Mediterranean Landscapes: itinerant residency explores how landscape shapes human imagination

The Mediterranean Landscapes itinerant residency project involved five artists and four curators across three territories: Tuscia, Tigullio, and Ljubljana. Participants came from Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, and Lebanon. The project argues that landscape changes with human movement, continuously redefining itself through shifts in language and habitation. By working outside major centers—in the mysterious ravines of Tuscia or the bunkers of Tigullio—artists faced a novel challenge to reflect on Mediterranean identities. The concluding exhibition took place in Tirana as part of Mediterranea 18 Young Artists Biennale, inside the former Yugoslav Embassy building. Works addressed diverse issues: Ryts Monet reflected on Iraqi archaeological artifacts destroyed by ISIS; Ieva Saudargaitė explored invisible networks connecting Mediterranean countries; Neža Knez examined translation as a linguistic and spatial process that betrays but also opens new meanings through misunderstanding. Giulio Saverio Rossi created a silverpoint panorama of the Gulf of Sestri Levante seen from a WWII bunker, while Chloé Despax investigated slate as a versatile material ubiquitous in the Ligurian landscape, producing a sound mapping of its public uses. The residency ran from October to May 2016.