Maritime Made Manifest

Invited by the organizers of the Embodied Local Knowledges symposium at TNUA, I'm curating and moderating the panel ‘Maritime Made Manifest’ to cast a light on the ancient and contemporary roles played by the sea - and exchanges via the sea - on local ecosystems.

Our relations to the maritime are both remote and intimate, made of myths bigger-than-life, of encounters of cultures and exchanges of merchandises, of Empires built and others defeated, of explorations of the abyss and of ecological devastations. Last March, the incident of the commercial vessel Ever Given stuck for six days in the Suez Canal reminded us that the very flow of our everyday life relies on an intricate maritime infrastructure. In fact, 90% of all trade takes place over the sea (oecd.org) and in the past few years, the once-forgotten “Silk Road” is being remodelled through the ambition of China for its Belt and Road Initiative. Within a large geopolitical and opaque logistical context, we are (re)discovering the stakes of maritime control and exploitation, and how they impact our culture and ecosystem. Artists and researchers in this panel will showcase some of the legacies and current trends of these maritime identities.

Invited guests are Dr. Anna Katharina Grasskamp, Charity Edwards and Dr. Mohd Anis Md Nor.