Port city drawings in collaboration with project by Rafi Segal, Yonatan Cohen, and Maayan Strauss

 

Throughout history the Mediterranean had played an essential role in fostering common cultural and geographical traits among the region’s different inhabitants. The sea united them; it provided an open-medium for the exchange of goods and culture – a solid ground which was both external to the boundaries of its surrounding countries and inclusive. In more recent times, with the rise of the Nation-State, the demise of colonial powers and the development of novel modes of transportation and shipping routes, the Mediterranean port cities historic role as arbitrating cultural differences has lessened while larger geo-political entities have failed to establish stability within and without. Breakwater envisions a new organizational logic for the Mediterranean region; an alliance of port cities that defines a regional network independent of national identities and sovereignties. An atlas of port cities marks the first step in establishing this new geography. Redrawn and modeled, a new territory is shaped in our minds in which the ports become nodes rather than edges, centers of exchange rather than borders of conflict. The Mediterranean’s unifying effect; the sea’s horizon, once more marries its cities and draws a straight line across space and time, nations and borders.