Epirus Memories

18/01/2026

Summer school/workshop in the beautiful village of Aetomilitsa, a magical mountain village in north-western Greece, close to the Albanian border.
The 4-day workshop will take place from 3rd to 6th August 2026.
The workshop costs 100 euros, plus 80 euros for accommodation and breakfast. Participants will be picked up from Konitsa, a nearby town.
For information about how to get there and for registrations, please PM me!

Details:
A four-day seminar on textile artwork as an ethnographic tool for reflection and self-representation, conducted by artist and educator Adi Liraz.
Textile production has played a significant role in many cultures, often serving as a medium for hidden narratives expressed through symbols and traditionally crafted by women.
Today, textile art continues to evolve, becoming a powerful tool for exploring representation, amplifying silenced voices and fostering empowerment.
In this workshop, you will have the chance to discover your own voice by reflecting on your personal and collective histories. Together, we will unearth narratives, define symbolic representations and create meaningful textile pieces.

Day 1: Getting to know each other and our topic.
- Artist presentation by Adi Liraz
- Presentation by Vassilis Nitsiakos on borders, and the region’s common traditions and histories
- Presentation by a local craftsperson working with textiles
- Different group activities to get to know each other.

Day 2: First interactions with materiality and biographies:
- Self-representation and storytelling
- Re-membering our histories
- Self-portrait with textiles

Day 3: Symbols and quilts.
- Defining our stories with symbols
Creating personal quilts

Day 4: Collective work:
Communality and connections: creating a common thread and fabric. The artwork will remain in the guesthouse to mark our time there.
Closing event with performances and exhibition.

Price:
100 Euros for 4 days including materials + 80 Euros for 4 nights accommodation and breakfast.

16/11/2025

On display in Athens until 31.12.

19/09/2025

Join us at the upcoming Anthrokino to watch The Rose of Ioannina by Na’ama Landau, Livnat Konopny-Decleve and Adi Liraz. After the screening, we will discuss with the filmmakers, after an input from the discussant Lotte Hoek.

When?: Oct. 02, 2025 12:30-13:30 CET

Where?: On Allegra Zoom

What? The film is based on a British Academy international fellowship research delving into the attempts of Jewish left-wing activists to imagine alternative decolonial political structures in Israel/Palestine from the point of view of the settler. The film focuses on conversations and fieldwork with Adi Liraz, a Jewish performance artist and a member of the research partners. Adi’s family lived in Ioannina (Greece) for centuries, and she wishes to live there in the future. While walking and talking in the historic city of Ioannina, the film traces the intermeshing of Adi’s family history with her political vision.

Join us at the upcoming Anthrokino to watch The Rose of Ioannina by Na’ama Landau, Livnat Konopny-Decleve and Adi Liraz. After the screening, we will

06/09/2025

05/09/2025

Another series of tours and film screenings was concluded last week.
For tour or film screening bookings and more information please contact us.
Thank you Lotta for the photos!

19/05/2025

Today, we had a wonderful city tour with a group of students from Alice-Salomon-Hochschule in Berlin.
We talked about the history of Ioannina, Ali Pasha, Kourmaniou, Dionysios Skylosofos, Pasha Kalo, the old Tekke, and the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish neighbourhoods inside and outside the Kastro. We visited the Kahal Kadosh Yashan synagogue and Yosif Matsas Square, found Ottoman and Jewish traces on the streets, read a poem by Joseph Eligia, and gave a short artistic presentation featuring the work of our member, Adi Liraz, who shared stories about her Levi and Moissis families.

19/09/2024

*EN*
Last week we had the opportunity to give three tours and a performance- lecture to two groups visiting Ioannina for an educational visit from Germany, a youth group and an adult group.

*DE*
In der vergangenen Woche hatten wir die Gelegenheit zu drei Führungen und einem Performance-Vortrag für zwei Gruppen, die Ioannina zu einem Bildungsbesuch aus Deutschland besuchten, eine Jugendgruppe und eine Erwachsenengruppe.

13/08/2024

„Die Publikation ist den „Romanioten“ von Ioannina gewidmet, einer der der ältesten jüdischen Gemeinden Griechenlands und Europas. Vor 80 Jahren, am 25. März 1944, wurde diese Gemeinde nach Auschwitz-Birkenau deportiert und dort größtenteils ermordet. Die Geschichte dieser Gemeinde ist in Deutschland kaum bekannt, in Griechenland wird sie in den letzten Jahren in Forschung und Dokumentarfilmen erkundet.“

Hefte 7. August 2024 Die Deportation und Vernichtung der romaniotisch-jüdischen Gemeinde von Ioannina Von editorial team Editorial Die Publikation ist den „Romanioten“ von Ioannina gewidmet, einer der der ältesten jüdischen Gemeinden Griechenlands und Europas. Vor 80 Jahren, am 25. März 1944...

11/08/2024

We are excited to be part of the new issue of Εξάντας, the Greek-German magazine dedicated to the Romaniote community of Ioannina on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of their deportation.

The magazine contains important historical information about the German occupation as well as information about the deportees, interviews, the issue of reparations and an article by our group member Adi Liraz about her artistic research about her family and the women of the community through a pile of sewing machines found at the back of the Kahal Kadosh Yashan Synagogue. Our group member Panos Vadaloukas is one of the supervisors and consultants for this issue.

We would like to thank Andreas Poltermann, Olga Drosou and the entire Εξάντας team.

To get your (free!) copy:
In Germany: [email protected]
In Greece: [email protected]

Online version of the magazine:
https://exantas.de/die-deportation-und-vernichtung-der-romaniotisch-juedischen-gemeinde-von-ioannina/

26/07/2024

In print and available in bookshops across Greece from 1 August:

A Matter of Survival / Rae Dalven

3rd in a series of 5 books of Dalven’s plays and her biography, written by Adam Goldwyn Adam J. Goldwyn, translated from English into Greek by Achilleas Fotakis Achilleas Fotakis, part of the Romanioti* series by Isnafi Publishing, supervised and cover-art by me.

The synopsis of the play, written by Adam J. Goldwyn:

On September 8, 1943, the day in which the Germans replaced the Italians as the occupying authority in Greece, the Cohen family is celebrating a wedding in Athens. With the family that day is Toula, a Greek Christian, and Roberto, a sympathetic Italian officer. Though they are trying to celebrate, talk repeatedly turns to the occupation, and particularly to the fate of the Jews—whether they will be rounded up and deported or allowed to remain safely in Greece. The various members of the family debate with one another the merits and risks of each of the options available to them, andthe remainder of the play follows the consequences of the decisions they make. Despite the pleas of the rest of the family, Isaac and his German-born Jewish wife Miriam register with the N***s, thinking that may keep them safe, but are later deported to Auschwitz; Isaac’s brother Leon and his wife F***y assume false (Christian) identities and move from safe house to safe house in and around Athens. With the help of Toula, they remain safely hidden despite their encounters with an antisemitic Greek neighbor named Angelike. Their adult children join the Resistance movement in the mountains of northern Greece, taking the Chief Rabbi of Athens, Elias Barzelai, with them. In March of 1945, as the liberation bells ring over Athens, Toula is spotted by a German as she goes to bring the family the news of the end of the War. She is shot and dies in the arms of her beloved Roberto.

For orders outside of Greece, please contact me personally.

Next book: „Our Kind of People‘‘ will be released in September, previous books: „Marriages Are Arranged in Heaven“ and Dalven’s biography „Rae Dalven:- The Life of a Greek jewish American“ are also available.

11/07/2024