INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE POLYPHONIC CARAVAN
FOR THE SAFEGUARDING OF THE EPIRUS POLYPHONIC SONG
Following an unanimous decision of the 15th Session of the Intergovernmental Committee today, 17 December 2020, the POLYPHONIC CARAVAN is inscribed on UNESCO’s international Register of Good Safeguarding Practices of Intangible Cultural Heritage! It is the first ever inscription by Greece on this specific Register and only the 25th in total among proposals from all over the word from 2009 until today! It should be noted that 180 states parties participate and are represented in the UNESCO Convention for the safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage!
It constitutes a great recognition of the Polyphonic Caravan which is reflected and based on the Epirus Polyphonic Song itself! A big encouragement for the Community of Polyphony, for all those people that struggle for the present and the future of the polyphonic song.
It should be underlined that the responsible Conventional Body commends Greece for proposing an exemplary nomination, a safeguarding programme that arose thanks to an initiative by the pioneers of the non-governmental organization “Apiros” and is deeply connected to its community while it responds in an exemplary manner to the threats related to polyphonic singing. It further commends for the highly adaptive and creative approach which has facilitated the adjustment of the polyphonic song in an ever-changing social context and in the movement from rural to urban environments and which also underpins the active participation of young people.
The proposal had been submitted by the Ministry of Culture of Greece in March 2019. The nomination for the inscription of the Polyphonic Caravan was documented by its 22 years-long, manifold and very fruitful action and was supported from the community of polyphony in Greece as a whole, accompanied by an indicative number of 100 letters of consent, written by its old and new co-travelers. The contribution of the executives of the Directorate of Modern Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, Villy Fotopoulou, Ioannis Drinis and Ioanna Tzavara, who took care of the preparation and thoroughness of the proposal’s file, in cooperation with the “kirantzides” (drivers) of the Polyphonic Caravan, Alexandros Lampridis and Aliki Gkana, was valuable and a warm thank you is owed to them.
The Polyphonic Caravan began its journey in 1998 from a borderline village, Polydroso of Thesprotia, where the head office of its organizer, non-governmental organizations “Apiros”, also exists. Since, then, it has gradually expanded all over borderline Epirus, spreading its events and actions in Macedonia, Thessaly, Corfu, Albania, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, France. It systematically pointed out the common elements of the polyphonic song from both sides of the border and the meeting with the polyphonies of neighbor peoples. A big part of its action focused on a contemporary “springtime of polyphony” in the cities, in a series of urban centers having Athens as epicenter, promoting and disseminating the Epirus polyphonic song to young people, establishing and continuously broadening an informal but living community of polyphony.
The Polyphonic Caravan feels an honor and gratitude for all of its co-travelers, throughout all these years, for the last experiential interpreters, the frontiersmen of polyphony, for the ensembles, the groups, the improvised polyphonic companies, for those that supported its action in many ways – persons and institutions, for those that keep the polyphonic song alive and in the cities, transmitting its emotion, its vitality, its principles to its current trackers, its future continuators.
This day is a day of joy, vindication and encouragement for the whole community of the polyphonic song. The international recognition of the Polyphonic Caravan, with its inscription on the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices, is a top station in the great journey of the voices, a wonderful point of departure for its future routes! Because the Polyphonic Caravan is a journey that constantly restarts, each time even more promising and generous!
See page of UNESCO dedicated to the inscription of the Polyphonic Caravan: here.