About 2023 Eleusis Digital Repository
Visibility, Documentation, and Interconnectivity
The Digital Repository constitutes the intangible cultural capital of 2023 Eleusis and Elefsina as European Capital of Culture, while at the same time serves as a strategic initiative for the institution in general. Through it, the city’s and the institution’s creative legacy is highlighted and preserved, making it available to both the general public and to more specialised academic and research audiences.
The Repository offers easy navigation of the full range of material and data produced throughout the course of 2023 Eleusis. Its functionalities enhance visibility and interconnection with other cultural and research platforms, supporting the dissemination of Elefsina’s cultural heritage at national, European, and international level.
Moreover, the Digital Repository serves as a model for future European Capitals of Culture, underscoring the need for a single cultural archive. The absence of an organised archival record of the institution’s previous 40 years has created a significant gap in the preservation of contemporary European cultural heritage.
A Joint Initiative for Knowledge and Creativity
The Digital Repository aspires to act as a catalyst for a coordinated European initiative. Its goal is to collect and disseminate the creative output and knowledge produced each year in numerous cities and regions across Europe, ensuring the preservation and enhancement of their cultural identity.
Furthermore, digital documentation and centralised preservation of contemporary culture in Greece is significantly limited compared to those related to antiquity or folklore. There are important initiatives that record, highlight and preserve today’s cultural production. Building on these efforts – and on the documentation and distribution of contemporary culture as it unfolds through digital platforms – the 2023 Eleusis Digital Repository stands as a major reference for contemporary cultural creation in Greece.
Cultural Heritage Through Digital Innovation
The realisation of the Digital Repository is the fruit of the collaboration between 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture and ATHENA RC, bringing together the cutting edge of technological research for the dissemination of cultural heritage.
The Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of ATHENA RC has undertaken the design and technical support of the project, drawing on its scientific expertise in creating innovative solutions for the documentation and promotion of cultural content, as gathered by the 2023 Eleusis team.
A Digital Portal to the work generated for and by the European Capital of Culture
The project “sub.4.8-2023 Eleusis: Digital Platform for Promoting and Disseminating the European Capital of Culture Programme,” carried out in the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” with funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU, concerns the development and application of cutting-edge technologies and methodologies for the preservation, documentation, and promotion of both the contemporary artistic production and the cultural heritage of the city of Elefsina.
The Digital Portal, of which the Digital Repository is a part, hosts a suite of web applications and subsystems that aim at the preservation, enhanced documentation, and innovative promotion of the city’s rich cultural heritage. These tools address the need to enrich the in-person and digital visitor experience, foster historical empathy, and promote at national and international level of the multifaceted body of artistic work under the auspices of the institution.
