Maritima-Islands is a communicative space for the institutions, artists, researchers and public of the Mediterranean with a special focus on the islands of the region. It is created for people to exchange their experiences, to motivate them to gain new knowledge, encourage them to conduct collective artistic work and recognise the uniqueness of the islands, as well as to spread this knowledge beyond the targeted area as these islands.

The purpose of this project is to create a clear cut picture of every island as a matchless cultural and ecological system, to stimulate preservation of the cultural heritage and development of contemporary art on islands. Another objective is to support European dialogue between contemporary art, other disciplines and science that could help to revitalise the cultural sector in this area. The project is planned to make an experiment that will introduce the new method which will assist in the change of the form of co-creation and international communication, making it easier, eco-friendlier and less resource-consuming, as well as simpler to understand for the greater audience in order to elicit their sensitive response.

We believe it is crucial to investigate the environmental and social problems of the islands and reflect these in the final collective artworks created by the contemporary artists in collaboration with other’s disciplines and science. These 4 artworks will be interactive, highly mobile, inclusive, large-scale and, thus, will be created in the art residencies period of project. It will be possible to demonstrate the final works online and offline without transportation. The production will become an example of the new methods – a hybrid format that includes digital and offline modes and will be represented in several final events. It is going to be very helpful to the cultural community, while the project’s website storing all the materials will continue the communication between the islands.

The MARLANDS Artists are out!

The selected artists, who throughout their residencies will collaborate with international scientists and local artists to address ecological and social issues on a network of five Mediterranean islands are:

Max Fouchy, Sicily
Taylor Smith, Mallorca
Edgar Sarin, Malta
Klitsa Antoniou, Cyprus
Lucy Orta, Ibiza and Mallorca
and Olga Sabko, who will be working on a special project within MARLANDS

A jury of internal and external curators assembled to select the winning artists.

Members of the MARLANDS internal jury included:
Elena Posokhova (curator-coordinator on Mallorca),
Vince Briffa (curator-coordinator on Malta),
Mariagrazia Pontorno (curator-coordinator on Sicily)

External jurors are as follows:
Christina Baron (Musée National de la Marine, Toulon, France)
Yvannoé Kruger (POUSH Manifesto, Paris, France)
Carlos Duran (LOOP Barcelona, Galeria Senda, Spain)
Ines Musumeci Greco (Acqua Foundation, Rome & Palermo, Italy)
Alex Vaysse (Galerie Sono, Paris, France)
Elisa Carollo (Fondazione Imago Mundi, Milan, Italy & New York, USA)
Christina Pomilla (Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies, Mallorca, Spain)

The artists are improving their research by exchanging ideas with the curators, scientists, craftsmen and artisans to uncover the uniqueness of their targeted island, to understand and reflect on the incomparable cultural identity of that island.

In his project, Edgar Sarin , who has been selected to work in Malta, creates an image of antiquity following the common harmonious forms, rituals, anthropocentric conceptions and sustainable consumption of the resources that surround us. At the same time, Sarin aims to contemplate the current situation with inaccessibility of drinking water on the island of Malta referring us to reflections on the importance of water source on islands and the formation of a specific culture around its consumption: from legendarily beautiful amphorae to facilities for rainwater collection.

His work “Ba’al is a rainwater collector. It is composed of vernacular materials: handmade ceramics, corrugated iron and wood.” Edgar Sarin’s proposal is a kind of time machine, aimed at the origins of civilization and myth. Ba’al is the name of the Phoenician god of rain and thunder. The project reflects on the importance of water resources by observing with new eyes the natural elements and the teak of the clay, both the ground zero of humanity.

Podcasts with artists on Radio Poush.