The waters of the present are a living archive of the relations they sustain with humans and more than humans in a range of entangled temporalities. They contain information about the places and bodies with which they have been related to. Which are the myths, stories and imaginarias of the Mediterranean that are currently being woven together?

Under a western gaze of the planet, the Mediterranean, as its name indicates, was conceived as a center of the known planet. As a fluid space, it has been a projected surface of contested and disputed futures through which systematic violence has been effectuated by privileged nations towards different life forms.

Transforming heterogeneity into homogeneity, the Mediterranean(s) and its life flows have been appropriated by the western european world as commodities. Guided by the question, what is currently at the center and what deserves our urgent attention, we seek to contribute to displace the eurocentric gaze of the Mediterranean. To echo some of its overshadowed histories, we approach the Mediterranean(s) sea in plural as a salty water body mass that connects a network of sweet water bodies of rivers which flow into each other, navigating borders and coasts, reaching depths and surfaces. As an interconnected body with multiple agents –human and more than human– cooperating and configuring its waterscape. Our aim is to contribute to a wider re-assemblage of the identities and imaginaries around the Mediterranean cultures in its plurality.

Intersecting Mediterraneans(s) has been developed through three formats or configurations which are in dialogue

Intersecting Mediterraneans(s) from its Regional Rivers is a research piece and installation which involves 36 m fabric and a multichannel audio series. Intersecting Mediterraneans(s) from its Regional Rivers aims to recognize the systematically invisibilized imaginaries of the Mediterranean and to explore the latter as a complex region. The fabric which bonds the river and the ocean and becomes a living archive of this encounter, acts as a receptive membrane which carries memories, myths, relationships and affects that nourish the Mediterranean. The textile gives visibility to the current, setting the direction and manifesting the pace and is activated by the intersecting voices from the Po, Isonzo/Soča, Neretva, Cem Cijevna, Düden, Kishon, Nile, Medjerda, Chelif, Moulouya, Ebro and the Rhône rivers, amongst others. Around the fabric there is an audiovisual installation which involves two video performances, presented separated from one another and played in loop. Intersecting Mediterranean(s) from its Regional Rivers aims to acknowledge the specificities of contexts and life flows that nourish the Mediterranean.

The second piece, Intersecting Mediterraneans 2022, is a 10 minute video which contains images of the fabric in movement in its flow from the Lao river to the Mediterranean sea and an acoustic composition of the stories that were gathered.

Intersecting Mediterraneans: A Sonic Submergence is a digital configuration of ‘Intersecting Mediterraneans’  commissioned by Exnunc which invites visitors to dive into and interact with an apparently chaotic sonic landscape, which weaves together fragments of shattered cumulative repertoires of memories, affects and knowledges, of both waters and lands. EXN Lagoon is curated by Chiara Cartuccia. https://www.ex-nunc.org/intersecting-mediterraneans

On the audios the following female voices have contributed:

Boushra Adi
Martha Ardila
Shiran Berkobich
Zahra Berramdane زهرة بنرمضان
Abla Eloudghiri
Lucía Gallón
Juditt Gatt
Miriam Gatt
Francisca Hartmann
Lea Mijaçika
Dina Mimi
Francesca Onagro
Ivana Papic
Lara Tabet
Kaliroi Tsolakidou
Blanca Utrillas
Duna Vallès

Audiovisual support: Lara Tabet
Audio assistance and editing: Álvaro Villalobos
Video editing: Samuel Chalela