100 Memories_ A century of movements 1922-2022

2022 marks the 100th anniversary of the largest refugee movement in recent and modern Greek history. The arrival and settlement of almost one million refugees in Greece marked the Greek society in many ways, which subsequently experienced repeated refugee and immigration flows. The refugee experience of the 1920s is a fundamental  element of the social and political history of modern Greece, which is reflected in collective memory, historiography, urban space and the everyday life of citizens.

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The project attempts to connect the historical research on the refugee settlement and the migration flows that followed in the next 100 years, with the use of innovative technological methods and tools with the aim of documenting, disseminating and representing not only the historical memory around the refugee-immigrant population but the way in which, on a political and social level, the history of modern Greece is intertwined with the refugee arrival and settlement of 1922 and the migration flows – from and to Greece – that followed.

The project focuses on four key port cities for the refugee experience (Piraeus, Volos, Thessaloniki and Chania) and addresses the residents and visitors of the above cities through the physical actions that will be implemented in these cities but at the same time addresses a wide audience – in Greece and abroad – through the bilingual website that will include three innovative digital platforms.

The city as  place of residence, work, leisure time, as the place of production and social reproduction, as a place of encounters and conflicts is at the center of interest of the research process. We attempt to construct a biography of urban places starting from the most "humble" spaces of everyday life. What stories can be told by a house in the Upper Town of Thessaloniki, a bench in a square in Nea Ionia in Volos, a pier in the port of Chania, a tailor shop in Nea Kokkinia?

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With the completion of this project, in 2023, we aim to have created a space – physical in reference cities and digital through our website – where the refugee and migration history of Greece through personal narratives of people who took the path of refugee and migration, archival evidence and material imprints of this experience will be presented, documented and made accessible and accessible to the general public.

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Commonspace participates as a partner in the project and contributes with the experience and scientific training of members and collaborators in the following subjects:

• Participatory planning and processes of participatory mapping and collective recording of collective memory.

• Enable Community 

• Participatory Art and Art in Public Space

• Educational Programs for students

• Urban planning documentation and study of the history of cities

• GIS and mapping

• Sketches, illustrations, graphic support 

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The research project is implemented within the framework of the RESEARCH – CREATE – INNOVATE Action and is co-financed by the European Union and national resources through the EP. Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (EPANEK) (project code: T2EDK-04827)

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