“The most unfathomable, indefinable thing about the Mediterranean is this atmosphere, the set of light, colors, the white.. in the Mediterranean, the white is a different color. Then there are the noises, the air, the quality of the green, the infinite blue shades of the sea. The architecture, even the memory of history and culture. However, after putting together all these things we have not said anything of the Mediterranean”.

The place is the island of Kythira, the bay is Kapsali, with the twin gulfs, the dominant position of the castle, the lighthouse at the top of the hill and a spectacular representation like an amphitheater with Mediterranea and the island of Chitro as background. In these waters of thousand shades of blue, it is said to be born Aphrodite, goddess of the beauty and the love. In this atmosphere of light and colors the Mediterranean appears, with its “indefinable passing of nature into history and art” (Claudio Magris), its being “a thousand things together” (Fernand Braudel), a word that evokes infinite meanings and, therefore, “a place where the names are not enough and you cannot place everything.”

Simone Perotti, in the video, tells of this necessary inability to define and the need to return to live and “feel” the Mediterranean as an inner state and a place of no-alienation. A video full of words, images, colors and the singing of the cicadas, which evokes the typical Mediterranean atmosphere. 

Here is the written text of the video “Words (and cicades) on the Mediterranean.

 

“The most unfathomable, indefinable thing about the Mediterranean is this atmosphere, the set of light, colors, the white.. in the Mediterranean, the white is a different color. Then there are the noises, the air, the quality of the green, the infinite blue shades of the sea. The architecture, even the memory of history and culture. However, after putting together all these things we have not said anything of the Mediterranean”. Probably, the Mediterranean is an inner state, a condition of awareness, citizenship, and is therefore impossible to be defined. The only thing that you can do with the Mediterranean is to feel it, live it, be part of it. One of the biggest reasons for alienation of our contemporary society is just not living the Mediterranean. Our society lives in places that could be Sidney, New York, Stockholm .. the big cities or urban centers that however have changed their relationship with the sea. Our society should instead go back to this indefinable place. Almost everything we culturally do is trying to define, to give a name and a location. The Mediterranean is a place where the names are not enough and you cannot place everything and the inability to define is necessary and in some way required to get back to live the relationship with the Mediterranean, with what we can hear. I’m now struggling to define what I feel and so this is a place of non-alienation. This is the Mediterranean. “