M A R E  N O S T R U M  -  S P A C E  F O R  D I A L O G U E  A N D  D I V E R S I T Y

T h e   V o i c e  o f   W e s t  A f r i c a 

Collective Memory & Collective Consciousness

 Idea and coordination - Carla ZICKFELD
Documentation & visual implementation - Stefan KARKOW 

TIMES OF CHANGE AND UNCERTAINTY – THE CULTURAL CHALLENGE

In 2009 the Centre for Maritime Research, Kiel, published under the theme –

“People and the Sea V – Living with Uncertainty and Adapting to Change”: 

" In the many transformations of people and the sea, the needs for economic growth, environmental conservation and human development often profoundly collide. This collision is particularly severe in the global south, where a growing human population competes with other sectors for limited coastal resources. Worldwide, the growing vulnerability of coastal people to resource collapse, livelihood abandonment and coastal risk is increasingly evident, and throws into doubt global capacity to meet several of the Millennium development Goals …"

 In 2007 the United Nations Foundation “Sigma XI” published in -

'The Scientific Expert Group Report on Climate Change and Sustainable Development 2007' :

"…The world is warming, and the climate is changing. Temperatures are rising in all seasons and over land and in the ocean … Sea level is rising, and the rate of rise is apparently increasing. Projections indicate that much greater climate change lies ahead …

Humanity must act collectively and urgently to change course at all levels of society.

There is no more time for delay."  

Humanity must act collectively and urgently - A Cultural Challenge
In times of unforeseen changes in natural and social systems, the Project "Mare Nostrum - Space for Dialogue and Diversity" responds on this appeal by exemplary actions in coastal regions of the world, where people still live in cultural unity with the sea, the breadwinner - but where the current effects of global change are already increasing the risk to get cultures woven by a long tradition out of balance - and thus endangers the livelihoods. We know that if the economic impoverishment is associated with a cultural one, then there growths the danger that the social braids break apart and conflicts rise in which radicalized worlds are confronting each other.

The realization of the Mare Nostrum Project

The research on site in June 2010 as well in June and October 2011 was conducted in collaboration with the traditional fishing communities in Senegal - Yoff, Hann, Kayar, Saint Louis - 

in the context of the Initiative "Sciences and Arts for Sustainability" -
with which Carla Zickfeld, the Initiator of "MarNostrum - Space for Dialogue and Diversity", collaborated from 2009 to the beginning of 2012, together with Stefan Karkow for the visual documentation. 

From 2012 the Mare Nostrum Project continues under the premise of the initiator - under the patronage of “Progetto Tuscia” - a recognized cultural association based in Italy – which organizes since 1986 international and interdisciplinary projects for the communication and the integration of the arts – and was awarded by the European Commission with the price "Europe of Culture".
Stefan Karkow and Carla Zickfeld founded the “Progetto Tuscia” and are directing it to this day.