Epimenidis Forum - The return of the Mountains
Interpreting the Myth of Epimenides
The ancient Greeks preferred to construct an aesthetic map of values, principles, and sins, mythologizing life before legislating it. Thus, myths might be considered the earliest organized laws of humanity, as well as one of the most significant stimulants of the imagination. The story of the wise Cretan seer Epimenides is well-known: while searching for a lost sheep, he wandered into a cave and slept for 57 years. When he awoke, he found everything inexplicably changed, though he felt as though he had only just taken a brief nap. Is there a coded message in this myth? Perhaps: what separates us from our past is the intervening time, which fills us with dreams of the future.
On August 3, 2019, in Anogeia and the mountainous environment of Psiloritis, the Epimenides Forum will take place. Its aim is to create a natural amphitheater of participation, interaction, and synthesis, through the examples of individuals, organizations, and entities interested in contributing, composing, and innovating.
The Epimenides Forum is inspired and initiated by the social cooperative enterprise of cultural management, research, and innovation, Androidus Project Tank, and is organized in cooperation with the Region of Crete and the Prefecture of Rethymno, supported by CLLD Leader AKOMM-PSILOREITIS DEVELOPMENT SA.
The central themes of the discussion include innovation, entrepreneurship, and cultural management, with the following thematic axes:
The return to the mountains.
Cultural and research tools for the creative reconstruction of rural communities.
The search for authenticity, the dynamism of societies for production, and primarily the thirst of innovative people to create, compose, and innovate, leading us to return to the mountains.
Six different presentations and interconnected thematic discussions will revolve around the common axis of research and cultural management, which is developed or can be developed in the rural country, focusing initially on mountain communities.
The speeches and presentations will include:
Nektarios Tavernarakis, President of FORTH: Research, Innovation, and Culture as pillars of Regional and National Development and Progress: The mission of the Foundation of Research and Technology.
Ioannis Drinis, Head of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Intercultural Issues at the Ministry of Culture and Sports: The Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage (UNESCO, 2003) and local development.
Panagiotis Giokas, CEO of Mentor, member of the team advocating for Eleusis 2021 Cultural Capital of Europe: Innovative Entrepreneurship and Regional Cultural Management.
Ourania Mauriki - Kassiani Kafetsi, founders of the KOINSEP Cultopia Cultural Management Company: Strengthening culture...participatively! How can a modern cultural event enrich life in the countryside and contribute to social change?
Thanos Kotsis, PhD candidate in folklore and social anthropology at the University of Ioannina: Reconstructing "Epirotism": Representations of the place and cultural management focusing on Epirotic music and dance "tradition."
Yagos Hairetis, Artist: Musical tradition as dynamic evolution and contemporary cultural activity (Musical Event).
The forum will be attended by political, local government, and cultural organizations, entrepreneurs, start-uppers, scientific researchers, local producers, and media outlets. The goal is to create reflections through dialogue that lead to hypotheses for work, collaboration, and exchange of ideas and proposals.
Additionally, through the presentation of interactive outdoor technology and research workshops, tastings, standardization of olive oil, cheese making, wine tasting, ceramics, and brewing, the local multi-level production will be highlighted. This approach signals a shift and upgrade towards a creative model of economy and social structure and developmental reconstruction.
The presentation will be conducted by Niki Beladaki.
Participation in the Epimenides Forum is strictly by invitation only.
Watch the Epimenides Forum via Live Streaming.
