The Italian Embassy in Athens, in collaboration with the Eugenides Foundation, present “Mediterranea. Visions of an ancient and complex sea”. The exhibition aims to recount the history, the beauty, the peoples, the myths of this “liquid continent”, as well as the conflicts and dangers which jeopardize it today.

This great inland sea, known in the romance languages as the sea “between the lands”, “White Sea” for the Turks and “Our Sea” for the Romans, so rich in history, as well as prehistory and even protohistory, is today as in the past a point of integration and of conflict among peoples and great cultures.

Different cultures meet today as they have met and confronted each other for centuries, creating great civilizations that have been the yeast of the great Mediterranean culture. They have each shared and preserved their own features, generating even today, through their fusion and distinction, a unique culture, which is unmatched anywhere else in the world.

Starting from these unique traits, the exhibition tour shows on different levels this long and complex story through satellite images, photos, videos and stunning installations with the aim of combining science and art, past and present, in a synthesis that is both rigorous and accessible.

Satellites provide images from space of cities and ports, crossroads of trade and fertile cultural exchanges; of coast lands covered with olive groves, figs and grapes, all symbols of the Mediterranean character, today threatened by erosion; of beautiful islands, jealous guardians of extraordinary and precious archeological findings of past and important civilizations, today destinations of modern mass tourism but also the first temporary landing of disparate migration flows.

An interactive touchable provides a dynamic outline of great events which have characterized the history of what Fernand Braudel defined as the great “Inland Sea”, recounting the successive civilizations and peoples, that have contributed to creating a unique Mediterranean culture, where singular attributes cross-pollinate in fruitful ways.

Taking inspiration from the Mediterranean, the exhibition deals with crucial issues, such as climate change, sustainable agriculture, water scarcity, the desertification process, and urban sprawl, aiming to give a picture of the status of the Mediterranean environment as it is today. Its vegetation, still plentiful and rich in biodiversity, shows clear signs of suffering, but still gives off the scents and essences that come from Eastern cultures. The exhibition brings together many different voices and languages, all in a dialogue in search of a common ground to try to solve the great problems of this ancient sea.

The exhibition, curated by Viviana Panaccia, is promoted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Italian Space Agency, Telespazio/e-GEOS of the Leonardo Group, MedOR Foundation and the European Space Agency.

The exhibition is free of charge for both schools and the general public.



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