An experiential event for children, with elements of dramatised documentary and narrative performance and with original music, revolving around the games in the neighbourhoods of Asia Minor, which “tell” in their own way the everyday life of the communities prior to the 1922 Catastrophe. Games that seem forgotten, played without ever being told, left to perish along with the hope for the return to the motherland.
The thread of collective memory unfolds through a story that travels in time, through playing with children games that were passed down by those who saw pain in refugee yards, along with the smile of a carefree childhood.
Stories of integration and rebirth in a new land as well as ways used to express resourcefulness, the grace and imagination of a people, will be presented with the help of contemporary audiovisual means and restored old toys.
Catch-22 – the title of Joseph Heller’s novel – means “vicious circle” and has become established as an expression denoting the irrational of human existence, the irrational of war, where success and disaster are inextricably linked.
For what else is war but one more Sisyphus rolling his rock up the mountain and then repeating the process all over again? Catch (19)22 explores the Asia Minor Catastrophe, through the irrationality of war and dares to contrast it with the peak and decline of the Macedonian civilization. There, over the tombs of the great kings, where grandeur and death are the two sides of the same coin.
The site-specific performance Catch (19)22 unfolds in the archaeological site of the Royal Burial Clusters of Aigai, based on a collection of oral and written testimonies about life in Asia Minor and with the artistic contribution of students of the 1st Junior High School of Veria.
On the occasion of the centenary of the Asian Minor Catastrophe, we commemorate the uprooting of innocent civilians through a project that aims at making children from Kos historically aware about the events that occurred during the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
The children will participate in a two-week seminar (29/8/22 – 9/9/22), where they will construct “hero”-puppets depicting refugees from 1922 and onwards, while also learning how to animate them. Through theatrical improvisations, children will express the pain, violence, and cruel treatment experienced by immigrants. The workshops will come complete with a performance that will be held at the Roman Conservatory in Kos (10 and 11/9/22).
The purpose of these performances is to raise awareness and invite people to reflect on peace and show solidarity towards refugees of wars of the past and of the present.