The XV Biennial has been characterized by some important changes.For the first time, the name of the event has changed in Biennale de la Méditerranée, with the aim to focus our attention more and more on the Mediterranean area and its social, political and cultural context.
Furthermore the format has changed, including 2 cities: Thessaloniki and Rome, each of them focusing on particular disciplines (Cinema, Literature and Music in Rome; Visual Arts, Applied Arts and Gastronomy in Thessaloniki). This choice offered the possibility to create an articulated path through the different Countries which are part of the BJCEM network and made possible for a large audience to take part to our activities. The idea was originally born in order to support Casablanca, that was the candidate city for hosting this Biennial. Unfortunately due to the international economical crisis burst in 2011, the organizers in Morocco were not anymore in condition to ensure the realization of the event and hopefully our partner in Rome and Greece showed their interest to host part of the already planned activities.
Theme: Symbiosis?
This Biennial articulated its subject in the form of a question: Symbiosis?, as a clear and straightforward indication of the urgency of responding to a current question: how could we live together in the present?.
Rather than reformulate the moral imperative at the heart of the notion of “living together” (symbiosis), this project aims to raise a series of questions. This choice reflects the awareness of the complexity involved in engaging with the urgent notion of “togetherness” within the context of a Biennial. It also stems from a will to provoke multiple answers, and give voice to conflicting positions, within the framework of this temporary event.
Numbers
More than 500 artists, aged between 18 and 30 years old, from 27 Countries (Albania, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, Finland, France, FYROM, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Montenegro, Palestine, Portugal, Republic of San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, Austria, Israel, Kosovo, Syria, UK) participated to the event. Half of them were part of the official program, while the other half took part to parallel events, particularly in Thessaloniki where for a month the city was animated of activities linked to our Biennial.
Artistic director of the event in Thessaloniki was Christos Savvidis, well-known independent curator and producer, accompanied by Stephanie Bertrand and Efi Halivopoulou. In Rome the Director was Mr. Costantino d’Orazio and the curator, Ms. Costanza Paissan from the MACRO Museum.
The public was assessed around 20.000 presences in Thessaloniki and 2.000 in Rome.
To be signaled the works and performance of the following artists: Scarlett O’Hanna, musician from France, Salma Badawy, visual artist from Egypt, Didem Erk, visual artist from Turkey, Khaled Jarrar, video-maker and performer from Palestine, Point Blank Poets, collective of writers and performers from UK, Muhammad Ali, visual artist from Syria, Daniel Markus Klark, writer and storyteller from UK, Jocelyne Allen, Photographer from UK, Mathias Isouard, visual artist from France, Hypen Hypen, pop rock band from France and Liburn Jupolli, contemporary musician from Kosovo.
Artists
2Objectrepair (Christos Sellas & Nikos Iosif); Giacomo Abruzzese; Ahmed Abulnasr; Madonna Adib; Dimitrios Agathopoulos; Nermin Ahmić; Laila Ait Bouchtba; Tarek Al Kawas; Mohamed Alaa; Muhammad Ali; Lejla Alimanović; Jocelyn Allen; Giacomo Amicucci; Muayad A. F. Amleh; Leïla Anis; Georgina Antrei; Arbit City Group (Emmanouil Konstantinos Daskalakis-Laimos, Ioannis Mouravas, Krini Dimopoulou, Itra Dimopoulou, Anastasia Efstathiadi); Belma Arnautović; Artereazione, Mariano Leotta; Keith Azzopardi; Younes Baba-Ali; Amna Badawy; Salma Badawy; Alpin Arda Bağcik; Alma Bakiaj; Hend Bakr; Txema Ballesteros; Maria Olga Barakou; Ami Elizabeth Barnes; Sami Natsheh Barragán; Elias Bassous; Vincent Betbeze; Biguorno (Arnaud Kwiatowski); Giulia Bonora; Keith Borg; Christoph Brehme; Briscìu! (Claudia Bertuccelli, Daniele Rando); Shota Bukoshi; Antonio Capafons Barreto; Karmil Cardone; André Catarino; Clery Celeste; Foteini Chandra; Spyridon Charalampopoulos (Klitoras); Alexandros Charidis; Fabio Chiriatti; Florence Chirié; Constantinos Chondros; Michele Ciavarella; Daniel Marcus Clark; Tommaso Cocchi; Diego Corbalán Hernández; Rita Correddu; Fabrizio Cotognini; Gemma Coyle; Ctrl Freaks (Maria Dimitra Vetta, Melina Karanika, Chrysanthi Sofia Lipara, Maria Olga Barakou); Ctrlzak (Katia Meneghini & Athanasios Zakopoulos); Massimiliano De Serio; Gianlucade Serio; Qëndresë Deda; Deeja (Khadija Mostafa Hosney Hossam Eldin); Sinem Değer; Ioannis Delagrammatikas; Jérémie Delhome; Marwa Diab; Alberto Diana; Christoforos Dimitriou; Christoforos Dimitriou; Marko Dješka; Urška Djukić; Katja Dolganoč; Sergio M. Moreno Domínguez; Sébastien Duranté; Eleni Economou; Alexandros Efstathiadis; Samar El Barawy; Amine El Gotaibi; Naim El Hajj; Alaa Abd El Hamid; Mohamed El-Sheikh; Ensemble Col Legno (Vicent Adsuara Mora); Didem Erk; Valentina Facchini; Rami Farah; Valentina Ferrandes; Simohammed Fettaka; Gianluca Floris; Fork And Knife Catering Co (Omar Almkhallalati); Dimitris Fragakis; Tonći Gaćina; Adrian Galeazzi; Alessia Galletta; Mito Gegič; Matteo Giacchella; Andres González; Tijana Gordic; Evangelia Goula; Evangelia Goula; Cristina Gousia; Zhivko Grozdanoski; Antonio Guerra; Sophie Guerrive; Eman Hamdy; Bashar Hassuneh; Mark Michel Antoune Henine; Sarah Mei Herman; Hyphen Hyphen (Zaccharie Schütte, Samanta Cotta, Laura Christin, Romain Adamo); I+G Stop Motion (Anna Solanas & Marc Riba); Nikos Iosif; Mathias Isouard; Ivan Ivanovski; Dušica Ivetić; Andrew Jamison; Khaled Jarrar; Jrm; Liburn Jupolli; Yanna Kali; Marianna Kaltsa; Kled Kapexhiu; Aimilia Karapostoli (Emilie); Jaajo Juhani Karhunen; Constantinos Kelpis; Tjaša Kermavnar; Janine Khawand; Paraskevi Kokolaki; Ioannis Koliopoulos; Tarek Korkomaz; Mohamed Korna; Axel Koschier; Jelena Koštica; Angeliki Kotroni; Sofoklis Kotsopoulos; Konstantia Koulidou; Konstantia Koulidou; Dimitra Koutsianou; Iva Kovač; Elvis Krstulović; Dimitrios Lamprou; Philipp Leissing; Giovanni Lens Vincenzi; Victoria Leonidou; George Liamadis; Marco Longo; Pablo López García Del Moral; Gonzalo López Rueda; Sandra Lorenzi; Manfredi Lucibello; Vladimir Macar; Antonios Magriotis; Maman (Marta Mancusi); Lina Mantikou; Isabella Mara; Marko Marković; Andreina Marquez; Audrey Martin; Me And The Machine (Sam Pearson, Clara García Fraile); Laura Mergoni; Aly Mohamed Ahmed; Yiannis Moisidis; Lia Moris; Lia Moris; Fani Mouka; Cristiano Mourato; Hady Moustafa; Mrs. Pineapple (Tamara Piña García); Kadër Muzaqi; Dionysia Mylonaki; Nacho Ballesteros; Manon Nammour; Vicente Navarro; Abderrahim Nidalha; Maria Niki Niraki; No Form / No Structure / No Design (Antonios Yiannopoulos); Panagiotis Ntalianis; Vasileios Ntovros; Nysu (Jesus Hernandez); Scarlett O’hanna; O-Ceti (Elisabetta Patera & Maria Linda Fusella); Okhotsk-Gore; José Oliveira; Katherina Olschbaur; Nikolaos Pachis (Nater); Paola Palavidi; Renata Papišta; Andreas Pashias; Marijana Pazin-Ivesic; Darijan Pejovsky; Sophie Pellegrino; Lorena Pellicer Martinez; Ergys Peqini; Cristina Peralta Martín; Birgit Petri; Nikolaos Petridis; Eleftheria Petridou; Konstantinos Pettas; Gabriele Piazzesi; Michele Pierpaoli; Ana Pino; Alja Piry; Point Blank Poets (Bridget Onam Minamore, Sabrina Mahfouz, Deanna Rodger, Dean Atta, Chimene Suleyman); Periklis Pravitas; Šejma Prodanović; Ilija Prokopiev; Nurhan Qehaja Nimani; Mirjana Radovanović; Said Rais; Edlira Rama; Adin Rastoder; Bita Razavi Réaltympanica (Ioana Paun, Renata Cernadas Gaspar, Robert Redmer); Linus Riepler; Antonino Rizzo; Belén Rodríguez; Martin Romeo; Dina Rončević; Giannis Rouvas; Lucie Roy; Carmen Rubio Ortells; Paco Ruiz (Francisco Ruiz Illan ); Faris Sabaneh; Emilie Saccoccio; Issa Salman; Olivia Sánchez Arnau; Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valero; Calvin Sangster; Abdeljalil Saouli; Mussa Sarr; Despina Schina; Christos Sellas; Arbër Selmani; Chiara Sgaramella; Aldo Soligno; Yiannis Sotiriou; Samuel Spreckley; Eirini Steirou; Alexandros Stogiannis; Lino Strangis; Simha Talalaevsky; Darren Tanti; Stratis Tavlaridis; Si Tew; José Trigueiros; Stella Marie Tselepi; Umaiah (Umaiah Salman); Hande Varsat; Mihailo Vasiljevic; Julijana Velichkovska; Katerina Velliou; Almudena Verdés Durá; Ana Teresa Vicente; Nicol Vizioli; Maja Vodanović; Stergios Vrizas; Borko Vukosav; Rebecca Louise Wilson; Wafaa Yehia; Angie Yousry; Bianca Maria Zammit; Mohamed Ziada; Michael Zupraner.
