Creative international interventions in cultural and natural ecologies related to the Mediterranean Sea
“A Sea Change: Political, Natural, and Cultural Ecologies of the Mediterranean” serves as both a theoretical reader and a comprehensive catalogue for the “A Sea Change” project (2022-2024). This publication delves into the complex interconnections of political, natural, and cultural ecologies in the Mediterranean region.
On May 22nd 2024, KONTEJNER presented A Sea Change project and its results to the CREAMARE European consortium dedicated to Creative Applications and digital products to communicate, disseminate and promote Cultural Heritage, with a special focus on the Underwater Cultural Heritage.
Using media such as photography, video, and sound, Toni Meštrović continuously finds inspiration in the environment of the region from which he comes. The region of Dalmatia and the Croatian Adriatic Sea. A space where the sea and stone dominate, as well as the lack of drinking water.
The Blue and Us exhibition unfolds during UN Ocean Decade Week 2024, from 8 to 12 April at ICM-CSIC, Barcelona, spotlighting the interplay of art and science. Featuring contributions by Quo Artis in collaboration with artists Robertina Šebjanič and Katja Loher, the display emphasises the A Sea Change project’s forward-thinking stance on the Blue Economy and how interdisciplinary arts are pivotal in comprehending and addressing marine issues.
Quo Artis presented A Sea on Edge. This exhibition featured works that highlighted the collaborative research efforts spanning the two-year duration of this international project. Attendees were welcomed on March 7th from 12:00 at the Sant Manuel Pavilion of the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site in Barcelona to be part of the opening reception of this final show.
The opening of our round table event was held on March 7th, from 12:00 to 13:00, as part of the final exhibition of the A Sea Change project. This discussion featured artist Robertina Šebjanič, Kontejner’s curator Davorka Begović, oceanographer Joan Llort, and Quo Artis project coordinator Helena Pérez Guerra.
To mark the culmination of the project A Sea Change, Quo Artis presents the exhibition Beyond a Sea Change. Rethinking the Mediterranean a Virtual Reality (VR) exhibition which is available online until the 3rd of March 2025.
Carmen Salas, one of the curators of the Sea Blindness project, wrote a text on the Medium analysing how the project, and her residency at NeMe, affected her practice.
Between 11-14 of January, 2024, partners of the Sea Change program from Kontejner and NeMe visited Thessaloniki and the MOMus.
They had the chance to follow the presentation of the 1st part of the Sea Change program’s workshop “Post – Platform: tracing the unseen, drawing the upcoming”, to meet with the participants, to have extended discussions on each presentation, that took place at the MOMus-ECA venue’s loft and offices.
“’Post Platform’: detecting the unseen, tracing the impending” is an arts and architecture workshop organized by visual artist and associate professor at the School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Nadia Kalara.
On the 2nd of December, Quo Artis’ presentation, “Challenges and confluences: Quo Artis, towards eco-literacy through art and science,” was part of the 2-day conference ‘Art and Contemporaneity in Menorca: Third edition of the Conference of Discussions and Debate: Art and Science,’ organized by Institut Menorquí d’Estudis in Maó, Menorca.
On November 29th, Quo Artis presented “A Sea Change” during the panel discussion titled “Curating Within Crises,” as part of the Blue Futures Gathering—an all-day event curated by Dr. Suzy O’Hara, University of Sunderland —at The Word, National Centre for the Written Word, Market Place, South Shields, United Kingdom.
Tatiana Kourotchkina, the founder and director of Quo Artis, presented the latest activities of A Sea Change at PUZZLE X in Barcelona, on the 9th of November at 12 p.m.
A Sea Beyond (its Aesthetics) photography workshop
The catalogue is published online.
From 13 October to 5 November 2023, Carmen Salas and Régine Debatty had a research residency at NeMe as part of the Sea Blindness project.
Creative Europe Desk Greece organised a two-day conference on 20 and 21 September 2023, with the participation of invited representatives of cultural and creative institutions from Greece and from the Creative Europe Desks of Norway Kreativt Europa Kulturdesk Norge, Estonia Loov Euroopa and Latvia Radošās Eiropas birojs Latvijā / Creative Europe Desk LV.
Organised under the Sea Blindness project, the afternoon was devoted to two screenings followed with a discussion between the curator Régine Debatty and Cyprus-based Palestinian artist Jafra Abu Zoulouf.
In a world that is becoming more and more polarised. In an era where we are confronting critical interconnected challenges: system collapse, large-scale human migration due to geopolitical and border conflicts, resource scarcity (food, water, use of land, etc), increased frequency of disease outbreaks and global security issues, it’s more important than ever to show that a different world is possible. Can the art world provoke and drive social transformation, a shift in values, making us rethink our relationship to material culture? Can it reveal new definitions of what progress means?
To accompany the Sea Blindness exhibition, NeMe has organised a seminar that brought together artists, experts and researchers to discuss topics related to the Mediterranean, including its condition as a climate change “hot spot” and the state of its marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as its geopolitics and the border, rescue and surveillance practices implemented by the European Union at sea.
90% of the goods we consume in the West are manufactured in far-off lands and brought to us by ship. The cargo shipping industry is a key actor in globalisation. Without it, it would be impossible to satisfy the ever-increasing demands of our societies. Yet the functioning and regulations of this armada of increasingly gigantic vessels and containers remain largely obscure to many, and its hidden costs affect us all. Due to their size, freight ships no longer fit in traditional city harbours; they have moved out of public scrutiny, behind barriers and checkpoints.
The main focus guiding this long term investigative and interdisciplinary project, lasting from February to September 2023, has been on the impacts of tourism’s related development affecting local citizens. This includes examining practices being developed in coastal areas that were impacted severely by polluted and warming Mediterranean waters as well as the documentation of collaborations that contribute to a more sustainable, diverse and inclusive vision of the sea and coastal towns.
NeMe is pleased to present the exhibition and accompanying programme of events Sea Blindness: What Lies Beneath the Waves. Running between 22nd September – 22nd October 2023, this project comprises of an international group exhibition, a seminar, two screening events, and a curators’ talk.
In the framework of RESOURCE, the 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science and Technology, Tatiana Kourotchkina, Founder & Director of Quo Artis will present the project A Sea Change at the opening of the exhibition Sources @ RE:SOURCE, which will take place on Friday, September 15th at Scuola Grande dei Carmini Sestiere Dorsoduro 2617, Venezia, starting at 8 p.m.
Between 15-25 August 2023, young artists from the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, Iliada Charalambous, Nurtane Karagil, and Aycan Garip had a residency at NeMe, to edit their experimental video specifically created for the Living with others project, The One Sea We See.
The Mass Souvenirs workshop was held at the premises of MOMus – Experimental Center for the Arts – APOTHIKI B1, Port of Thessaloniki and was successfully completed, re-approaching the idea of the souvenir and tourisn in the coastal areas of Thessaloniki, focusing on both ecology, sustainability of the industrial product, as well as its social interpretation.
Humans invented computing machines to use them as tools. However, these tools have developed to such an extent that, what not long ago was thought to be unimaginable, for example, computational generated texts or machines creating new machines, is now common-place.
KONTEJNER is participating in the initial presentation of the project Adriatic Sea Sources, which marks the start of MADE IN Dialogues as part of the Platform for Contemporary Crafts & Design, that includes experts from the field of arts, design, science, museology and crafts. We are happy to present our program Heard by the Deep (part of KONTEJNER’s EU project A Sea Change), which we organized in Split in May 2023. A series of lectures will be held on Tuesday, June 27 in the premises of the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum in Zagreb, starting at 10 a.m.
Heard by the Deep reviewed by by We Make Money not Art.
Curator Davorka Begović (KONTEJNER) will present latest ASEA activities at KIC Zagreb, during a round table panel on June 6th 2023 starting at 7 p.m.
On June 10th, at 7.30 p.m. , Tatiana Kourotchkina, founder and director of Quo Artis, will be part of the public conversation : ART AND AI FOR THE ECOLOGICAL TRANSITION, where she will be presenting the project “A Sea Change”. Her contribution to the conversation will be addressing the way by which the project encourages interdisciplinary dialogue and innovation, by fostering a holistic and comprehensive approach to addressing environmental issues.
Documenting a photography workshop that changed our point of view in the sea. For five days a team of 21 photographers worked around the Thermaikos Golf in Thessaloniki, reapproaching the view of the sea, focusing their views beyond the aesthetic side of photography.
The MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts is promoting an open call to young designers who would like to participate in the product design workshop entitled “Mass Souvenirs”, led by the internationally acclaimed product designer Athanasios Babalis and his team, George Giannikopoulos and George Bosnas.
The program links issues of mass tourism, souvenir production and ecology with identity practices and memory production/manipulation.
As part of the international project A Sea Change, KONTEJNER organized a one month long workshop in Split on field recording of the marine environment and the undersea led by multimedia artist Toni Meštrović and curator and musicologist Davorka Begović.
Theca is an installation and bio art research process initiated in 2022. In May, 2023 Peluso continued to develop Theca during the residency organized by KONTEJNER in collaboration with the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, within the A Sea Change European project.
Mutual Aid Orchestra is a research project based on the bio-acoustic interaction between humans and animals initiated in 2023. In May, 2023 artist Marko Marković and researcher and scientist Josipa Vujević started developing the Mutual Aid Orchestra project during the residency organized by KONTEJNER in collaboration with the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, within the A Sea Change European project.
Heard by the Deep is a contemporary artistic program happening in Split, Croatia in the framework of the ASEA project. It consists of artist residencies, live performances, an exhibition, a workshop, and lectures. The common thematic framework is the sea, its (human and non-human) marine communities and the related environmental urgencies – as devastating as they are imperceptible to our human senses.
KONTEJNER organizes a workshop in Split on field recording of the marine environment and the undersea led by multimedia artist Toni Meštrović and curator and musicologist Davorka Begović.
In May 2023, MedILS institute in Split hosts two ASEA residencies organized by KONTEJNER and focused on exploring and developing artistic and research concepts considering the ecologies of the sea and the marine environment.
Dr Marc Garrett, writer, artist, curator, and co-founder of Furtherfield, UK has had a research residency under the Living with others at NeMe between 13th April until 1st May 2023. The residency included meeting and interviewing various peoples who are affected by developments in coastal communities as well as artists and academics in the Limassol district. His visits included Liopetri, Famagusta which is central to the investigations of the project.
As part of a short residency at the NeMe Residency Space, Ruth Catlow from Furtherfield UK, delivered a talk at the Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta at the Visual Art And Visual Communication Design department. The subject of Ruth’s presentation was community collaboration, a key concern of NeMe’s 6 month long project Living with Others which focuses on coastal degradation in Cyprus caused by global change, tourism and related coastal development.
Ruth Catlow had a short residency at NeMe from the 13th-16th April 2023. The residency involved discussions with NeMe regarding the collaborative structure of the Living with Others project. During her residency, she delivered a lecture at the Eastern Mediterranean University in Famagusta. Whilst in Famagusta Ruth met with artist Nurtane Karagil and discussed her approach and collaboration with Iliada Charalambous for Living with Others.
KONTEJNER is participating in a presentation of creative and successful European practices by Croatian partners within the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, on Friday, 21st of April 2023 in Split.
Quo Artis presented the project “A Sea Change” in the first webinar of Tabadul, by Revolve Media, which took place on the 22nd of March at 3 PM (CET)
Open call for a five-day workshop on photography with Stratos Kalafatis and Lia Nalbantidou
An invitation to expand and re-sacralise our relationship with nature and the environment our relationship with nature and the environment
The work of the environmental sculptor Joaquín Jara restores our gaze towards our environment with attentive, critical and ephemeral interventions that generate emotional connections with the different communities that inhabit it.
What can we learn from the association of art and science with regard to a sustainable transformation of the economy on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea? What diagnoses and strategies can we draw up from this hybrid space that will allow us to establish a more balanced and less anthropocentric relationship with the sea that fills our coasts?
KONTEJNER I bureau of contemporary art praxis is inviting Croatian and international artists / artistic collectives to apply for two new open calls within the project A Sea Change.
Irini Papadimitriou interviewed by Yiorgos Savvinides of Phileleftheros about the Money, Ruins, and the Sea exhibition.
From fish farming and fishing, shipping, cruise tourism and submarine cabling to wind farming, mining, offshore drilling, nuclear testing and industrial waste dumping, these are just some of the human activities at sea, and human interference threatening the health of our ocean; a place we often mistakenly think of as quiet and still know very little about, while ignoring the impact of our activity to its ecologies.
Money, Ruins, and the Sea exhibition was promoted by the Cyprus Mail newspaper.
Money, Ruins, and the Sea exhibition was promoted by the Phileleftheros newspaper.
In the context of Money, Ruins, and the Sea, and moderated by Irini Mirena Papadimitriou, we have joined by a panel of experts responding to topics explored in the exhibition such as sea exploitation, extractivism, and human impact on our oceans and marine ecologies.
Throughout the ages, seas and oceans have been, and continue to be providing immense resources to many people and countries worldwide. A source of food, jobs, energy, minerals, goods and services, a host for our vast internet data travelling through undersea cables, as well as a site for trading routes, cross-cultural exchange and migration, the sea and ocean have always been central to many industries and world economies.
In collaboration with Creative Europe Desk – Culture Office Croatia, NGO KONTEJNER has presented the A Sea Change project as a part of the conference programme “Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Cultural Tourism in Creative Europe and in the Cultural Routes of The Council Of Europe” in Paestum, Salerno, Italy.
The seminar was a parallel event of the Flood Tide of Resistance project, and promoted Cyprus based initiatives that focus on the preservation of Cypriot natural ecosystems, local sustainability issues as well as the revitalisation of local environments and economies.
We were pleased when the ArtForum notified us of their selection.
Noel Douglas, an artist, designer, and activist whose work across a range of media and different spaces has been aligned with movements against Capitalism and for Social justice for over two decades led a workshop at the NeMe Arts Centre under the Flood tide of resistance activities.
Flood tide of resistance exhibition was promoted by the Phileleftheros newspaper.
_Flood Tides of resistance _ exhibition was promoted by the Cyprus Mail newspaper.
Curator, artist, and filmmaker Oliver Ressler introduced the exhibition Flood Tide of Resistance that brought together artists who produce their works in dialogue with the climate justice movements in which they consider themselves participants. He discussed the wide range of strategies and approaches that can be observed, such as taking over responsibility for the visual appearance of movements, the creation of tactical tools, designing direct action or the creation of alliances with different groups or organisations.
Sea Blindness programme was promoted by the Phileleftheros.
_ Money, Ruins, and the Sea_ exhibition was promoted by the Parathyro.
Sea Blindness exhibition was promoted by the Parathyro.
The worldwide scope and visibility of the environmental movements reflect the terrifying global scale of the threat and also the unprecedented social breadth and depth of collective determination to counteract it. Millions of people determined to prevent total planetary climate collapse – to preserve the Earth as habitat for future generations – are joining the climate justice movements and collectively taking action.
Oliver Ressler was interviewed by We Make Money not Art.
Quo Artis presented “A Sea Change” at the Foundations for Science Council Meeting of FECYT in Madrid by highlighting the scientific research that underpins the project.
