Stories of the Sea in Images

On 3rd May 2016 the MS Wissenschaft started her voyage in Kiel and will tour through 33 cities in northern and central Germany. In 2017 the exhibition-boat will visit further cities in the south of the Federal Republic, as well as in Austria. The exhibition – held under the patronage of the German Ministry of Higher Education and Science and organized in cooperation with many institutions such as the Max-Planck-Society – is dedicated, on occasion of the Year of Science 2016/2017, to the theme "Seas and Oceans". The exhibits displayed on the 100 meter long freighter invite visitors to participate in an experience of learning and experimentation in order to discover more about the past and future of oceans as well as their meaning for humanity, the climate and life on earth.

The Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut with its presentation focusing on cultural resources "Stories of the Sea in Images", is represented on the MS Wissenschaft 2016/17, too. Humans have always been fascinated by the sea: it plays a significant role in commerce and politics and it's an inexhaustible subject for poetry and art. Nautical charts, mapping in various ways the sea itself and the borders between sea and land, have existed since the Middle Ages. European expansion through the world's oceans and the colonization of the Americas and Asia created new realities from the 16th century onwards. With this in mind, the presentation of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz tells the history of the sea through a series of images, ranging from the oldest maps of the Mediterranean to the navigators and explorers of the 18th and 19th century. The opening of the Suez Canal and the first ocean liners are shown in printed plates, while the present day is also represented in images of container ships and refugee boats. Two iPads invite visitors to explore images of the sea, ships and coastal towns dating back several centuries and accompanied by short captions.