LATOMEIO
PROJECT
A site-specific artistic research residency in a former quarry in Leonidio, Peloponnese. Started in 2017 and directed by Eleni Danesi
photo by: PIETRO RADIN
LOCATION
Leonidio, Peloponnese, Greece
STARTED
2017
FORMAT
Collective Artistic Residency
NEXT
10th Anniversary meet-up, May 2027
EXTRACTED
LANDSCAPES
At the heart of LatoMeio is a collective artistic research on extracted landscapes: my grandfather’s former quarry in Leonidio. The residency began with regenerative practices and somatic restoration, and a poetic approach to reconnecting with the landscapes. Working with the book "The Martian Chronicles", by Ray Bradbury, we approached the landscape as a living entity, a multibody with which we explored ways to communicate without words. Letting the embodied research guide us, we arrived at many layers of the history and narratives that this space holds that helped us widen our perception of the politics of extraction—of communities or species from their land of origin, of land rights from local citizens while they negotiate new co-living conditions with visitors from all around the world, on the occasion of the expansion of the climbing activity in the area. Today, in 2027, in times of global wars and the devastating reality of the Genocide in GAZA, LatoMeio Project realizes the depth of the grounding of artistic practices in policies of land and the rights of human and other-than-human participants in the practice of a planetary co-habitation.
The quarry is both literal material, through stone geometry, vibrant matter and resonance, and a philosophical vocabulary that runs through my wider practice. The work lives on site, in fieldwork, embodied research and community practice, and is part of the Multiscapes Lab research field.
This project wouldn't have been realized without the collaboration and effortless co-creation with Evi Stamou and Artemis Manakou, the two main partners, that made the residencies and LatoMeio Innerscapes Festivals possible.
FIELDS OF INQUIRY
BODYSCAPES
Somatic cartographies of how we inhabit and co-shape space
The body as landscape. I explore how posture, skin, gestures, and visceral responses inform our spatial perception and design intuition. Bodyscapes are somatic cartographies that reveal how we inhabit space from the inside out, and how external landscapes shape the architecture of our neurophysiology.
REGENERATION
Vibrational fields, auditory environments, and nervous system tuning
The residency began with regenerative practices and restoration on extracted landscapes. Participants work with the site as ground that is repaired through ongoing, situated EMBODIED research, and presence. Regeneration starts by shifting the perception from within.
EXTRACTION
Dust, Stones, Human labor, A memory of extraction
The quarry is a record of material removed from a landscape, Dust and moving particles during explosive moments. A memoir of labor, ambiguous safety and a remaining quiet topography that nowadays changes in slow rhythms. that keeps askign "what is taken from a place, and what remains?".
STONE & RESONANCE
Vibrational fields, auditory environments, and nervous system tuning
The quarry is literal material, stone geometry and resonance, and a vocabulary for perception and space that carries into our wider artistic practice. From field recordings to live improvisational performances, to photographic documentation of the new ways of co-habitation through sonic exploratinos
INNERSCAPES
Sensory-emotional landscapes of internal experience.
Innerscapes is a 3-day festival that grew during COVID-19 out of the necessity of comming together as a community of climbers ans artists sharing the same landscapes as a temporary escape during the lockdowns. Climbers inhabited the rocks , artists exressed their emotions through painting , videos and poetry and the Innerscapes exhibition, workshops and knowledge sharing meetings were organized to celebrate our growing mixed community.
"The residency invites participants and audiences to reflect on what is taken from a landscape—stone, land, belonging—and to rediscover the quarry as a site of sensing, repair, and inquiry."
ELENI DANESI
RESIDENCIES GALLERY
RESIDENCIES & FESTIVALS
Dreaming of (e)co-realities
How to communicate with the other-than-human worlds. What does a stone tell and what does the time of geological changes feel like?
The Residency Begins
During the first edition, the participants explored stories from the homonymous book The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury , and approached the site with the curiosity of arriving on a new planet.
2017
The Martian Chronicles #1
We The Martians
In the second editions, the participant act as if they have already inhabited the new planet and now they are inventing their practices of daily commons.
2020
The Martian Chronicles #2
Our first festival mixing movement arts and somatic practices with climbing, architecture, and landscapes and some magic from neuroscience and EEG tech. Ouf first exhibition with material from the previous residencies was our bridge between performing arts and the art of building a climbing community in Leonidio .
2021
INNERSCAPES festival #2
2023
The Martian Chronicles #3
INNERSCAPES festival #2
2024
R.E.W.I.L.D. | Moving Fast & Slow
R: reconnect | E: embody | W: wander | I: imagine |
L: liberate | D: dream
A framework for sensory preservation in the times of sensory dissociation
2026
The Martian Chronicles #4
10 years inspiration from the Quarry
In May 2027, we will mark 10 years from our initial idea to lead our lives as artists, build a supportive community and committed to relating with the landscapes in a more-than-verbal & multisensory way.
2027
10 years
Whispers from the Earth
Together, the climbing and artists community turn their attention to the underground, asking whether we can hear the voice of the soil.
"At its heart, LatoMeio has always been a community, a meeting ground where artists and climbers, together with kindred initiatives like Panjika Cooperative and Kynourio Soma, are learning to create their own circumstances for living together in Leonidio. We imagine this community growing into an emotionally intelligent society, one that honours the other species, the visitors, the history and the future of this place as part of who we are. For the decade ahead, we look forward to strengthening these bonds and co-creating projects that give each of us the mindset, the emotional capacity and the financial means to make a life here, together."
