(In) the steps of the people – temporary exhibition in Chania

The research project 100memories presented, from 30 March to 2 April 2023, to the residents and visitors of Chania the temporary exhibition and walk about the movements in the neighbourhood of Nea Chora in the Polychronis Polychronidis Park (Pefkakia).

Nea Chora was first built by Muslim internal immigrants after the mid-19th century. After 1923, with the population exchange, it housed Asia Minor people who were either restored to Muslim homes or took land and settled themselves. Since then it has been a quarter of refuge for refugees and immigrants. For a few days, at the Polychronis Polychronidis Park (Pekakia), we spread a laundry of memory for the neighborhood of Nea Chora. The clothes laid out in courtyards and on balconies, but also in the public space of the city, on sidewalks, in public yards either after washing or to create partitions in improvised installation spaces are images of the city directly connected to the refugee settlement. In the sprawling lawn, combined with the digital route designed by the project’s research team, elements of the neighborhood’s past are glimpsed. The team worked systematically on the axis of “Public Space”, so in Chania an exhibition in the form of a laundry in a park was formed, a reference to historical photographs of the arrival of refugees, but also contemporary images (refugee crisis 2015).

The Polychronis Polychronidis Park, known as Pefkakia, was the first organized park in Nea Chora and the first post-war playground in Chania. The idea of creating a recreational area in the area of Nea Chora had already been initiated before the war by some residents of the area, led by Leonidas Markoulakis and Nikolaos Kyriakakis. Their actions made the issue public, mobilized the Municipality, created an initiative to which they themselves contributed and others were involved, resulting in the selection of this square, Loukareos Square, as a suitable place for the creation of a green space.

The site was purchased by its Muslim owner after many postponements and delays. The tree planting had begun under the care of Nikolaos Kyriakakis even before the intervention of the municipality for planning. The instruments of the playground were donated by Georgios Stefanakis, who was not a resident of Chania but wanted to contribute to a public project that would serve the childhood. In a way, then, this park was a project inaugurated by the Municipality of Chania in 1961, but its realization was mainly the result of the voluntary action of citizens.

Today Pefkakia is a public space that hosts a variety of activities. Its official use is as a playground. However, numerous activities take place there and highlight the character of the district as a multicultural neighbourhood: meetings of the informal Nea Chora parents’ group formed by immigrant populations, side events of the anti-racist festival, storytelling from different parts of the world and other initiatives of residents keep the space open, lively and welcoming. The improvised spread sheets formed the exhibition surfaces. For the group to tell selected stories from the area.