. com website.

exhibition/color/identity

Design Museum Dharavi engages with local makers in new collaborations, exploring their creativity and designing new items together for public exhibitions. The showcased objects, proposals, strategies and models reflect the talent of local makers. Design Museum Dharavi supports these makers and their practice throughout the whole process, creating the space and time necessary to experiment with new designs and proposals that go beyond their usual commissions.1

Breaking the Borders

Nomad

1/100 architects

Quai Branley Museum, Paris, 2011

participation/community/social

Nomad is one of the five timber clad cabins installed by the Swiss architects 1/100. Each mobile pavilion fold open to reveal a different function. Scattered across the site, the Nomad caravans are decorated with disco lights and surrounded by carpets, stools and chairs to encourage social gatherings.

Breaking the Borders

Floating on Water

school/floating/recycled

Makoko Floating School

NLE Architects

Lagos, Nigeria, 2012

Makoko is an informal settlement built on stilts in the heart of Lagos Lagoon in Nigeria. The project by NLÉ Architects aims to replace the only Englishlanguage school building in deterioration with a flexible prototype that can accommodate various public functions to serve the local population. The structure, designed with local or recycled materials, is floating and can adapt to changing water levels. The basic platform is the result of assembling 16 modules, each containing 16 plastic barrels, waste that is easily found in the area.1

Note:

1. Daglio, L. (2014). Abitare con l’acqua: Soluzioni e strategie per il progetto sostenibile. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli.

Breaking the Borders

Floating Homes on Grabendorfer Lake Kuhn und Duhlich Brandenburg, Germany, 2008

house/floating/prefab

The Grabendorfer Lake is a known touristic destination with many developments on the water. The prototype floating house was built by assembling prefabricated wooden modules partly clad in sheet metal. The house is placed at the end of a floating deck, 70 meters long and consists of floating foam elements lined with concrete anchored to the seabed, at 10 to 14 meters deep. The structure has two floors and underwater conduit, running along the deck, leads electrical cables and water pipes to the floating volume, ensuring the functionality of all services, grouped in one block.

Note:

1. Daglio, L. (2014). Abitare con l’acqua: Soluzioni e strategie per il progetto sostenibile. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli.

Breaking the Borders

Santay Observatory

Natura Futura

Santay Island, Ecuador, 2022

community/floating/wood

The Santay Observatory is a floating pavilion for workshops, artistic and research activities for children and adults, aiming for community integration. It is a multifunctional floating platform made with folding doors in prefabricated balsa wood panels. The wooden trusses contains the structure of the gable roof that provides proper height to generate ventilation and natural lighting. Wooden boards are used for the floor and the ceiling that extends to generate protection from the sun and rain. The wooden platform is placed on a metallic structure that holds together twenty plastic buoys that are used as a floating mechanism.

Note:

1. Daglio, L. (2014). Abitare con l’acqua: Soluzioni e strategie per il progetto sostenibile. Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli.