Miranda Vatikioti is undoubtedly the embodiment of joy, creativity, and ingenuity! With an academic background in Humanities and specialization in Culture and Performing Arts, she has been collaborating with MedINA since 2022 in project management and participatory processes.
Below, she vividly describes small daily routines at MedINA, recounts the moments that have fascinated her and sends her own special wish!
«My collaboration with MedINA started in January 2022 when I took over the management of the project “Alliance for Sustainable Local Development (SymATA)”, whose contract happened to be signed on my birthday. Inevitably the word “gift” comes to mind while evaluating the experiences and stories of this partnership.
And since I spoke about birthdays, as this year MedINA celebrates its 20th anniversary, I am confident that these years were just the beginning and I wish that the history of MedINA continues to be written with inspiration and enthusiasm, as it is now! The memorable stories of this collaboration are all fascinating, but if I were asked to share one of them, I would choose the one that is repeated every day: none other than … our food! Certainly, at MedINA we are interested in gastronomy and agri-food at the level of programmes and activities, but we are also interested in it in another way at work. The well-known lunch break process is an important ritual at MedINA, during which colleagues, often without prior consultation, suddenly start wandering from office to office with tupperware, plates, forks and napkins, looking for a spare room to serve as makeshift dining room and sit down together for lunch. Eating is a collective affair, we are always adamant about it, and we do it with team spirit and meticulousness. Retrospectively speaking, MedINA definitely whets your appetite.
Another fascinating story for me was the trip to Elafphotopos. Just by hearing the name of the destination (“the land of deer”), one imagines that only magical things can happen there. Indeed. For me, the goal of the trip was to get in touch with fieldwork and get to know MedINA better. It was at Elaphotopos that I made a definitive connection with MedINA’s work on the field; I was moved on a personal level as I felt experientially both the responsibility and the beauty of what we do. I wish MedINA to constantly evolve by writing new exciting stories between magical places and collective action»!
