Terramare

Abstract

The Mediterranean, unlike the Ocean, is a sea surrounded by land, a “landsea”, as Stefano D’Arrigo called the sea of the Strait of Messina, between Scylla and Charybdis. From a geo-philosophical point of view, the Mediterranean represents the paradigm of a plural identity, of a form of co- existence between different cultures. This incessant encounter between land and sea is inscribed in the myth of the origin of Europe and it has profoundly marked its history and destiny. While the Ocean represents the homogeneous and empty space of the Boundless, which knows no boundaries, the Mediterranean is the incessant relationship with the edges, from shore to shore. In this time, which is marked by a globalisation without rules and an imperial war of aggression at the heart of the Old Continent, Europe is called to decide its own to-come, finding in the Mediterranean not only its own origin, but also the paradigm to constitute itself as a great space of peaceful coexistence between different people, of translation and hospitality towards the stranger.