The fragility of the Mediterranean

Following its stay at the Massimo Theatre in Palermo, which is roughly the geographical centre of the Mediterranean, the porcelain figures that make up the exhibits for Mare Mediterraneum are coming to the Senda gallery in Barcelona, where they will be on display from 1 February to 23 March. The exhibition is a reminder that the Mediterranean Sea is a cradle of cultures, but also of conflicts, past and present, and places special emphasis on migrations and the current refugee crisis: "The Mediterranean Sea is once again the epicentre of an ideological contradiction" that "has led to political and ideological confrontations, the polarization of public opinion and the rise of xenophobia and ethnic violence."

The choice of hand-painted porcelain as the material for the sculptures is not coincidental: "Since its origins, porcelain has been a symbol of bourgeois prosperity and comfort (...) porcelain figures have been kept for generations, though the risk of sudden loss is always present. Like porcelain, comfort breaks easily". The group of artists shows rescue scenes for immigrants, redemptive scenes that call into question the fragility of the ethical standards of Western society and open a debate on current public migration and social policies.

AES + F is a Russian art group that is well known for its multimedia projects and its members include Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky and Vladimir Fridkes. It was founded in 1987 and was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg in 2007.

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