english text 165 Foreword: between myth and fright José Miguel G. Cortés Director of the IVAM When I started thinking about this project I did not realise how complicated the social and political situation in this geographical area was going to become. The migration crisis has worsened, and thousands and thousands of terrified people are fleeing from the cruelty of interminable wars; violence and attacks are multiplying everywhere in many different countries bordering the Mediterranean; religious fanaticism is spreading far and wide, leaving behind it a profound wake of hatred, death and desperation; the increase in xenophobia in European countries is tending to create scapegoats and is seriously threatening social coexistence; and, as if that were not enough, in various countries there are terrible criminal attacks aimed at sowing terror. Now, at the end of 2015, I am shocked, because only a few months ago I could not imagine how the feeling of fright was going to advance so far in our surroundings and in our minds that it is seriously affecting our daily life. This project simply aims to help us to reflect and to question clichés, using the instruments offered by works of art and the creation of culture. What I wish to do is to show a series of works by many different artists from different countries on each side of the Mediterranean who, with their paintings, photographs or videos, are trying to avoid Manichean positions and clearly conflicting attitudes, and instead are opting for broader, more nuanced, more comprehensive views of problems that have existed for many years and for which (as for any complex situation) there is no easy solution. I am convinced that we need to listen to each side, to hear about the aggravations and humiliations, to decipher the prevalent racism and excluding attitudes in order to be able, by a joint effort of all the people involved (of different colours, religions, languages and attitudes), to construct new relationships and create a new Mediterranean Sea in which there is space for everyone, by understanding differences and respecting dissidence. In my view, the works that are presented in this exhibition have the capacity to open our minds, obliging us to rethink rigid ideas, open up to others and thus make ourselves richer personally and culturally. I hope we have succeeded in this to some extent. Therefore I would like to dedicate this exhibition to all those men and women who, whether they are from the North or the South, suffer any kind of humiliation, incomprehension or violence resulting from the defence of any kind of religion or fanatical ideology that despises freedom and difference in each one of us. I would also like to thank all those who have collaborated in this project, for their ability and tenacity and for their hard work. Without all of them this exhibition would not have been possible. Valencia, December 2015 Between myth and fright. The Mediterranean as conflict José Miguel G. Cortés “Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror”. Rainer Maria Rilke The great importance attributed to the Mediterranean is a constant feature in all the cultures that have originated and developed around it; its presence is decisive in the creation of culture and it marks the life of the people who live near it. Trade, economic development, social and cultural relations, exchanges and travelling for pleasure have conditioned the history of this geographical area since time immemorial. The situation in the last century has been no different: there are very many experiences that in one way or another have extensively documented and recreated this natural space that is so meaningful from every point of view. The various shores of the Mediterranean are close enough to facilitate intense contact between them, but at the same time sufficiently far apart to allow the development of different societies. Thus they are societies that receive the influence of their own land from the interior and also the influence of the other shore of the sea. Similarly, the close contact between its coasts has always had a transforming effect on these societies; therefore, for thousands of years, the Mediterranean has been one of the geographical areas with most vigorous interaction between different peoples and it has played a fundamental part in the development of civilisation, which has taken very different forms in different ages of history. From the middle of the nineteenth century until well into the twentieth, what predominated in the Western world was a pleasant, light, agreeable view of an area understood as a region in which it was possible to give expression to a great number of dreams and desires, but in the middle of the last century the majority view changed significantly and there was a shift from a mythical place where (almost) everything was possible to one where what predominates is fear, incomprehension, death and fright. What was previously an area of free transit and encounter is now a boundary where the nearest neighbours are not welcome. The aim of this exhibition is to try to understand, through the work of artists on different sides of the Mediterranean, how this profound change has taken place. However, in view of what is happening now, perhaps the poet Rainer Maria Rilke was right when he said in Trieste that “Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror”. 1 Myth “My home shall be open for the sun and the wind and the voices of the sea – like a Greek temple – and light, light, light everywhere!” Axel Munthe
Entre el mite i l'espant
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