2007 - 2a biennal de la Mediterrània
21. Sept. - 20. Nov. 2007
Artmar
The Mediterranean sea is a paradigm: as a geographically defined sea - surely guilty of being the first so called expression of such - a paradigm for that which is between lands, fears and fantasies, liquid space of union and communication. It is also a paradigm for the melting pot of cultures: looking at this same sea, men and women have given us different narratives to understand life. Unfortunately there are also wars. Paradigm of paradise, Southern Europe, chimera space. It is also a cruel sea which takes lives away. Paradigm of life and a sea which is ecologically wounded to death.
"I found myself in a sea where waves of joy and sadness met and crashed together", Naguib Mahfuz tells us. The Maritime Museum, the A FAD and the IEMed has summoned together this second biennale with these words.
If we had to define the main features of the I’IEMed, we would do it by saying that it's a case of being a player for dialogue and for the encouragement.of relations between Europe and the Mediterranean area. A player for the promotion of ties and co-operation between cities, regions and countries of the Mediterranean basin. In this way the Maritime Museum of Barcelona has, with the sea and its maritime legacy, its very reason for existing, driven forward by way of knowledge, cultural enjoyment, dialogue and cooperation. The A FAD empowers the presence of arts, crafts and design as creative languages involved with society and linking up to possible futures.
The ArtMar, Mediterranean biennale, allows this dialogue to become reality, especially between Europe and the Meda countries, focussing it on artistic and creative fields. It also allows for those artistic concerns from one or other bank of the Mediterranean to become evident through art in its widest sense. In this way too, it allows for those who come from other realities to identify themselves with a Mediterranean context and make it the subject of their work. Likewise, it's thanks to projects such as these which make the viewers privy to new trends; serving for us as a showcase for contemporary creativity, whilst favouring the mobility of both artists and art works. For the makers this mobility and meetings with others brings them the unique opportunity of opening themselves up to the world and also of entering cultural debates. But above all, this biennale with its modest persistance wishes to act as witness to the commitment these makers have with this sea, paradigm of history and protagonist of the century we've just started.
© Museu Marítim de Barcelona
Jesús Àngel Prieto, Artists and Artisans of the Foment de les Arts i del Disseny (A FAD)
Roger Marcet, General Director of the Consortium of the Drassanes Reials i Museu Maritim de Barcelona.
Senén Florensa, General Director of the Institut Europeu de la Mediterrània (IEMed)