Archipelago. Memory, Trade, and Art in the Mediterranean Islands

The project investigates the network formed by the islands, both large and small, across the Mediterranean. The project considers in parallel the internal complexity of the large islands, each of which has its own orography, local antiquities, stratified past, conflicting cultures and even borders; at the same time it considers their nature as connected worlds that relate to one another and to the facing shores of Europe, Africa, and Anatolia. While tracing possible convergences and divergences between commercial and cultural exchanges, which involved also northern Europe, the project considers how local communities faced urgent technical challenges, some from the past, such as moving ships, and others which were important in the past and remain so today, such as the supply of water.
Reflecting on the nature of islands within the frame of the Anthropocene and blue thinking, the project addresses the ethical problems of recounting the role of islands caught between overtourism and their role as transit destination in journeys of refugees and migrants along the deadliest migration route of the 21^st century.