Over There: The Mediterranean Surface and the Archetype of the Island as Contemporary Paradigms for Accessing Cultural Commons

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of contemporary visual artists and on their contribution to the complex discourse of transforming cultural commons. By analyzing the composite space of the Mediterranean, the author’s investigation aims at clarifying the perspective of an operational approach in art as a perceptual experience in which research, methodology and theory are connected. Here, the image of the sea surface becomes a habitus, a mental disposition, a space to inhabit and a membrane between the intimate and extimate dimensions of the body which observes, represents and perceives. The image of the Mediterranean Sea is thus considered as a contemporary templum, an interface where it is possible to outline and decode the trajectories of current crossings and exiles. The process of artistic creation dismantles the complexity of places: research practice becomes both trace and compass in the sea of contradictions and complexities characterizing our contemporary world.