“Kontomari Festival – Days of Remembrance” – Kontomari 28th May – 2nd June
Six days of culture, history and memory at the 3rd event of the Kontomari Festival.
FESTIVAL PROGRAM
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
19:00 -19:30 Speech: “Memory in the Face of Ignorance and Decay” by physician and writer Penelope Dountoulaki
19:30 – 21:00 Workshop presentation: “The Memories of the Village” by community residents
21:15 – 22:45 Documentary Screening: “When the Sky Rained Germans” by Olga Schell
Thursday, May 29, 2025
19:30 – 20:00 Presentation: “Searching for Biographical Ruptures” by student groups researching oral history (students of Platanias High School)
20:15-21:00 Speech: “The Battle of Crete: Collective Memory and Identities in Chania” by historian Nikos Balis
21:15-22:00 Speech: “Greek-German Relations from the Occupation to the Present” by historian, cartoonist Yiannis Antonopoulos
Friday 30 May 2025
18:00-20:00 Workshop for teachers: “The Box of Memory” by the Network of Cooperative Schools with the Pedagogy Frenet
18:00-21:00 Expressive Writing Workshop: “Our Grandmothers” by psychologist Valia Tsirigoti
21:00 – 22:45 Documentary Screening:” Fugir de l’ oblit”
Saturday 31 May 2025
19:30-22:30 Small Stages (theater, music, dance, performance, visual arts, video art)
Artistic walk in the village with presentations by groups of artists, in collaboration with the G.A.K – HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF CRETE
Sunday, June 1, 2025
19:30-21:15 Speech – discussion: “The historical event of the execution of civilians in Kontomari by the Nazi army” with Semina Digeni and discussion on the phenomenon of Nazism – fascism then and now with Magda Fyssa.
21:15-21:30FESTIVAL REVIEW
21:30-23:00 Cretan music concert: Manolakis, Spyridakis, Kontaxakis, Papatzanis
Monday, June 2, 2025
19:00-20:30 Official event, Memorial prayer from the village Parish and speeches from the Municipality of Platanias
Interviews with the President of the Cultural Association, Antonis Akrotiriakis,
with Penelope Gini, a specialist in cultural, psychopedagogical studies, and heritage interpretation, and others:
This year’s festival in Kontomari will have fewer days, but with more substantial activities, according to the president of the Kontomari Cultural Association, Antonis Akrotiriakis. Speeches, presentations, remarkable documentary screenings and workshops are some of the events that make up a full and rich festival. “I highlight the small scenes on Saturday, May 31st and the artistic walk, in collaboration with the Historical Archive of Crete, with some interviews from memories of World War II which are transformed into an event by each artistic group,” he notes in our discussion, while making special reference to Sunday’s speech and the discussion between Semina Digeni and Magda Fyssa, as he says, “many times we commemorate the people of that time, but there are also people today who have experienced similar brutality.”
This year’s event has memory as its central theme. We ask the president of the regional cultural association that organizes the festival about the importance of memory in a historic village like Kontomari: “It is very important. Each of us remembers events in a different way and chooses what that is. In other words, the places of memory are different. What strikes us, when we research the anniversary, is that for many years the village priest, for example, was the only person who managed memory in some way. Now, however, through all this effort, we are trying to remember and seek more.” But is this whole undertaking having a response? Is the new generation interested in historical and cultural wealth? According to the president of the association, it is certainly not easy… “so many years have passed and it is difficult for the younger generation to delve deeper emotionally. However, what can bring the new generation together are the events and the highlighting of the ideology that brought these people here, so that something similar does not happen again,” he replies, commenting that anything that has an experiential character and participation is more attractive in a way for young people, even though few people live in the village. The organization is the 3rd in a row, but this year they have managed, as emphasized and with the help of artistic curator Katerina Adamara, to involve more people more substantially. “That’s what we were thinking, how can we get involved and delve deeper. To escape from the watertight and have “us” exist.
MEMORIES AND ROOTS
The Kontomari festival may officially begin next Wednesday, May 28, but for a month now, a group of people have been meeting every week to remember events, emotions, images, flavors, and to reflect on issues of memory and history. As Penelope Gini, a specialist in cultural, psychopedagogical studies, and heritage interpretation, notes about the workshop, this collective process can offer many advantages. “Memories are the stories we tell about ourselves and our village. The ones we grow up with, the ones that shape us. Taking some time to put it down helps the younger ones to better process their roots, while for the older ones to reflect on the course. It also helps to see where the gaps in memory are. Why is there silence around an era?” How do the participants perceive the concept of memory? She answers that “there are differences. Some use it to affirm themselves, to confirm their actions, their image. Some give more space and reflect on it: Why do we only want to remember these? Why don’t you talk about the others, the things we don’t want to remember? In other words, there is an anxiety for a better understanding and connection with the deeper processes of the village.” Complementing, he notes that there is a tendency to restore historical truth. “That is, which memory is correct and which is not. Finally, there is a nostalgia and romanticization around memories.”
THE “TODAY” OF HERITAGE
According to Penelope Ginis, the history of a place is something very dynamic and from the workshops they understood that there is not one history of a place, but many narratives and ways of remembering things. We ask her if there are modern methods that help the younger ones learn the history of their place, with her commenting that it is not very modern for the older ones to tell the younger ones stories. “In Greece, at least in my generation, the older ones and their stories are respected. But what I wanted to show is that the memories of the younger ones also play a role. That 20 years ago is also history. We don’t need to go 50 or 60 years ago. Only the memory written in books is not recognized. And young people have their own childhood memories and they also have a place in the village. It is not just the Second World War. History did not stop there”. We wonder in our conversation whether cultural heritage can live in the present and not in the past, with Ms. Gini commenting that in one way or another heritage lives in the present whether we understand it or not, even in the simplest and most innocent memories. However, as she says, “we must decide what is important from our heritage and our identity to preserve? Which landscapes? Which houses? Which stories? But even more deeply… which values?” Concluding, he states, among other things, that “the sterile reproduction of tradition does not compare to the meeting of tradition and the present. That is where, for me, the wealth lies. It requires space for the younger ones and co-formation with the older ones.”
THE VALUE OF PARTICIPATION
Another young person who participates in the festival with her knowledge and willingness to contribute to this effort is psychologist-psychotherapist Ariadne Ladaki, who is now also a member of the Cultural Association of the region, since her mother comes from Kontomari. “I spent almost all my summers as a child in the village and I have experienced beautiful moments and something always drew me to Kontomari,” she says. The festival has grown, our interlocutor emphasizes, while the existence of pre-festival activities was something that brought them closer to the villagers. “The workshop we started a month ago with Penelope Ginis fulfills our desire to bring it to the present to see the lessons we can learn from it,” that is, to see how history can teach us some things today, working with each other without the “us and you” distinction.
Sources: Haniotika Nea, Cultural Association of Kontomari,
