AEOLIS is an Associate partner in the Project "North Aegean Narratives: Reconnecting with the Other Side".

"North Aegean Narratives" is a cross-cultural project designed to contribute to the fostering of mutual understanding between Turkey and Greece, and to interconnect two communities at a local level through collaborative works of Turkish and Greek media creators seeking to offer new artistic expressions to enhance multi-cultural dialogue and to overcome misunderstandings and prejudices.

Turkish and Greek peoples have lived together on both sides of the Aegean for almost half a millennia. They spoke dissimilar languages, followed different faiths, but they still belonged to a cultural background that abounded with a lot of common values, shared colors and tastes of life. Although the two countries are geographically very close to each other, there are still firm borders at the mental level. Rather than the usual collaborations run between Athens and Ankara or Thessaloniki and Istanbul, there is a growing demand for cross-cultural projects promoting cooperation between the closest geographies of Turkey and Greece like Çanakkale and Mytilene (the capital of the Lesvos Island).

The project aims to bring together 8 Turkish and 8 Greek Artists (media creators) who will be selected through an application process. The Artists will collectively attend a Creative Documentary Development Workshop in Adatepe (a former Greek settlement in Çanakkale, Turkey). Upon completion
of the workshop and the preparation phase, each media creator will work in a mixed team of four participants to complete one short creative documentary (5 to 10 minutes) dealing with the main theme "Rethinking Closeness and Apartness- Reconnecting with the Other Side" reflecting on different narratives such as culture, gender, identity, social policy, environment, religion and tradition.

The geography where the short documentaries will be shot is restricted with the Aegean region of Turkey and Lesvos Island of Greece. The participants will edit and finalize their works in their own regions. The completed media works will then be screened in Adatepe, Çanakkale (city center), Mytilene, Eskişehir, Athens and Istanbul and a Closing Conference will be held in Istanbul.

The "North Aegean Narratives" project has been designed by Istanbul Digital Culture and Art Foundation together with the main project partner from Greece, KEDE, and the associate partners, which are AEOLIS-Cultural Development Society of Lesvos Island, Karpos - Centre of Education and Intercultural Communication, The University of the Aegean in Lesvos, Onsekiz Mart University of Çanakkale, Anadolu University of Eskişehir, Yıldız Teknik University of Istanbul, Taşmektep of Adatepe, SOM, and MODE Istanbul Film and Digital Arts Initiative.

"North Aegean Narratives" aims to achieve the following objectives:

Global objectives

• To ensure the mobility of artists and cultural and artistic operators, and to create an effective channel of networking between Turkish artists as well as cultural and artistic operators and their European counterparts;
• To facilitate a dialogue and mutual understanding between Europe and Turkey through the collaboration of Istanbul Digital and its Greek project partner and to raise awareness of the local peoples (in Turkey and in Greece) about each other and their respective cultures.

Specific objectives

• To interconnect artists from Turkey and Greece living in the North Aegean region and to encourage them to understand each other and to create a dialogue through art;
• To implement innovative and inclusive activities seeking to include local people in the production process and to make them familiar with the visual arts, to bring art into the public space and to offer local people new ways for cultural understanding;
• To promote the works of young artists to a wider audience;
• To foster partnerships, networks and create debate and dialogues with arts practitioners, local communities and audiences in the North Aegean Region of Turkey and Greece;
• To offer new artistic expressions, through collaborative works of the Turkish and Greek artists, seeking to enhance mutual cultural understanding and to overcome the misunderstandings and prejudices;
• To establish an online platform serving as a virtual working and networking environment aiming to encourage young artists of the North Aegean to work and produce together and to facilitate communication between them.

PROJECT PARTNERS
Project Leader
Istanbul Digital Culture and Arts Foundation has been established in 2007 and is based in Istanbul. Its mission is to explore the impact of digital technologies on our culture, and promote and support creative works that interconnect the disciplines of arts, science and technology. Istanbul Digital has always been involved in creative art and culture projects bringing a new dimension to the actual practices. Istanbul Digital will be foreseeing the coordination and management of the project and the project budget.

Project Partner
The project partner, Centre for Research and Action on Peace - KEDE is a Greek association founded in 1988. It has recently celebrated its 20 years of work contributing to the promotion of a culture of peace through the empowerment of women, youth, and civil society. KEDE has been developing initiatives and actions in Greece and other countries in order to ensure "the diplomacy of the citizen" via various culture and art actions concerning photo exhibitions, art and communication workshops and actions targeting youth. KEDE will be acting in close cooperation with the local actors from Mytilene: University of Aegean and Aeolis, the associate partners of this proposal that have prior collaboration experiences and strong relationships with KEDE.

Associate Partners
From Greece:
AEOLIS-Cultural Development Society of Lesvos Island,  a non-profit organization based in Mytilene, which organizes cultural activities, develops actions in the field of cultural tourism, organizes theatre and cinema shows, music events, cultural visits and excursions, workshops and conferences which aim at informing and sensitizing the citizens on Greek language and art, the natural environment and the global cultural heritage. Aeolis shall support Istanbul Digital and KEDE in necessary action points. It will cooperate with the project partner, KEDE, and will implement local dissemination activities of the project but also will disseminate nationally and internationally through its contacts. It will also support KEDE to organize the Mytilene Screening. Aeolis' representative will attend the closing conference in Istanbul.

The University of the Aegean, which is based in Mytilene, was founded in 1984 and it has currently around 4,500 students. UOA will contribute to the project by mobilizing young artists living in the region and will host the screening in Mytilene. It will also support KEDE, Aeolis and Istanbul Digital to reach relevant local instructors in the region.

Karpos-Centre of Education and Intercultural Communication is a non-profit organization based in Athens, which promotes projects, which encourage respect of cultural diversity and participation of citizens of all ages in social discourse. Karpos supports the use of all forms of media, information technology and training to help expression, exchange of views and creative ideas.

From Turkey:
The Çanakkale 18 Mart University based in Çanakkale was founded in 1992 and it has currently more than 22,000 students. COMU will contribute to the project by mobilizing young artists living in the region and will host the screening in Çanakkale. It will also support Istanbul Digital to reach relevant local instructors in the region.

Yildiz Teknik University based in Istanbul, is the 3rd oldest university of Turkey with its history dating back to 1911 and currently has more than 17,000 students. YTU will contribute to the project by providing a venue and hosting the closing conference of the project as well as the screening of short films in Istanbul.

Anadolu University based in Eskişehir was founded in 1958 and currently has 24.000 students. AU will contribute to the project by providing a venue and hosting the screening of short films in Eskişehir.

Other stakeholders, and their anticipated roles and/or potential attitudes towards the project are as follows:

Taşmektep which is a civil initiative based in Adatepe (Kucukkuyu) / Çanakkale will be hosting the Instructors Meeting and Creative Documentary Development Workshop. Taşmektep is a civil platform offering a wide range of activities from philosophy, art history, to photography and pottery workshops.

MODE Istanbul , a motion pictures and digital arts initiative based in Istanbul and a partner of the European Doc Next Network led by the European Cultural Foundation, will offer its support and networking capabilities in contacting national and international film festivals and platforms to promote and to organize the screenings of the short films produced during
the project.

Furthermore, local authorities such as the Municipality of Kucukkuyu (where Adatepe is located at, the Municipality of Çanakkale as well as the Governorship of Çanakkale will be facilitating the activities of Istanbul Digital during the project in Çanakkale.