Vol. 11 No. 01 (2025): 2024-25 CHORO-grafies Special Issue - Informal Public Space
Articles

Threshold Spatiality: The Performative Practice of Passage as a Vehicle for the Production of Communal Space

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  • Eirini Koumparouli

Published 2025-09-22

Keywords

  • threshold spatiality,
  • performative practice,
  • in-between,
  • communal space,
  • rite of passage,
  • ritual - round
    • ...More
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Copyright (c) 2025 Eirini Koumparouli

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Koumparouli, E. (2025). Threshold Spatiality: The Performative Practice of Passage as a Vehicle for the Production of Communal Space. CHORO-grafies, 11(01), 7-14. https://doi.org/10.5281/vbavge82

Abstract

Viewing architecture as a constant distillation of social practices links the study of space to the ways in which these practices shape and are shaped by space. From this standpoint, this research focuses on fields of in-between spatialities and the manner in which the communities, through performative practices of passage, inhabit, shape and ultimately re-invent the communal space. More specifically, the paper presents the case study of the island of Folegandros and the three-day ritual round observed during the Easter celebration. The case is examined in terms of the inhabitation of three different aspects of the threshold, namely: 1) the threshold as a physical space between the private indoor domestic space and the public outdoor communal space. 2) The thresholds as settlement boundaries and the symbolic actions that occur at them throughout the course of the ritual. 3) The threshold spatiality as the habitation of the limits of the shifted embodied performed roles.

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