mediterranean encounter
During this three-day period, our most important goal was to ask ourselves: how do we understand climate justice fights, solutions and responsibilities under a broader biorational perspective? This approach allowed us to introduce several topics that we discussed along this gathering, such as Mediterranean cartographies, culture as biorational resistance, decolonizing perspectives from the global south, collective power or solidarity structures.
the second mediterranean encounter took place from the 27th to the 29th of june 2025
We gathered on a special occasion to celebrate the second meeting of the Mediterranean Encounter for Climate Justice. During these three days we were able to interconnect, share common experiences, and remember one of the main things that unites us: the Mediterranean Sea. In current times, where struggles seem to be surrounding this area, we created a safe space for dialogue, and we encouraged all the people involved to take a step back and remember how collectiveness and being together in times of crisis is a big force of hope, stillness and resistance.
WHAT WE DID...
The gathering started in Ágora Juan Andrés, where we presented all the groups that co-created and participated in this encounter. We also set an open acoustic microphone, where poems, stories and songs were sung to commemorate and celebrate the Mediterranean sea. Fresh palestinian dinner was served for everyone that attended the evening.
For the last two following days we were set in Can Masdeu valley, where we meant to create a reflexive space: we did critical debates and conversations intertwined with activities, gastronomy and artistic collaborations. The Popular Circus took action to reflect upon the current situation of our planet, filled with wars, injustice and deep social inequalities, inviting the audience to imagine paths towards empathy and hope.
the encounter
"THE MEDITERRANEAN: A FABRIC OF ENTANGLED HISTORIES, A SITE WHERE THE THREADS OF EXCHANGE, DOMINATION AND DEFIANCE MEET"
We presented this hand-made tapestry which weaves together fragments of personal stories gathered from different corners of the Mediterranean. In our first Mediterranean Climate Justice Gathering, with people present from all curves of the sea, we decided, between each presentation of situated realities, to land our understandings together, in the textures that our cultures share of telling our stories. A canvas that began blank with the outline of the Mediterranean sea, layed in the center of the room throughout each presentation, slowly became populated by the sewing hands of those present. It is said that collective sewing puts a group in the mind-state of governance. Throughout the three days, we collectively sewed a map of stories, mythologies, and orientations that represented our collective understandings of our connected realities related to climate justice in the Mediterranean. After the gathering, we continued to meet consistently for 5 months to complete the tapestry map.
The result of this is the following: a reclaimed cartography of our sense of collective belonging to a climate just Mediterranean bioregion, revealed through an exhibition where all were called to tell their stories. Every time is us hung, it sees to very quickly attract the sharing of intimate stories of our Sea.
Tapestry Map of A Storied Mediterranean Climate Justice – from critique to reverence
At the 2nd Mediterranean Climate Justice Gathering, we invited into the next phase, to join in discovering: how do we give these orientations a body in our movements today? How do we locate our struggles, our beautiful solutions, and our unique responsibilities in the context of a greater bioregional web?
The gathering was designed as a spatial map of the Mediterranean. On a map of carpets shapes as our sea, we crafted altars that represent our different realities around the Mediterranean, which framed the space in which we had all our discussions, our meals, and our rest. From there, throughout various discourses and practices, we visually architected the links of our understandings and commitments in the physical space that held us, crafting textiles to hang between altars, giving body to what unites our movements, across the Sea who shares us. Situated in Barcelona, we gave special attention to issues of migration, diasporas, cultures of belonging, mutual aid & care.
As our Sea connects to the great Ocean, and is nourished through hundreds of rivers, people from all different regions of the world were present to discuss, represent and practice the body of a Mediterranean Climate Justice.
