M
SHE
performance artist, tea addict, architect.THIS
corner of notes, sketches, ideas, dirty dishes and salty armpitsWHERE
Melpignano Residency, Puglia, Italy
about M
maria papachristodoulouΜaria (1995)
grew up on an island, and moved to live and work between the acropolis and the noisy traffic of the greek capital.she focuses on paradoxical connections between diverse elements of human experience, mundane rituals and materials aiming to create absurd landscapes that feel both strange and deeply familiar. however, her main concern is that people delve into her worlds and derive a sense of connection from it.
she is currently interested in water, human tears and bread making.maria enjoys taking long walks with no headphones, to sketch and observe the textures, sounds and smells of the urban chaos, but her casual needs are a steaming cup of tea, soft sunlight and tender silence.____________________
Melpignanothis place is still untouched. untouched from overtourism and greediness that comes with it.
this place is their PEOPLE.elder people
who never left, or immigrated to the central-northen europe and then came back telling us their STORIES.young people
who come back home to vote or deciding after their studies to the north, that their life is here, next to the sea , in their human scale hometown.parents
who wait for their children to visit, but they don't feel alone; they all have each others company.
of course they miss their children.
but in the south, to study, usually, there is no other way
than to leave.new families with
children
who have the most
enviable childhood.
i envy their future drawer of
MEMORIES and DREAMS_s o u t h_ my first time being in south of italy. people, the food, the water of the sea. many things looked familiar but at the same time they weren't. the uniqueness of salento as a place, especially melpignano is something that i never experienced before in the south of europe.
OPENESS, CARE and PROXIMITY.
the shutters at the front doors of the houses, allowing the breeze but not the sun to enter.
the square, the heart of the entire life of melpignano.
everyone knew each other, everyone knew us. openning their homes, sharing their time with us, giving space to a bunch of foreigners who didn't even speak the language to be with the community. i felt huged, i felt welcomed, i felt home._n e s p o l a_ and_ p r o s e c c o
my mouth is full
of nespola
davide's panino
prosecco
cafe
and PASTICCIOTTO
experiencing a place first comes from the taste. the mouth palette. where unregistered memories and present moment come together in unexpected connections.
sharing food, is an action of sharing time, space and care.
conversations around a dinner table become symposiums._c a r e_ a n d_ l i s t e n i n g
-------tbc---------melpignano, people of melpignano, cats of melpignano, the town itself, fountain, church bell, limstones and nespola trees,thank you for letting me sneak into your world for a while. i am more than grateful.
yours,
M.
______________________Metabolization
a process that takes time, space and a lot of physical and mental digestion. metabolize what and into which form? we have been metabolizing creative research tasks and encounters into small tiny performances or presentations, or just thoughts written on our bodies. or maybe we haven't yet metaboized them at all. the experience was enormous, multifaceted that i am not sure if i have realized what happened yet. softly and gently i will let my mind wander around and sink into these moments that now have become memories. metabolizing is a process not an instant action.
DIARY project
keeping track of my inner landscape.
no words, no voice memos
but little sketches.
sometimes in the morning with my first cup of tea.
sometimes during the night before i go to sleep.
at the backyard, in eldorado cafe, at the main square.
next to the sea
in silence.
in a soundscape of flatmates
or waves
or cats
taking as much time as
it needed to feel done.
trying to
be consistent
i tried.
WORKS fragments___________ A n g e l. B a c k y a r d. S o n g. S o u n d. F l o w e r s. R a i n___________
ANGEL
the task was simple. prepare yourself to meet an angel in the main square. start from a faraway place and carve your path for three-four hours. there is someone with you that records. before starting i felt the need for a silence, a short of a ritual; washing my body, getting dressed and looking myself in the mirror. i decided to write on my arm "i am going to meet an angel soon, what do you want to say to the angel?" and take my voice recorder with me. without actually knowing how this journey is going to be, i started barefoot on a field. i slowed down, and gradually everything was slowing down with me; there was no rush to interact with the people that i came across. the energy was dense, like as if i was inhaling the entire landscape of the town to exhale it in the mouth of the angel.
inner transformation, heat of the concrete above the feet, people who wanted company and recorded questions for an angel.
encountering the angel was an action of care, tenderness and intimacy in a public space. this meeting in a public square amongst cars cafes was a proof that public space can be inhabited poetically.
life striked again and brought an extra layer. death, funeral, mourning.
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video _ photos _ editing _ partner: edward skaines
angel_kymbali williams
girl with orange dress _ maria
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BACKYARD
A town is not only its urban space. Melpignano has a very specific typology of housing; front solid façade and a backyard. The same as the first-floor apartment where we stayed. I spent a lot of time there, in the yard with three cats. It was the beginning and the ending of my day. With a cup of tea, or a glass of wine, chatting with flatmates or alone. I know that in the Mediterranean yards and terraces are the core of social gatherings and family life. Eating, drinking, dancing, talking, celebrating, contemplating.Having lived the past twelve years in big cities, I know that it is such a privilege to stay in a place with direct access to a garden, an open-air private space.
It was a spontaneous decision. I woke up, everyone was away and I was there with my first cup of tea and my sketchbook. I didn’t rehearse anything. I just designed the score and then did it. Why there was a need to practice in this place and how did it feel so effortless and familiar?
I realize that I have been researching this space since we got there.
Inhabiting the backyard with my daily routine, understanding the route of washing and hanging clothes. I was actually embodying an everyday physicality of locals in their homes, and practicing it everyday. There were few times that I even imagined an old lady washing her clothes in this sink of limestone in the exterior laundry room. It was obvious that this apartment was already charged emotionally and energetically. It has been a home for a family for decades.
And the cats, the main residents of the place. Feeding them, watching the places were they were sleeping, fighting, meowing. Confusing their genders, giving them randomly names. We were moving with them but there was no physical affection. They didn’t allow humans to touch them.
The only place that was undiscovered- and this is the new movement that I did in the yard- was to go and check the garden. I felt that I discovered a small oasis. I could not believe how common flora Rhodes and Melpignano have in their homes. It was also quite spatial, and it felt like a separate spot from the rest of the apartment and yard.
From a familiar place to a new one. From social table and housekeeping to a flowery and green corner.
a small transformation from the known body to a new one. A short of a poetic transformation through and visitor’s body embodying “local” everyday movement and route in a Melpignano home alongside the quadruped permanent residents and flatmates.
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SONG
Kalinifta. A song that I knew from before, but I never got the chance to properly learn. Being in Salento at this moment felt that it was the right thing to do. To finally learn the song, sing it and then see what will happen. I decided to learn it next to the sea. The sun was going down, was getting cold and I was moving all the time chasing the sunlight on the rocks. While learning the song I was watching on the sore across. It was quite far and a need of projecting the song loud towards there emerged. I didn’t. But it was an impulse to sing it in a public space for example to the square to a person on the other side, and this person( I would ask Silvia) would reply to me by singing it with me. I didn’t know what I was actually doing. But it felt that this was what this song needed. Not me, but the song.
Luckily my “plan” changed and the song revealed its power inside the community. We gathered to a pre -election street community meeting and I felt that this was the moment. So I sang loudly. I was still singing “Kalinifta” to Silvia across but then an old lady came next to me, held my hand and we sang together. Also, a younger guy danced with me and sang. I could not believe that this happened. I had no idea how important this song was for the community. I found out that they was listening and singing it at the end of every celebration in the town.
The power of songs and the connection that the community has with them are enormous. It connects generations, history with present, families and the land with their people. It is accessible to everyone and you don’t need much. You can just sing the melody, or even dance around the people who are singing. It is a different kind of collective language that has remained across the years. It is the language of the community that expresses their culture, their desires and their vibrant sense of living. Before coming to Salento, I only knew it as a song of this strange Griko language and nothing more. I didn’t know the importance and the gravity of it towards the community of their land. Now I know.
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SOUND
Small research on sound for an hour. Listening and blind drawing. Keeping your eyes open and not focusing on sound, this town seems too silent and empty. However, if you really pay attention and stand with eyes closed in a spot. You realized that Melpignano is louder than you thought. Suddenly, all the details are heard and the loud sounds are louder than before. Leaves, voices from within the houses, cars, motorbikes, old people chatting, your breath, the pencil, the churchbell, birds singing. I haven’t heard Melpignano so loud during siesta hours.
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video _ sketch : maria
________________________sound on
FLOWERS
During a promenade at the landscape of Salento, I was attracted by three main things; the vibrant lilac colour, the way that the flowers were moving, and the sound of the sea and the wind. I was taking small videos of all of these, as I usually do in my life. In the mean time, I was documenting with my pen the different dynamics and directions of the wind while walking and some landmarks of the place. So unexpectedly I gathered a lot material that it could be used. I wanted to re-construct the sensorial experience of this path.
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videos _ sketch _ editing : maria
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sound on
RAIN
"Rain is often associated with relaxation and sleep
The sound of rain is calming, and it has a soothing effect on the mind
Listening to rain can be an effective way to relax.
Just like kitten photos on instagram
Rain sounds are one of the most popular types of sound therapy for many people
And it is not hard to see why
Rain has a calming effect on the mind
Which means that listening to rain can be an effective way to relax from everyday life stressors
Recycling process. Did you divide your trash properly?Rainy sounds have been found to be the best type of sound for sleep and relaxation.The conclusion listening to the sound or rain has many health benefits what make it worth listening to"__________________________
video: Daniel Andres Ortiz Amezquita
performers: Anette Parn_ Maria Papachristodoulou
__________________________
RESEARCH
derive on C O M M U N I T Y and F O O D
We were working with the community and we were all living together in apartments. Sharing and interacting were the main focus of our stay in Melpignano.
I have always been connected to food and dinner tables. I cook, I eat, I share. I find an opportunity to communicate with people and my memories.
In Melpignano, as in rest of Italy, food is an important part of social live and culture.
As a research next to the research tasks, was for me to observe how food is part of the social context of the town and the community and also how exchanging recipes between two cultures can be an action of genuine act of connection and care.
Food defines the collective daily routine of the town, at least the one that I was aware and part of. Connecting places, food and time, I recognized a pattern ; In the morning a cup of coffee at Eldorado café and another one during or right before siesta hours. Maybe accompanied by a pasticciotto. In the evening a drink at the café bar for a sandwich and a drink or at the butcher's store for a beer and a sandwich with pork meat. Breakfast and lunch is always at home. Each on of the non-restaurant places that you come across with in melpignano are somehow connected to a specific type of food. They become daily point of references and landmarks together with the place and the people related. Or just someone passing the cafeteria and randomly offering us a bag of fruits from his garden.
Coffee: Italian coffee as an excuse to gather and talk together in the morning and during siesta.
Bar's Panino: The preparation of the sandwich is an event itself; Revealing the stand with the equipment amongst the tables, cutting fresh prosciutto and talking with the customers. Like a traditional community celebration-fiesta-party. A contemporary landmark of melpingnano’s square nightlife. And an amazing comfort companion for my hungry belly.
Cafe's Pasticciotto.
I was exchanging food with my dear neighbour who was living on the first floor of the building we were staying. It was not only and a food sharing but also a real connection between us; memories, stories, a blend of languages greek griko and Italian all together as a recipe itself bringing us closer to each other. Food can be translated in a “ I want to meet you”, “ I care about you”, “ thank you”, “goodbye” or “ remember me”. A pure human and social action that is registered in the south culture since always. Sharing each other’s traditional recipes and food quite intimate and essential ; “I will share with you my mother’s recipe” or “ we grow our own veggies”. Intimate and personal information of each other that come just from a recipe, its ingredients and preparation.And then I was me who felt the need of cooking cheese pies, bread and focaccia for everyone. Making bread as part of my practice of slowing down the last six months came across our path this term without me looking for it; from Valga to Materra. Like Melpignano, Valga doesn’t have a bakery so we decided to build one and bake bread for the town. Open chests, smiley people, a lot of people coming to get fresh bread and talk to us. The simplest and one of the most ancient forms of food that anyone can have, bringing comfort, recalling memories from childhood and soothing people’s emotional struggles for a while.
In Melpignano, I was making bread for the cohort and the apartments that we were living next to each other. Again, it is amazing how hard it is to say no to bread and how much space it takes in our lives. now, after so long I realize that the decision to work on a dough in public was something more than a work with material. It was the most communal bread that could have been made, considering that there is no bakery in the town. an action of reviving bread making as a community gathering.
Materra’s bread is the “typical” UNESCO food recipe. Huge loads of rocky surfaced bread. When I visited the place I met a man who was carving bread stamps, tradition of family stamps when a family had to give the loaf in the community oven. There somehow you feel how the action of making food was a collective matter. A collective gesture. I visualized how it is putting all the breads in the oven, gathered together for one time only and then spread all over the town’s homes. I thought about the strange babies after being borned in the hospital behind the glass. Meeting for one time and then going home to start their lives and grow.
LEFTOVERS ________________________________ A g e . N e s p o l a . Q u a r y . G r i k o _________________________________________
there are some listenings and encounters that have been left unprocessed and unarchived. But maybe myself knew that something had to be left unfinished in order for me to come back. again and again and again. there were observations that i still don't know what they actually are and what they mean for the community but there is something hidden there. hidden maybe for me but not for them. i would be even more greatful if i manage to find something that i could offer to the community that means something for them and experience it all together.
age for example. i still don't know how to explain my observations so, i will leave them here pending until i come back to the place they were born, traced, witnessed, felt.
