Why should we consent to disaster ?
The Mediterranean is fragmented by war, divided by religious identities, tormented by climate upheavals, and retracted in the face of the mobility of women and men seeking to cross it.
However, “this sea does not separate; it unites. To the peoples of its shores, although of different races and opposing religions, it imposes the same gestures. (…) It is not over this sea that exchanges have taken place; it is with the help of this sea,” observed Jean Giono in a luminous text, which concluded as follows: “But on this water, for millennia, murders and love have exchanged, and a specifically Mediterranean order is established. [1]”
By Thierry Fabre
It is this specifically Mediterranean order, in the face of disorder, chaos, and war, that we will explore together in the new editorial architecture of the 22-Med site.
A horizon to share: A whole world in common, which will now be the signature of the site. Or how to discover and understand, through 22 countries and 11 written languages, this Mediterranean world that we share. It is indeed at the scale of the Mediterranean that the questions arise. This is precisely what an original site like 22-Med can offer. It is one of the few, if not the only one, to be able to combine all these viewpoints from within 22 countries, seeking singular passages between languages. Thus, a horizon of common meaning can be outlined.
From all its shores, the Mediterranean world is connected. Scientists often speak about connectivities in this regard. It would be absurd to turn our backs, to seek to ignore each other, or worse, to confront each other, adding war to war. Without any forgetting and even less denial, in the face of power dynamics, deadly occupations, and all these senseless destructions that are before our eyes, there is a life force that keeps us awake and standing. A taste for the unexpected, something like a Long live life! that inspires us. In stark contrast to the Viva la muerte that all fascisms, from yesterday to tomorrow, nourish.
Why a site like 22-Med? To share and transmit, to better reveal the lives of all these Mediterranean neighbors, who for too long have tended to ignore, withdraw, or even fear each other. Our destinies are linked, between the shores of our common sea. And what if we finally realized that we are on the same boat?
E la Nave va, as the filmmaker Federico Fellini would say…
It is around 5 Mediterranean(s) that we will navigate together on the 22-Med site.
1/ Mediterranean in stories.
The Mediterranean exists only as far as it tells its stories. It is made of long-lasting tales, from the Odyssey or the Thousand and One Nights, following, for example, the wisdom of olive trees, the fragments of a “Mediterranean breviary” or the sap of “True Stories,” which attract and magnetize us. Once upon a time…or several times the Mediterranean, which thus tells itself. Then, over time and through all these stories, something like a narrative identity of the Mediterranean world emerges.
2/ Mediterranean, fragile world.
This is a dive into the realities of our time, into the singularity of our era. The world is warming, and the Mediterranean even more so! Scientists enlighten us about what is happening to us, which we do not always see, understand, or apprehend. 22-Med listens to them. It is time to open our eyes wide to what is coming, to better anticipate it. The rise of waters, which seems inevitable, and which will primarily affect islands and coastlines. Extreme phenomena, which are multiplying, such as the “cold drop,” which recently devastated the Valencia region in Spain, not to mention the repeated wildfires during the summer.
The fragility of our world’s environment requires all our attention, especially since it is the 1st tourist zone in the world, and the question of water and waste treatment is becoming problematic. Not to mention the 3rd dimension of our Mediterranean world and its fragilities, the underwater world.
3/ Mediterranean, lifestyles.
Let’s see what is at play every day in our lifestyles, where something like one or more Mediterranean lifestyles is drawn and composed. Let’s discover these everyday cultures, these “ways of doing,” so singular, that characterize the Mediterranean world. These ways of eating together, this art of convivencia. A sharing of flavors, around a regular column, “So, are we eating!?” Let’s go, thanks to 22-Med, ahead of these ways of building and inhabiting, in the company of Mediterranean architects and this urban art that invented the square or traced cornices when the sea no longer inspires fear. Let’s look at these everyday objects, this art of Mediterranean design, which creates beauty in our homes. And let’s not forget these ways of taking our time, this art of resisting acceleration, like those forms of the sacred that invite us to inhabit the world differently.
4/ Mediterranean creator.
The Mediterranean world is no longer conjugated in the past! It is not imprisoned by its heritage or its ancient patrimony; it is also a young world that invents new forms and it is high time to look at it differently. Contemporary artistic scenes are fertile, and major artists of our time are asserting themselves worldwide. 22-Med aims to better introduce them and make them more accessible. To discover the faces of artists, art schools that teach and transmit, filmmakers and image creators, also listening to the voices of the Mediterranean, to all these new musics that cross borders and reveal to us another sound landscape. Here begins the reverse of disaster, in these imaginaries of the 21st century that invite us to step out of misery and never consent to catastrophe.
“The inventions of the unknown demand new forms,” already saw Arthur Rimbaud. And what if we now sailed, thanks to 22-Med, towards this horizon?
5/ Mediterranean without shores.
While the Mediterranean seems increasingly beset by obstacles and borders, there are numerous connections that link us. Human ties, between mobilities and diasporas, that do not disappear but, on the contrary, are reactivated. Maritime and port circulations, economic and digital exchanges, that make us truly connected to one another. 22-Med is the site of this Mediterranean without shores, where so many links are woven and re-woven, through numerous journeys. The Mediterranean Sea is not meant to be a Mediterranean death, a place of all shipwrecks, but a sea on a human scale.
These 5 Mediterranean(s) compose a prism, with multiple facets, to discover and understand this Mediterranean world that is ours. 22-Med is the site to navigate through these five sections, in complete freedom! Where a whole world in common is told and shared.
[1] Jean Giono, “Mediterranean,” 1959, in the collection “Provence,” Gallimard, 1993, 300 p
Photo taken from the book by Bernard Plossu, The Odyssey of the Small Italian Islands, Éditions Textuel, p 150, 2024
“With the kind cooperation of Bernard Plossu”