Mediterranean Expedition

Progetto Mediterranea: a sailing, cultural, scientific expedition

Five years sailing throughout the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the Northern Red Sea

 

                                                       

 

 
The Mediterranean Sea

The theater of this expedition is the Mediterranean Sea: the center of the world, civilization, language, culture, art, ethnic groups, thought. The Mediterranean as natural theater of mankind and its history. The Mediterranean, where every “crisis” was born and each solution was found. The Mediterranean, the starting point for a new world, a new thought, a new model of development. A new civilization.

 

The spirit of the journey

Writing, like sculpting or travelling, means to communicate. Etymologically: bringing a gift. So, receiving a gift. This is the genuine meaning of this long journey, and that is why sailing in the Mediterranean: to exchange gifts.

Mediterranea will cover 20,000 miles and more to connect people, places, tastes, thoughts and stories of the Mediterranean Sea. An area made consistent by its millenary history, made fertile by diversity, made inexhaustible by cultural wealth, magnificent by art and nature. A threatened environment, but always richer and much more inexhaustible than its assailants. An anxious and restless portion of the world, because of fundamentalism and hegemonic madness, because of misunderstandings and social gaps, because of discriminations and exploitation. An area crossed by tragic migration, rapid and bloody changes, yet on the verge of an extraordinary era of possibilities and opportunities, which must not to be lost.

The best way to lose all of this wealth is to continue to look at the Mediterranean as a border. The border separates, defines and creates distance. Contamination, instead, has always made human beings better. Purity, or its crazy utopia, has always destroyed them.

But to contaminate does not mean uniformity. We can be, and remain, similar and different at the same time, exchanging identities so far as the differences, feeding ourselves with the exotic and strengthening with convergences. We need to connect the seas of the Mediterranean, join its banks, suture its cultures, encourage the dialogue among its people and allow the mutual discovery of ancient and modern elements of an endless alliance.

It is necessary, above all, to think about the future together. And who can do it better than the people on the shores of the Mediterranean, the people who invented the future? Today, more than ever, we need new ideas, new thoughts, new hypotheses and new attempts. The top of the class, for better or for worse, has always been this corner of the world. So it will be for the future. It is not only a worth, but also a great opportunity. An enormous responsibility.

 Mediterranea will bring a message of peace, respect for the environment, disdain for violence and abuse, rejection of social injustice, rejection of totalitarianism, love for the difference, passion for communication and dialogue, worship for freedom.

 

The Route 

From Latakia to Gibraltar, from Marseilles to Tunis, from Genoa to Istanbul, from the Crimea to Alexandria, from Cagliari to Trieste, from Capo Passero to Rhodes, from Tel-Aviv to Athens, from Tripoli to Kastellorizo, from Port Said to Georgia, from Varna to the mouth of the Danube.

As sailors well know, it is impossible to describe a sailing route without having navigated that path before. A route is always and only a thesis. When you sail the stages are not binding, the programs are only intentions. The sea decides. To be Nomads and sailing along the Mediterranean means, above all, respect, patience and gratitude for each shelter.

 

The objectives

The project aims to raise the attention on the Mediterranean, to create a speaking-platform from where to talk about the Mediterranean, to link different banks, distant lands, thought and action of the Mediterranean and about Mediterranean, by enclosing it into a metaphorically connected and homogeneous area, through the symbolism of the sailing expedition that connects and unites.

Mediterranea main specific objectives:

• Culture: we search for the best thought in the Mediterranean: writers, philosophers, journalists, historians, sociologists, economists. We will ask them what they think about this era of decadence, what they see from their eyes, what solutions they can propose. It’s necessary to look for, to listen and check the current thinking of the Mediterranean, in order to find possible answers to an overwhelming demand of construction of a new economic, political and social system. The Mediterranean thought is precious, we have to discover it and spread it. No one is doing this in the mainstream media, we want to do it by ourselves. In this way, we also want to discover, support and spread the culture of the Mediterranean, of its coasts and countries, by connecting, surveying, telling its stories, traditions, customs and cultures.
• Environment: we work directly and cooperate with third parties for the defense of the sea and the marine environment of the Mediterranean, in which 50% of the costs risks overbuilding by 2025. Our boat is available to the scientists, researchers and students working in the public and private institutions, universities and laboratories with a central focus on the environment, the sea, the air, fishes, ecc… Mediterranea will be a floating laboratory at the disposal of the science.
• Sailing: we want to give visibility and promote the dissemination of sailing culture, one of the authentic root of the Mediterranean culture. We will meet experts and sailors, photographing and telling stories about sea and boats, making sailing and navigation courses, promoting visits on board, training, seminars all along the coasts of the Mediterranean. We want to help each of the Mediterranean countries to re-discover and take ownership of the relationships with navigation, boats and sea, Mediterranean crafts, adventures and myths. To work on what the Anglo-Saxons call the Seamanship.

 

Mediterranea Project for the Sea

Mediterranea wants to be a scientific floating laboratory. An expedition for the conservation of our marine ecosystem.
The Mediterranean hosts an environment with an incredible biological diversity (8% of the world’s flora, 8% of the global marine biodiversity , 28% of endemic species), yet constantly threatened by men, polluted and overexploited. The soil consumption, the loss of habitats, the desertification, the overfishing and pollution in its many forms, are all factors that could trigger direct and indirect impacts on biodiversity, amplified, in turn, by climate change.
The Mediterranea Project will raise public attention on these aspects. We firmly believe that the biodiversity, a clean sea and an intact ecosystem are fundamental to human well-being, quality of life and the future of our earth.
We want to actively contribute to the protection, conservation and enhancement of this extraordinary heritage, so:

• We will provide our boat (a 60-foot ketch) for Science and researchers. “Mediterranea” will be a floating lab and an operating arm to study the sea, the climate change, the water and air pollution, the marine biology, the currents and anything useful to preserve the ecological integrity of our Sea.
• We will use the “speaking platform” and the intense communication activities guaranteed by our expedition to raise awareness and stimulate public opinion on the critical issues concerning the protection of marine ecosystem, the sustainability of the economic exploitation of the sea, the need to reduce pollution caused by fishing, tourism, maritime transport, energy production, coastal urbanization and industrialization.

In the pursuit of our aim, the world of Research and University is a natural and privileged partner.
With scientists and concerned departments we will establish partnership agreements for studies, reports, projects, organization of workshops and events, in order to support the research and disclosure related to environmental and marine issues.

If you want to become a partner of Mediterranea Project and support our campaign for the Sea, write us!