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EPIRUS PROJECT Yiofírja 


Background Story

 In spring 2025, Perperúna undertook a Culture Moves Europe–funded residency in Epirus, north‑western Greece, engaging deeply with the endangered cultural heritage of Greek‑speaking Epirus polyphony. Rooted in artistic collaboration with the Polyphonic Singing Association of Pogoni (with heartfelt thanks to Thanasis Viltaniotis), the residency unfolded as an intensive process of listening, learning, and exchange.

Our mobility enabled field research across several villages of Pogoni — including Kouklious, Ktismata, and Dolo — and meaningful encounters with tradition bearers. Through shared rehearsals, workshops, and informal gatherings, we explored local repertoires and vocal practices while situating them within their social and historical contexts. Being locally hosted allowed us to attune to the rhythms of everyday village life, primarily shaped by senior community members, and to listen to personal stories of migration, war, labor, mourning, celebration, and remembrance — all inseparable from the act of singing itself.

Throughout the residency, these encounters enriched our artistic language, informed the development of new vocal material, and deepened our understanding of polyphony as a lived, communal practice rather than a static musical form.

The residency culminated in three participatory polyphonic workshops and a final concert, reaching a diverse, intergenerational audience. These moments of collective practice affirmed the contemporary resonance of Epirus polyphony and strengthened our ensemble’s artistic vision.

From Field-research to Performance

 Building on the residency, Perperúna is developing an interdisciplinary performance that weaves together documentary storytelling, experimental music and immersive audiovisual elements. Yiofírja (Bridges) connects research with artistic practice, translating Epirus polyphony into a contemporary performative language while remaining grounded in its communal origins.

Performance Elements
  • Live vocal performance: reinterpreted Epirus folk songs and contemporary compositions for voices
  • Generative soundscapes: merging traditional polyphony with experimental sonic textures
  • Audiovisual fragments: documentary material gathered during the residency
  • Multimedia staging: immersive performance and media-installation design

Perspective for Performance & Space Applications

 The project is conceived as a flexible, modular format adaptable to different spatial contexts — from black‑box theaters and galleries to community spaces and hybrid venues.

Spatial sketch (conceptual):
  • Performers positioned in proximity to the audience, emphasizing collective listening
  • Projection surfaces (walls, textiles, semi‑transparent screens) displaying documentary fragments
  • Surround or semi‑surround sound setup enhancing polyphonic immersion
  • Open, permeable stage layout allowing for workshop‑performance transitions

This adaptability allows Yiofírja (Bridges) to function both as a concert experience and as an expanded performative environment.

Our Vision 

 We understand polyphony as more than a musical technique: it is a practice of expression, cultural continuation, and communal resilience. As an ensemble, we see ourselves not only as interpreters of this tradition but as mediators of an immaterial cultural heritage that emerges from communities and must return to them. We aim to establish a sustainable, resource‑rich, and immersive workshop format with a strong intergenerational focus — transferable to other locations.

Through performances, an exhibition, participatory workshops, and a growing digital archive, Yiofírja (Bridges) carries Epirus polyphony into contemporary urban contexts such as Berlin and beyond. Our long‑term goal is to develop this approach as a model for other regions — urban, rural, or diasporic — where orally transmitted singing traditions risk fading from collective memory.

Polyphony, in our work, becomes a living social experience: not only preserved, but shared, re‑imagined, and embedded in diverse social realities as an ongoing artistic and communal process.



Impressum© Perperúna Ensemble 2025Supported by:
Disclaimer: This work was produced with the financial assistance of the European Union. 
The views expressed herein can in no way be taken to reflect the official opinion of the European Union.