The Eleusis pilot was launched in 2020 under the first phase of the Transition to 8 project, which was a research-oriented phase  coordinated by MENTOR Cultural Production and Management Company and implemented in collaboration with the Athena Research Center and the Laboratory of Quality Research in Psychology and Mental Health of the Department of Psychology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The phase was co-funded by Greece and the European Union under the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation 2014–2020” (EPAnEK) and explored three key themes: the environment, employment, and migration. In the current pilot phase, the Eleusis pilot focuses exclusively on the environment theme (read more about the first pilot phase here). 

On July 7 and 8, Eleusis became a stage of shared consciousness. Inside the Old Canteen, the air was thick not only with stories but with emotion. Locals stepped into different roles and points of view to explore how air pollution shapes everyday life and civic life. The immersive sociodrama session, organized by MENTOR, created a safe and creative space where personal stories, embodied reactions, and collective reflections met, not as isolated experiences, but as a communal conversation about what it means to live under a “heavy sky.”

Researchers collected both physiological and qualitative data, recording physical and emotional responses throughout the process. These traces are then transformed into contemporary artworks, bringing to light experiences that are rarely seen or heard.

Eleusis’ history is presented in two starkly contrasting phases.

In antiquity, Eleusis became one of the most important sacred places of the ancient world through the cult of Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries. Rooted in the myth of Demeter’s search for Persephone, the sanctuary and its initiation rites promised spiritual insight and hope beyond mortal life. Although the settlement began in the Middle Bronze Age as a local community, its religious tradition expanded over time into a Panhellenic institution and later attracted pilgrims from across the Roman world, turning Eleusis into a major spiritual destination for centuries.

In the modern era, Eleusis is described as a dramatic example of environmental destruction brought by rapid industrialisation. At the end of the 19th century, a group of young visionaries decided to take advantage of the favourable features of Lepsina (as the town was known at the time) and established the first factories. The port was transformed into an export hub of international reach, while the town became a magnet for thousands of people seeking well-paid employment. The labour movement that developed in Eleusis fought bloody battles for the improvement of working conditions and left its mark on the city’s history. The silent ruins of the once-bustling factories still stand as witnesses to the inexhaustible dynamism that this land conceals.

Once a fertile landscape admired for clear skies, green fields, and agricultural abundance in the late 19th century, it was progressively overrun by heavy industries (refineries, cement plants, steelworks, shipyards, chemical production). By the 1960s–70s, industry dominated the area and even prompted discussions about relocating the city to allow further expansion near the archaeological site. The result was severe pollution: by the early 1980s, particulate matter levels were far above acceptable limits, sulfur dioxide emissions rose sharply, and toxic fallout contributed to the deterioration of monuments, framing Eleusis as a cautionary environmental history of the 20th century.

Eleusis is a city with a complex past and a multifaceted cultural identity: from the Eleusinian Mysteries to the intense industrial activity of the 20th century. Nevertheless, much of its more recent history has remained on the margins of the city’s public image, an image that, for many, is still confined either to its ancient heritage or to the industrial landscape visible from the main arteries of western Attica.

In recent decades, as most industries have ceased operations and the corresponding facilities have been abandoned, Eleusis is called upon to redefine its identity. From being the country’s “production engine,” it now stands at the threshold of a new era, where cultural heritage and creativity emerge as key tools for its transition toward a sustainable and participatory development model.

Since the late 1970s, with the establishment of the Aeschylia Festival, culture began to serve as a driving force for change and sustainable growth in Eleusis, culminating in its designation as the European Capital of Culture 2023, a historic milestone that marked the city’s decision to turn a new page: to confront its past and to shape a new path grounded in open participation, cultural, environmental, and social sustainability, and innovation.

Today, Eleusis seeks to reinvent itself, not by denying its history, but by building upon it: honouring its past and integrating it into a new narrative that connects ancient heritage, industrial memory, and contemporary challenges. The cultural reactivation of buildings, citizen participation initiatives, and the adoption of the New European Bauhaus vision constitute important steps toward this redefinition.

Employing the Transition to 8 methodology designated by sociopsychologists and computer researchers, community members participated in sociodrama sessions, where wearable sensors register bodily and emotional reactions to specific social issues. The collected biometric data became frequencies, texts and audiovisual material, which, in turn, were given to artists as raw material for the creation of artworks. 

Sound, audiovisual and digital artists, sensitised on environmental matters, extracted and utilised the data located in the interactive platform to create contemporary artistic outputs. The produced artworks will then be presented at a showcase context in Eleusis.